You are not behind scientifically... you are ahead.

Dear Class, You are ahead scientifically, not behind as some would like to argue.

Considering Homeopathy,
Check out this argument and compare it to what you now know about "ultra-dilutions" and the several experiments that we reviewed in Homeopathy Tuesday, September 29, 2009:

Taken from http://www.naturowatch.org/general/debate.shtml accessed October 9, 2009.

Article Titled: My Debate with a Naturopath
By: David Fowler

"A few years ago I retired from teaching chemisty at our local high school. The philosophy teacher there structures debates for his class. Each pair of students picks a topic and asks a local "expert" to participate. The most recent topic was whether naturopathy is more effective than "mainstream" medicine. The teacher recommended that a student contact me to debate a local naturopathic "doctor" and I agreed...

... I thought it might be useful to demonstrate the foolishness of homeopathy, which naturopathic schools teach in several coures. I displayed a flask with dark purple potassium permanganate solution in it. I told the students that this solution is poisonous, and that first I was going to make it stronger and then drink it. I took a few drops of this solution and diluted it with a couple of hundred milliliters of water. I told them that I was going to increase its strength by shaking it in a special way. I then took a couple of drops of this, and repeated the process. After doing tthis a few more times, I drank the resulting solution and told them to get ready to call 911.
Of course, several students were laughing at this, but I turned to the "doctor" and asked, "did I do this correctly?" She replied that each step with its special shaking was called a "succussion" and that basically I had the right idea. I remarked, "So it is possible to make a substance stronger by diluting it to infinity?" and she said it was. Her next remark was that she was just as astounded about homeopathy when she first learned it in school, but the point was that we didn't need to understand HOW it worked—all we had to do was observe that it does.
I tried to bring up the usual ideas of double-blind scientific studies being needed and the placebo effect. She replied that homeopathy works with animals that can't be affected by the placebo effect, and also pointed out that with her own child she observed immediate relief of teething pain when administered homeopathic medicine. She rejected the idea that a baby might be soothed by attention and even a few drops of water administered by her mother.

... I was both pleased with how the class went and somewhat discouraged. I believe that my demonstration reached some of the students. However, a few thought that there "had to be something to it" when these succussions were performed in the correct way, and a couple asked for her card afterwards and whether they could visit her at her office. ..."