Is New Age superstition ridiculous?

[The Mikado]

Yes. (Sane)

[Alcon]

How are we defining "New Age superstition"?

[The Mikado]

How are we defining "New Age superstition"?

The whole kit, from alternative medicine (homeopathy, acupuncture, non-FDA approved herbal treatments) to astrology to Western-friendly bastardizations of Hinduism (especially the yoga movement) and Buddhism to NeoPaganism right down to every quack Tarot reader and "Gypsy" fortune teller.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Yes, definitely.

[John Dibble]

I'd say it's about the same level as all the old superstitions. Take that for what you will.

[afleitch]

I'd say it's about the same level as all the old superstitions. Take that for what you will.

Given that 'New Age' is on the whole 'new age' for us and 'old hat' for the cultures from which we stole took inspriation from it to sell.

[Alcon]

I just don't "get" new age/Eastern medicine.  Yea, over time they stumbled on some effective herbal remedy.  But this "natural is better" stuff is absurd.  We have a rigorous scientific testing schema which we're abandoning for "it grows in the ground, so it's not bad like those pills you hear about"?  Just don't get it.

And, Tarot...well, dead horse.

[Sbane]

How are we defining "New Age superstition"?

The whole kit, from alternative medicine (homeopathy, acupuncture, non-FDA approved herbal treatments) to astrology to Western-friendly bastardizations of Hinduism (especially the yoga movement) and Buddhism to NeoPaganism right down to every quack Tarot reader and "Gypsy" fortune teller.

Don't disregard alternative medicine so fast. Even western doctors and pharmacists will admit western medicine usually just alleviates symptoms and doesn't really cure it and definitely doesn't prevent it. These herbal treatments certainly do work just as well as any western medicine considering you know what you are doing. We learned about them in Pharmacology and treated them like any other medicine. Of course even most western medicines are herbal extracts. If you are having a heart attack then feel free to pop some aspirin, but if you want to prevent it then look to "alternative" medicine.

I also don't see what's so wrong with people doing yoga. If they get all mystical about that sh**t then I admit its weird, but at the end of the day it's just another way to get your daily exercise.

[Sbane]

I just don't "get" new age/Eastern medicine.  Yea, over time they stumbled on some effective herbal remedy.  But this "natural is better" stuff is absurd.  We have a rigorous scientific testing schema which we're abandoning for "it grows in the ground, so it's not bad like those pills you hear about"?  Just don't get it.

Yeah I don't buy into the whole "natural" fad but sometimes eating or using the plant as a whole works better than just isolating the active ingredient. This is because other chemicals may help modulate the effects of the drug and that is something not so easy to test, especially when there may be multiple modulatory chemicals.

[Alcon]

Yeah, I have no problem with herbal remedies.  Some of them are quite effective.  My beef's with ignoring the scientific method because "natural" remedies are somehow inherently more pure than "chemicals," or whatever.  Basically I have problem with people who have no idea what they're talking about but are still adamant.  Myself excepted

[Sbane]

Do the idiots think there are no chemicals in plants? LOL.

[12th Doctor]

Kinda off topic, but I always find the label "New Age" kinda funny... in a non-humorous kind of way.  Many of these "New Age" ideas are ancient concepts, many of which predate the current mainstream faiths, all blended together and repackaged using modern buzz words and concepts.

[Coburn In 2012]

Yes.  And possibly demonic also

[Sbane]

Yes.  And possibly demonic also

Yeah anything other than western civilization is demonic huh? But wait, isn't science demonic too? What with "believing" in evolution and all that ungodly junk.

[bgwah]

How are we defining "New Age superstition"?

The whole kit, from alternative medicine (homeopathy, acupuncture, non-FDA approved herbal treatments) to astrology to Western-friendly bastardizations of Hinduism (especially the yoga movement) and Buddhism to NeoPaganism right down to every quack Tarot reader and "Gypsy" fortune teller.

New or old...It's all the same to me.

[Magic 8-Ball]

I'm not sure how alternative medicine is "superstition" per se, but things like acai berries and wheat grass are most definitely overrated.

Tarot cards and astrology are absolute bullshit.

[Coburn In 2012]

Yes.  And possibly demonic also

Yeah anything other than western civilization is demonic huh? But wait, isn't science demonic too? What with "believing" in evolution and all that ungodly junk.

