Welcome festive readers. Thanks for being here.
Yesterday I got in a semi heated debate on Facebook. A poster put an article about putting an onion on your foot for healing and how silly was that? I posted that I have seen onion poultices work many times. I was assaulted, called ignorant, a troll, was told that I was projecting and that I only had deluded myself into believing what these people knew for a fact.
I defended myself by suggesting my fellow posters calm down and drink a cup of herbal tea. Then I was “intellectually dishonest”, what ever that meant. Apparently one poster was upset that I had included her when I mentioned that several posters had insulted me. (she was innocent, mostly) I apologized then went to her Facebook page and found that debunking “alternative medicine” is an issue for her.
Rather than jumping back into the cesspool of debate I decided to come here and discuss civility and open mindedness.
These people were so sure that they were correct, after all they had science on their side, right? Those of you who’ve been here before know that I am a HUGE fan of science. I debate creationists for fun. But I also acknowledge that science is sometimes used by the unethical to promote falsehoods.
One of the arguments against the onion poultice was that it reminded one poster of someone who told her that trees gave off healing vibrations. OK, I’ve heard similar arguments made against many scientific issues, climate change for example. Does one mistake discount the mass of scientific findings? No. Does one fortune teller dispensing bogus healing advice negate thousands of years of evidence?
Those of us who are fans of science can get a little full of ourselves. We need to retain some humility. If we do not we become more like the creationists who ignore logic in favor of faith.
The people I was debating with could not see any alternative. When I challenged them they said that I “must” be a troll. I could not possibly believe something they did not. The strength of conservatives is that their undying faith gives them strength that liberals do not have. Their weakness is that their undying faith prevents them from seeing alternatives. I guess I just ran into some conservative minded liberals. Hmmm.
My point is that we should all try to treat each other with respect.
Never mix red wine with Oodo.
Earth Year 2014
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