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Hello.

New member here from Boston suburbs (USA). My name is a reference to the frequent sightings of turkeys both in Boston and the surrounding suburbs.
 
Newbie - Needing advice

Newbie from MA. Raised Catholic but always questioned why my Catholic school tore out full sections of our science book . . . nobody could ever give me a rational answer . . . I played with dinosaur figures and saw dinosaur bones at the museum . . . and I had heard about evolution . . . but no mention in any Catholic school books. (apparently no room in Noah's Ark for dinosaurs).

In any event, I am trying desperately to extract my wife from the alternative medicine universe. Aside from the insanity . . . its expensive. She is surrounded by moms who tend to look down on other mothers who do not explore "natural" remedies . . . aromatherapy . . . blah blah blah. My wife falls in line with the rest of her dopey friends . . . hook, line and sinker. One of my wife's friends uses her chiropractor to handle all family medical issues (apparently vaccines are bad) (luckily she has healthy children . . . but chiropractor gets credit for their health)

My son has significant medical problems (with no easy/effective treatment) . . and my wife has started down the alt-med path and I need to stop it ASAP. Please advise. Thanks!

FYI- wife's mother is full fledged born again Christian so believing anything is within my wife's DNA.
 
bluegreen said:
Newbie from MA. Raised Catholic but always questioned why my Catholic school tore out full sections of our science book . . . nobody could ever give me a rational answer . . . I played with dinosaur figures and saw dinosaur bones at the museum . . . and I had heard about evolution . . . but no mention in any Catholic school books. (apparently no room in Noah's Ark for dinosaurs).

In any event, I am trying desperately to extract my wife from the alternative medicine universe. Aside from the insanity . . . its expensive. She is surrounded by moms who tend to look down on other mothers who do not explore "natural" remedies . . . aromatherapy . . . blah blah blah. My wife falls in line with the rest of her dopey friends . . . hook, line and sinker. One of my wife's friends uses her chiropractor to handle all family medical issues (apparently vaccines are bad) (luckily she has healthy children . . . but chiropractor gets credit for their health)

My son has significant medical problems (with no easy/effective treatment) . . and my wife has started down the alt-med path and I need to stop it ASAP. Please advise. Thanks!

FYI- wife's mother is full fledged born again Christian so believing anything is within my wife's DNA.
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Welcome to the forums. As a newbie you don't have certain posting privileges (like getting a nattie avatar or posting links in your posts) until you achieve a certain post count, but you do have the okay, like any member, to start a thread.

Properly speaking (and we're nothin' if not proper 'round these parts), discussions of this nature could go in one of three sub-forums, depending on how you want to approach the question:

> Science/Math/Medicine - the science and math geeks hang out there. They are, consistently, the authors of many of our more erudite posts. But they may consider the topic too broad unless you have specifics to bring into the discussion (suggested: your son's specific medical problems).

> General Skepticism and the Paranormal - the bastion of our traditional Debunking Unit. Very good at tearing down irrational arguments, but also very quick to call you a troll because they suspect that everyone's here to bust their chops and have difficulty imagining that not everyone's as cool and hip and well-informed as we are, so suspect everyone of pulling our collective legs. Give 'em a break - they're accustomed to dealing with people who see aliens in the woodpile, bigfoot at the tree break, and ghosts riding UFOs during every full moon.

> Forum Community - the hangout of the class clowns. You want to make the conversation more personal and chit-chatty? That's where you go. FC, though, has a tendency to attract persons enamored with their own cleverness. You have to be one of those sorts who fits right in at parties IMHO.

Up to you... if you're a little gun-shy, hang out for a bit. There are threads in Forum Community and Humor (an ironic title, that) that are designed just so you can get some posts under your belt. Read the "Nominations for the language awards" thread. I'm the nominal dictator there, but it'll give you a cross-section of the sorts of things people take an interest in, albeit causing your great confusion when you look at a post and ask, with the rest of us, "What's funny about that?"
 
bluegreen said:
Newbie from MA. Raised Catholic but always questioned why my Catholic school tore out full sections of our science book . . . nobody could ever give me a rational answer . . . I played with dinosaur figures and saw dinosaur bones at the museum . . . and I had heard about evolution . . . but no mention in any Catholic school books. (apparently no room in Noah's Ark for dinosaurs).

In any event, I am trying desperately

My son has significant medical problems (with no easy/effective treatment) . . and my wife has started down the alt-med path and I need to stop it ASAP. Please advise. Thanks!

FYI- wife's mother is full fledged born again Christian so believing anything is within my wife's DNA.
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As to the first thing you raised, I grew up in a Catholic family. I attended public school, but attended Catechism once a week. (for those who don't know, Catechism is Catholic "schooling" for those who attend public school.) I was an altar boy. Probably the lone atheist in my family.