I don't know my bible like I should but I am pretty sure it condemns witchcraft and paganism.  That would include tarot cards, so called earth religion, austral projection, seances, goddess worship and any thing that reeks of the occult.

So is evolution demonic?  No it is just unproven and its kool ade drinking followers think it is a fact like the global warming myth.  And the one about Elvis being alive.  But its not demonic.

[Sbane]

Yes.  And possibly demonic also

Yeah anything other than western civilization is demonic huh? But wait, isn't science demonic too? What with "believing" in evolution and all that ungodly junk.

So is evolution demonic?  No it is just unproven and its kool ade drinking followers think it is a fact like the global warming myth.  And the one about Elvis being alive.  But its not demonic.

[Coburn In 2012]

http://www.icr.org/


Read it and weep. 

[John Dibble]

http://www.icr.org/


Read it and weep. 

*gasp* Creationists don't believe in evolution and deny the scientific evidence without offering any concrete proof that it's wrong. I suppose that is sad, though I don't know if it's enough to weep over.

[pbrower2a]

Yes.  And possibly demonic also

Yeah anything other than western civilization is demonic huh? But wait, isn't science demonic too? What with "believing" in evolution and all that ungodly junk.

I don't know my bible like I should but I am pretty sure it condemns witchcraft and paganism.  That would include tarot cards, so called earth religion, austral projection, seances, goddess worship and any thing that reeks of the occult.

So is evolution demonic?  No it is just unproven and its kool ade drinking followers think it is a fact like the global warming myth.  And the one about Elvis being alive.  But its not demonic.

You fail to recognize the difference between science and pseudoscience. Witchcraft seems harmless unless someone tries to use a broom as if an aircraft and flies off a multi-story building for the simple reason of its ineffectiveness. The occult is at best a literary device and at worst a shameless rip-off of the gullible. At least Elvis impersonators can have entertainment value.

Evolution is scientific fact about as reliable as the atomic theory of matter. It has support in paleontology, analysis of radioactivity in old rocks, genetics, history, anthropology, astrophysics, and comparative biology.  In contrast, creationism is about as valid as New Age claptrap. The only way to rationalize creationism is to hold that roughly 6000 years ago God created everything and forged evidence suggesting greater antiquity.  Example: Adam saw stars in the first week of his existence, indicating that even such a star as Sirius is much closer than its real distance, and we see parts of the Milky Way Galaxy older than the Creationist age of the universe.

[tik 🪀✨]

Someone like Coburn isn't going to understand that the light we see from stars in the night sky is light that was produced hundreds or thousands of years ago and is finally visible in the present after travelling through space for all of that time. He'll just say that God created the earth with an illusion of age, like how Adam and Eve were created as adults.

As for New Age superstition, it's mostly hogwash. There are a few good ideas that should be looked into. Yoga is a healthy practice, many herbal remedies have benefits and should be studied (and regulated) further, and there is something beautiful to be found through meditation. It's sort of a square wheel with a few spokes that are well maintained.

[pbrower2a]

Someone like Coburn isn't going to understand that the light we see from stars in the night sky is light that was produced hundreds or thousands of years ago and is finally visible in the present after travelling through space for all of that time. He'll just say that God created the earth with an illusion of age, like how Adam and Eve were created as adults.

As for New Age superstition, it's mostly hogwash. There are a few good ideas that should be looked into. Yoga is a healthy practice, many herbal remedies have benefits and should be studied (and regulated) further, and there is something beautiful to be found through meditation. It's sort of a square wheel with a few spokes that are well maintained.

Free society has a way of testing foreign ideas for their validity and relevance. Meditation isn't superstition, and neither is yoga. Herbal remedies? Less precise than the over-refined products of the profit-driven pharmaceutical industry that spends more on marketing than on research (it does comparatively little research; universities and hospitals do most).  Herbs have strange chemicals, some harmful (absinthe) and some effective (aspirin as a derivative of willow bark).

I can't see an attempt to hold onto New-Earth Creationism without seeing the potential blasphemy: that God forged evidence of the Universe being older than it is as a snare for those of inadequate faith. That suggests a sadistic God, the sort that Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions all consider heretical.