No Hope Without Evidence
I don’t believe that, if you wish it enough, things will work out the way you like. And hope, to me, is pretty useless when there is no evidence that you will achieve the thing you hope for. Especially when you are trying for something that has been proven as failed time and time again. There is nothing wrong with hope, but if it gives you a willingness to evade reality and ignore the proper path, then you’d best find something else to pull you along, like reason.
A while back malignant tumors were removed from my granddad’s gallbladder. A few months later he went in for a checkup, and more tumors had grown in their place. So we can say, without a doubt, that he has cancer, and that it’s bad, though containable. But my granddad has decided that from now on, he will shun conventional medicine in favor of homeopathy.
For those of you unaware, homeopathy is basically the creation of highly expensive tonics that contain substances which, in diluted form, cause symptoms similar to the disease they are supposed to treat. This, in theory, upsets the disease paradigm, or some such nonsense, and makes the bad things go away (it should be noted that the very nature of the treatment requires that the patient get worse before they get better, which is great for the doctors pushing this stuff). I would suggest reading the Wikipedia article on Homeopathy, as well as the corresponding references. It makes the case pretty clear that homeopathy is little more than a placebo. Taking the medicines would hardly harm someone. But rather, the patient becomes convinced that homeopathy will cure them, and traditional medicine is a route left untraveled.
Generally in such cases I would prepare my facts and take my argument to the loved one in question. But here’s the crux kids: my granddad is a homeopathic doctor. He sold his half of a profitably construction company in San Antonio several years ago to become one. There will be no conversion. I suppose all his family can do is voice their disapproval, and I will certainly do so.
I love my granddad, I really do. But there is no way, if the worst happens, that I could bring myself to mourn such a waste.