Saturday, July 01, 2006

'praying mantis': more from the sordid annals of the saint business

jul 1, 2006

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1691838.cms

see, now they are manufacturing brown saints as well. equal opportunity guys, these!

miracle, schmiracle. this stuff is absolutely laughable, and it's unbelievable grown men and women believe in it. actually, it is more likely that they are looking to make money out of it, like in the case of the eponymous 'beatified kochappi' so well lampooned by ponkunnam varki. that is such a classic story that i should really translate it from malayalam and put it on the net. such an expose, instantly recognizable as absolute truth.

do read my tirade about the saint business: http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/oct/17rajeev.htm

6 comments:

The Rational Fool said...

Sure, bin Laden has confirmed that al-Zarqawi was awarded twice the usual quota of virgins for his valor and the neighborhood temple priest has issued an affidavit saying that his Ganesha idol drank a whole gallon of milk, too!

The Rational Fool said...

Well, one can always distort numbers to mean what one wants to mean. In the above comment, Shahryar has conveniently clubbed the 47% of treatments rate as unknowneffectiveness with ineffective or harmful category. That's a leap of faith, no pun intended. Will the writer please cite the source for his/her assertion that, I quote, "The truth is that in most drug trials the placebo works as well if not better than the drug under test!"? And further, does the placebo effect carry to treatments with approved drugs? Thanks.

The Rational Fool said...

Kaalan wrote:
"are you discouting the possibility that religion and faith cure diseases? Or is this just sarcasm for the frenzy among the Catholics to beatify everybody?
If it is the former, you might as well be a commie."
Ah, the power of demogoguery! So, according to your logic, those who discount miracles and other claims of religion, including the existence of god, resurrection, virgin birth, etc., must be communists? All crows are black; an umbrella is black; therefore, the umbrella must be a crow! Ayn Rand is an atheist; therefore, she must be a communist! Ha, ha, ha!

daisies said...

"Pray to Sonia Gandhi: she is capable of performing miracles. Ottavio Quattrocchi prayed to her and was saved. More recently, some devout Congressmen prayed to her and Manmohan Singh's brain disappeared."

-- I enjoyed that one so much, Cacoethes. I had a whole day of hilarious conversations, and this one adds to the all the fun of my day! Thanks!

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The Rational Fool said...
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The Rational Fool said...

That's a very self-serving interpretation of FDA's new drug approval process. The process is far more complex and stringent than what you seem to be suggesting. Please visit here for information on the process. I agree, though, that some ineffective and probably harmful drugs may still slip through this process.

Regarding the Guardian Unlimited article, the focus is on anti-depressents. Neurology and neural science are fledgeling fields, and often premature claims are made by drug companies, and even professionals. For my own views on a related subject subject read my post here. Not withstanding this, you cannot generalize it to all drugs - for example the effectiveness of typhoid vaccine or use of anti-biotics for gastro-enteritis.