On to a more general skeptical topic now. Homeopathy. What bullshit. I don't think it can be said enough. There is not even a scrap of evidence it does any better than a placebo. I have never and will never understand why people think it works - it's water, face it!

For those lucky few not in the know for this topic, I'll give as good a summary as I can. Homeopathy is based on the idea of 'like cures like' - if a substance causes symptoms, it can be used to treat diseases that cause the same symptoms. This came from the fact that the founder of the modern homeopathic movement, Samuel Hahnemann, noticed that ingesting cinchona bark - an early treatment for malaria - produced similar symptoms to malaria itself. He then jumped immediately to the conclusion that it was this similarity of symptoms that was curative.

Now, since taking toxic substances undiluted is an idea so moronic that not even homeopaths would believe it, it was decided - for no clear reason - that the more diluted a solution was, the better it's curative effects. The degree of dilution recommended currently is such that you would need to consume 10^41 pills (a billion times the mass of the planet) or 3*10^34 litres of liquid solution (10 billion times the volume of the planet) to ingest a single molecule of the original substance. So, again - it's water!

"But Nathan, why is this so enraging for you? Why can't people believe it if they want to?"
That is very easy to answer. Because this idea is dangerous. It can cause people to not seek legitimate medical treatment, hence staying sicker for longer and infecting more people. Even for something as simple as the flu, if they believe their homeopathic treatment is working and refuse real treatment, it could cause their death. Or it could spread when it otherwise wouldn't have and cause the death of an elderly person. That is why this pisses me off so much. It's a matter of life and death.