Counterknowledge: How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science and Fake History by Damian Thompson
In Europe the widespread disappearance of religious belief as traditionally understood, that is in God, Heaven, the central role of the Church, the belief in an afterlife has had consequences that I believe have not been sufficiently understood. (I leave aside here the resurgence of Islam which is an imported phenomenon and itself requires greater analysis).
It is I believe Umberto Eco who reflected that “when men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.” When faced with the daily stream of ‘New Age’ drivel in the broadcast and written media, the obsession with horoscopes, with the varieties of ‘alternative’ medicine, Tarot readings, and all other manner of quackery voodoo and other sundry nonsense one is inclined to sympathise with the sentiment.
Of course the flight from science, from rationality and reason has complex roots and ever since the Thalidomide disaster the claims of the pharmaceutical industry have been greeted with justifiable scepticism moreover the century just gone has hardly been a good advertisement for the benefits of the rational. Indeed I suspect the greatest casualty of the last hundred years has been the death of a belief in progress. The search for meaning in hocus pocus and the gibberish of anti science is however a phenomenon that requires far more attention than it is getting and I recommend Mr Thompson’s book as a good introductory guide to the subject.
It is I believe Umberto Eco who reflected that “when men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.” When faced with the daily stream of ‘New Age’ drivel in the broadcast and written media, the obsession with horoscopes, with the varieties of ‘alternative’ medicine, Tarot readings, and all other manner of quackery voodoo and other sundry nonsense one is inclined to sympathise with the sentiment.
Of course the flight from science, from rationality and reason has complex roots and ever since the Thalidomide disaster the claims of the pharmaceutical industry have been greeted with justifiable scepticism moreover the century just gone has hardly been a good advertisement for the benefits of the rational. Indeed I suspect the greatest casualty of the last hundred years has been the death of a belief in progress. The search for meaning in hocus pocus and the gibberish of anti science is however a phenomenon that requires far more attention than it is getting and I recommend Mr Thompson’s book as a good introductory guide to the subject.
