Recently, the science writer John Horgan took skeptics to task in Scientific American (http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/dear-skeptics-bash-homeopathy-and-bigfoot-less-mammograms-and-warmore/) and at the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism for focusing too much on weak problems at the expense of strong ones. As examples of soft targets he listed ESP, heaven, homeopathy, Bigfoot, and disbelief in vaccines and climate change; among hard ones, multiverses, the Singularity, overtreatment and overtesting for cancer (notably, mammograms), overmedication for mental illness, and the deep-roots theory of war. He contended that tribalism is served by our self-indulgence with “weak” targets.
Horgan was quickly advised how varied skepticism really is. Outside the United States, widespread belief in homeopathy matters much more if governments decide to include it in publicly funded, cash-strapped national health services at the expense of more effective treatments. Here, Bigfoot can only wish for such importance. But, as the late journalist Simon Hoggart said, even seemingly insignificant beliefs create “a distracting background interference with the truth.”
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