I honestly have no idea what you can do about your son. I have no children myself, I have an older sister with two children. Niece recently married. If something afflicted my niece or nephew, it would tear me apart, so having a child myself is something I can't even wrap my head around.

Be there for those you love. It might sound like facile, easy advice from someone, but that is life. I actually think that you and your wife are despairing about your son, which I understand. She wants to do anything she can to help him, and you can't convince her otherwise. Be there for her and him.
 
TheGoldcountry said:
<snip>

Be there for those you love. It might sound like facile, easy advice from someone, but that is life. I actually think that you and your wife are despairing about your son, which I understand. She wants to do anything she can to help him, and you can't convince her otherwise. Be there for her and him.
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If false hope was harmless and free I'd agree with you, but it isn't.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any simple way to extricate someone from the clutches of "faith". (That's a dirty word in this context, and it describes the pursuers of Alt Med fantasies as well as it does religious believers. They are much the same.)

It is a long hard road of self-education even when not complicated by the usual impediments of a desire to believe and no past history of critical thinking.

It is much worse when such barriers are in place.

Good luck, bluegreen. I wish you well. But I don't think there's any magic bullet for your dilemma either.

I can empathize with your problem. My wife is a COPD sufferer, bedridden and on O2 24/7. She is a true believer in almost anything that gets a good sales pitch, and has an older sister who is worse and feeds her even more garbage than she can soak in herself from daytime TV talk shows and late night commercials.

I keep away the things that are overtly harmful or a complete waste of what little money we have to spare, and let the rest go without dispute. When explanations of why something isn't what it claims to be do not suffice I just leave it alone. I make a bit of progress from time to time and treasure that.

Baby steps.
 
Thank you all for your thoughtful comments . . . I really appreciate it.

I rather not disclose my son's medical issues but he is on a considerable amount of medications . . . all of which cause separate problems . . . and none of the medications are working that well (or it works but causes other problems) . . . so this reality empowers my wife to say, "well . . .the medicine is not working . . . why not try a wellness clinic." . . . and she drags my son kicking and screaming to a wellness clinician who believes flaxseed oil will help his XYZ conditions. He is on MAJOR medications . .. that don't work well. . . . but flaxseed oil will work??

Unlike the wellness clinician, my son's doctors discuss the success rates . . . the side effects . . .etc. . . and although the medications may not work on my son, they do help others or else they wouldn't be available and/or sell. I do end up dropping some of the lunacy (aromatherapy . . . hypnosis recordings) . . . because I have to pick my battles.

Lastly, I will note that if I discuss alt meds, religion, bigfoot, paranormal, etc . . . with my wife (or others who share her opinions), I feel like a total buzz kill . . . conversation killer . . . but I can't sit back and listen to my niece believe that some people do actually have psychic powers . . .

(to the moderator . . . sorry for mixing topics . . .I will snoop around to identify appropriate topics before I post again)
 
Hey, everyone. Newbie here from the Philippines. Interested to learn more about politics, science, technology and other value-adding topics and insights from different people here in the forum.

My username is a reference from ex-WWE Wrestler/current UFC Fighter CM Punk.

Hope to learn more from everyone.

Sent from my EVA-L19 using Tapatalk
 
Hello a new guy here always been fasinated by conspiracy theores and why do people believe on it. I'm a USA user with some centristic view on politics with more of it being democratic. Came here to see many topics.
 
I am an anti-evolutionist

Hello,

I would like to briefly introduce myself. My book, Critique of the Theory of Evolution (not to be confused with the book with a similar title, A Critique of the Theory of evolution, which was published in 1905) was published by Resource Publications in 2007. This is a regular publisher, not a vanity press.

To me existence of the Creator is not a matter of faith but of logical necessity. My logical deductions lead to conclusion that Big Bang did not happen by itself, it was caused by the Creator. However, I do not think that natural sciences such as physics, chemistry and genetics could be used to prove or disprove existence of the Creator because they were not designed for this purpose. Only deductive logic could be used to answer the question of God's existence.

I analyzed the Bible and deduced that Jesus is the Messiah, although his is not God. My own research also confirms that the reincarnation exists.

I am not a member of a Christian or a Buddhist denomination. In the past I participated in several atheist and religion forums where some opponents tried to make mockery of my "Christian values". I assure you that this is a waste of time because I have none; I study karate as a sport, and I do not turn the other cheek.

Currently I am working on another anti-evolutionary book. Unlike my first book which was intended for general audience, this one is aimed at a more narrow audience with BS and higher degrees in science and engineering.

I have BS in Applied Math and MS in Mechanical Engineering with concentration in Control Systems Theory. I work as a Data Analyst for a consulting company.

