Yoga still banned in Alabama.

[dann]

Gateway fallacy

is not an actual fallacy, unless your claim is that smoking marijuana automatically leads to using harder drugs. Based on my ample observations in high school where some of my class mates became drug addicts, they all started with marijuana. Nobody who didn't smoke marijuana started on opiates. And I observed no marijuana smokers who hadn't started with tobacco. The non-smokers never did.

So I am not saying that it is impossible to get into drugs without the 'gateway', but in my experience, for the majority of people who ended up becoming drug addicts, the road from tobacco --> marijuana --> opiates seemed to be very common even if many marijuana smokers never moved on to harder drugs, so it is only a fallacy if any kind of determinism is claimed. Later, when I was working for a year with drug addicts in rehab, I only met one who didn't smoke tobacco. She was also into healthy eating - an exception in this respect, too.

There is also no determinism in the idea of yoga --> new age, and I think that more people who never practiced yoga are into new-age stuff, than drug addicts who never smoked marijuana or even tobacco.

 

[dann]

It depends somewhat on the teacher though. If you go to an Ashtanga class with someone authorized by Sharath you're likely to just get Sanskrit names.

That is similar to salsa, which is why I stressed that I was talking about salsa cubana. In N.Y. or L.A. style, the names are often in English, and they don't usually have ruedas.

 

[psionl0]

Based on my ample observations in high school where some of my class mates became drug addicts, they all started with marijuana.

WOW! I wouldn't have thought that there was a person alive today who still thought that fallacious argument actually proved anything.

It is the very definition of the "affirmation of the consequent" fallacy. It is generally used by Republicans or other people who are determined to keep marijuana a criminal offense and don't care how stupid the argument they use to support their position.

 

[RolandRat]

Then why is it that religious study is a required part of the certification of yoga instructors, taking up a large fraction of Yoga Alliance certification courses?

Yeah this seems to be the crux to me. The courses I've seen to become an instructor all seem to contain a decent chunk of religious instruction. If this is required to become an instructor then surely it's a bit difficult to claim the Yoga itself isn't a religious practise.

 

[psionl0]

Then why is it that religious study is a required part of the certification of yoga instructors, taking up a large fraction of Yoga Alliance certification courses?

Who says that yoga instructors must be certified by the "Yoga Alliance"? A teacher doesn't need to be certified by a "football alliance" in order to teach football.

 

[zooterkin]

Yeah this seems to be the crux to me. The courses I've seen to become an instructor all seem to contain a decent chunk of religious instruction. If this is required to become an instructor then surely it's a bit difficult to claim the Yoga itself isn't a religious practise.

That’s a big ‘if’. How many instructors does it apply to?

 

[dirtywick]

lol it’s just stretching and breathing

 

[GlennB]

Years ago we just called them "mats" and used them under our sleeping bags when camping.

I may even still have a couple stored with camping gear.

I used one on a short camping trip a few years ago. Woke up and my damn chakras had been realigned, without so much as a by your leave!

 

[psionl0]

lol it’s just stretching and breathing

If it doesn't involve bone crunching tackles then it is not a sport.

 

[dirtywick]

If it doesn't involve bone crunching tackles then it is not a sport.

I would accept a slam dunk also

 

[Puppycow]

Then why is it that religious study is a required part of the certification of yoga instructors, taking up a large fraction of Yoga Alliance certification courses?

Yeah, I have no idea, which is why I mentioned that I might be wrong. I'm a complete outsider, whose only contact with yoga is what I see in popular culture. I am neither a student of, nor obviously an instructor of yoga. Is this sort of certification a requirement to teach yoga?

I also wonder whether the religious study is more of the informative sort or indoctrination? It's possible to teach people about a religion without indoctrinating them in the religion.

 

[Checkmite]

It is not wrong in regards to how much of yoga is done in the UK. The USA may be different.

Even if you want to insist that yoga "in the UK" is completely divested of all religious trappings (I would argue it cannot be, if it's insisting on still using Sanskrit names for everything), the website is still blatantly lying by then calling it "an ancient form of exercise". Surely you are capable of detecting this dishonest, alternative-medicine style framing.

 

[Butter!]

*sees headline*

Not The Onion, wow.

I really do want off this planet.

 

[Matthew Best]

*sees headline*

Not The Onion, wow.

I really do want off this planet.

Where would you go?

 

[Butter!]

I had the same thought, but then again, is it really? I think in the west it's like just a kind of exercise now. I could be wrong, but that's how I perceive it.

Like meditation, for example. Even atheists can do yoga (I don't, but I'm not opposed to it on principle.)

I do yoga. I had no idea it was controversial in skeptic circles.

Like, obviously I know that many woo-types champion it, but it's so easy to just ignore them and do the stretching videos. I also don't care how "ancient" it is or isn't. I just ignore that stuff.

Meditation is good, too. I'm personally unable to clear my mind, but I think it's a good thing to try to do.

 

[Darat]

Even if you want to insist that yoga "in the UK" is completely divested of all religious trappings (I would argue it cannot be, if it's insisting on still using Sanskrit names for everything), the website is still blatantly lying by then calling it "an ancient form of exercise". Surely you are capable of detecting this dishonest, alternative-medicine style framing.

Not seeing any dishonesty, alternative-medicine style framing. Seeing a factual account of what yoga is in the view of NHS England and I’d say most of the UK would agree.

What something once was in terms of religion is not always what it is today. For example saying “Goodbye” to someone does not invoke its religious history, using the “English” names for days does not invoke their religious history.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Even if you want to insist that yoga "in the UK" is completely divested of all religious trappings (I would argue it cannot be, if it's insisting on still using Sanskrit names for everything), the website is still blatantly lying by then calling it "an ancient form of exercise". Surely you are capable of detecting this dishonest, alternative-medicine style framing.

I'm not sure what you mean about the Sanskrit names. I use words like "Wednesday" and "Thursday" without any intended promotion of Norse mythology.

I'm a total outsider to the world of yoga but have the impression (here in the UK) that yoga classes are generally just exercise classes devoid of mysticism. That may not qualify as proper yoga in your part of the world but I can't see the dishonesty in calling it either "ancient" or "exercise".

 

[RolandRat]

That’s a big ‘if’. How many instructors does it apply to?

That I don't know. I'm not actually sure if there is a one size fits all course for all Yoga instructors.

edit - infact a quick search brought up this site https://www.ptpioneer.com/yoga-certifications/ which lists a fair amount of different Yoga courses.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Oh goodie Conservative fear of everything foreign and Liberal obsession with "Cultural Appropriation" can death fight over "stretching with pretension."

 

[Checkmite]

What something once was in terms of religion is not always what it is today. For example saying “Goodbye” to someone does not invoke its religious history, using the “English” names for days does not invoke their religious history.

I have already rebutted the "goodbye" argument. The earliest origins of "goodbye" were as a culturally-prescribed religious reference. Yoga originally was, and in many places still is, a bona fide religious ritual.