{"id":361,"date":"2009-12-27T21:41:24","date_gmt":"2009-12-28T04:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/?p=361"},"modified":"2009-12-27T21:44:15","modified_gmt":"2009-12-28T04:44:15","slug":"woo-woo-is-a-step-ahead-of-bad-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/?p=361","title":{"rendered":"Woo Woo is a Step Ahead of Bad Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rah, rah, Deepak Choprah, “King of Woo Woo” for taking on Skeptic Michael Shermer (former fundamentalist Christian) now the “King of Pooh Pooh”. Here’s the very latest volley in the ongoing war between religion and science…(a useless war since they actually coexist and overlap, ya know!)
\n WOO WOO IS A STEP AHEAD OF (BAD) SCIENCE
\n<\/span><\/strong> By Deepak Chopra
\nBeliefNet<\/a>
\nSunday December 27, 2009<\/p>\n

It used to annoy me to be called the king of woo woo. For those who aren’t
\nfamiliar with the term, “woo woo” is a derogatory reference to almost any
\nform of unconventional thinking, aimed by professional skeptics who are
\nself-appointed vigilantes dedicated to the suppression of curiosity. I get
\nlabeled much worse things as regularly as clockwork whenever I disagree with
\nbig fry like Richard Dawkins or smaller fry like Michael Shermer, the
\nScientific American columnist and editor of Skeptic magazine. The latest
\nbarrage of name-calling occurred after the two of us had a spirited exchange
\non Larry King Live last week <http:\/\/bit.ly\/5AlD31<\/a>>. Maybe you saw it. I was
\nthe one rolling my eyes as Shermer spoke. Sorry about that, a spontaneous
\nreflex of the involuntary nervous system.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, however, I had an unpredictable reaction. I realized that I
\nwould much rather expound woo woo than the kind of bad science Shermer
\nstands behind. He has made skepticism his personal brand, more or less,
\nsitting by the side of the road to denigrate “those people who believe in
\nspirituality, ghosts, and so on,” as he says on a YouTube video. No matter
\nthat this broad brush would tar not just the Pope, Mahatma Gandhi, St.
\nTeresa of Avila, Buddha, and countless scientists who happen to recognize a
\nreality that transcends space and time. All are deemed irrational by the
\nskeptical crowd. You would think that skeptics as a class have made
\nsignificant contributions to science or the quality of life in their own
\nright. Uh oh. No, they haven’t. Their principal job is to reinforce the
\ngreat ideas of yesterday while suppressing the great ideas of tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Let me clear the slate with Shermer and forget the several times he has
\nwiggled out of a public debate he was supposedly eager to have with me. I
\nwill ignore his recent blog in which his rebuttal of my position was
\nrelegated to a long letter from someone who obviously didn’t possess English
\nas a first language (would Shermer like to write a defense of his position
\nin Hindi? It would read just as ludicrously if Hindi isn’t his first
\nlanguage).<\/p>\n

With the slate clear, I’d like to see if Shermer will accept the offer to
\ndebate me at length on such profound questions as the following:<\/p>\n