Recently I visited several forums with similar goals and chose this one because it is the most active.
 
Buddha said:
Hello,

I would like to briefly introduce myself. My book, Critique of the Theory of Evolution (not to be confused with the book with a similar title, A Critique of the Theory of evolution, which was published in 1905) was published by Resource Publications in 2007. This is a regular publisher, not a vanity press.

To me existence of the Creator is not a matter of faith but of logical necessity. My logical deductions lead to conclusion that Big Bang did not happen by itself, it was caused by the Creator. However, I do not think that natural sciences such as physics, chemistry and genetics could be used to prove or disprove existence of the Creator because they were not designed for this purpose. Only deductive logic could be used to answer the question of God's existence.

I analyzed the Bible and deduced that Jesus is the Messiah, although his is not God. My own research also confirms that the reincarnation exists.

I am not a member of a Christian or a Buddhist denomination. In the past I participated in several atheist and religion forums where some opponents tried to make mockery of my "Christian values". I assure you that this is a waste of time because I have none; I study karate as a sport, and I do not turn the other cheek.

Currently I am working on another anti-evolutionary book. Unlike my first book which was intended for general audience, this one is aimed at a more narrow audience with BS and higher degrees in science and engineering.

I have BS in Applied Math and MS in Mechanical Engineering with concentration in Control Systems Theory. I work as a Data Analyst for a consulting company.

Recently I visited several forums with similar goals and chose this one because it is the most active.
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A couple of things leap off the page here:

> Resources Publications is the in-house publishing arm of the Churches of Christ. I haven't got a great deal of knowledge of them but they're rather dogmatic and I can't see that they've ever published anything not by someone of their brand of Christianity.

> It's also an old arguing point to claim not to belong to a Christian denomination because the conceit of the Churches of Christ is that it's multi-denominational, yet it sponsors its versions of interpreting the NT via Resources Publications and funds a couple of major league "fundie" colleges.

> I can think of a couple of billion people who might take offense at your chosen screen name. Buddha had nothing to say about physical evolution but from his teachings he'd probably accept Evolution as a given since it's pretty obviously accurate.

Feel free to start a thread on the topic. Expect interesting (and interested responses). Methinks this is fundie prosletyzing with a nice new shiny pair of shoes, though.
 
I regret that I chose this particular publisher because they do not advertise my book properly. This is a common mistake that novice writers make -- they choose the first company that offers to publish their book instead of waiting for a better offer from a larger company.
As I heard, Buddha had a great sense of humor, so I do not think that he would have found my screen name offensive.
Some Buddhist denominations believe that the universe always existed and it doesn't have a Creator. Obviously nothing could evolve in such universe.
Other Buddhist denominations believe that the entity known as Adi-Buddha (primordial Buddha) created the universe (they say that the universe emanates from him). I share their point of view. Clearly the evolutio could not have happened in such universe.
Buddha also criticized the Hinduism version of evolution. I do not think that he would have accepted the evolutionary theory. However, this is just my opinion, there is no way of knowing what he would have said about the theory of evolution.
 
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Hello all. I tried to join some time back, but had issues registering. That's all sorted now, but I fear I've rather missed the boat. See, the reason I joined is that way back when I personally knew a 'Freeman-on-the-Land'. I always thought he was wrong, but I couldn't quite put my finger on where all his theories fell apart. Well, a read through of a few choice threads has sorted that out. Anyway, I was hoping to share some insights into the thought processes (such as they are) that the Freeman lot (or at least the ones I knew) use. But I think I'm rather late to the Freeman party; by the looks of things, it's all winding down now. Anyway, I'm sure I can find other ways to join in here.
 
Hello everyone. As for Sue858 above I tried to join up a few months ago for a specific thread but had troubles. I'm hoping for a better class of debate here compared to that found elsewhere.
 
sue858 said:
Hello all. I tried to join some time back, but had issues registering. That's all sorted now, but I fear I've rather missed the boat. See, the reason I joined is that way back when I personally knew a 'Freeman-on-the-Land'. I always thought he was wrong, but I couldn't quite put my finger on where all his theories fell apart. Well, a read through of a few choice threads has sorted that out. Anyway, I was hoping to share some insights into the thought processes (such as they are) that the Freeman lot (or at least the ones I knew) use. But I think I'm rather late to the Freeman party; by the looks of things, it's all winding down now. Anyway, I'm sure I can find other ways to join in here.
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Lplus said:
Hello everyone. As for Sue858 above I tried to join up a few months ago for a specific thread but had troubles. I'm hoping for a better class of debate here compared to that found elsewhere.
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Welcome to both of you!!



It's never too late to discuss these topics. Either add a comment to an existing thread, or start a new one. Many people, including me, regularly click the "new posts" link at the top of every page, to see what's going on.
 
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