woo woo wound two

The woo woo debate continues in earnest on Graham Strout's splendid blog Zone5 HERE. For those of you that missed round 1 - it concerned the presence of new-agers and the distracting noise they make within permaculture. Richard Dawkins makes some similar points to those made by Graham in the God Delusion. Dawkins also discusses new-agers and their attempts to distance themselves and their beliefs from more traditional religions, masking their ideas with a sort of pseudo-scientific quackery, but ultimately there is very little difference between believing in Jesus or Wood Fairies.

Rob Hopkins does make a fair observation though - our defence or offence should remain level headed and cordial. However there is nothing wrong with a little bit of light hearted rib poking from time to time (hopefully that picture qualifies) - I hear the fairies have a wicked sense of humour..

On the subject of dowsing - I had a go recently as part of the organic college course. A very friendly guy turned up with some coat hangers, he told us:'It's a load of old rubbish really' and then made us walk around the field, whereupon he identified all manner of different water sources (underground and hidden from the eye, but he said they were there so heh). Obviously the load of old rubbish kept him solvent and as he drove off I kept thinking of those guys in the wild west that rattled around in wagons with bottles of snake oil that could make the blind see again. Unfortunately, of the 20 odd students who took part, there were only two voices questioning dowsing's validity. I had asked my lecturer prior to the lesson why we were learning about it, when there was no scientific evidence for it and I was met by a thunderous glare. Fantastic bit of education that....if you can't give an answer; intimidate them.