The Poo Argument
I wish people would stop using the Poo Argument against homeopathy. In case you’re not familiar with it, it usually goes something like this:
If water has memory, why doesn’t it remember all the poo?
The simple answer, that any homeopath should be able to tell you, is that the poo hasn’t been succussed. Succussion is the method by which a homeopathic remedy is ‘potentised’ – ie. it acquires the ‘memory’ of whatever it is that is being diluted. You can dilute something as much as you like, but unless it is potentised, it won’t have any effect. Well, that’s what the homeopaths claim, anyway.
There are enough problems with homeopathy without us having to make stuff up about it. The two pillars of homeopathy – Like Cures Like and the Law of Infinitesimals – are both on such shaky logical footing that the entire principle of homeopathy can be demonstrated invalid on those grounds alone. Additionally, there’s the small fact that no reliable scientific study has demonstrated any effect for homeopathy beyond the expected results of placebo. And there’s homeopathy crashing down around our ears. If you really want to rub it in, you can mention that homeopathy is a multi-billion dollar industry (so much for Big Pharma) and that by weight, homeopathy is more expensive than silver. There, that should be enough. There’s absolutely no need to invoke poo.
By using the Poo Argument, all you’re doing is setting up a strawman. Homeopaths do not claim that water should remember all the poo. In fact, they claim the exact opposite – that water won’t remember poo unless the poo is potentised.
Potentised poo. I wonder what that would be a remedy for.
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But the whole point of the argument is that when the remedy is succussed (.e. hit against some leather) there is no way to distinguish between the target molecules and all those others present in the water. Therefore it should indeed remember the poo. It’s a valid argument, nothing wrong with using it to highlight the idiocy at all.
Oh, and by their same logic the actual water molecules should become even more thirst-quenching through the process. They should try flogging it to gullible athletes or better still, send it to drought-stricken regions…
One of the first rules of potentising is that you have to start with distilled water. Sometimes you’re diluting into alcohol where the poo argument doesn’t apply anyway – unless someone’s been pooing in my vodka.
Well until they can explain to me how flushing the netty is different from succussion…
The rules of succussion are quite specific. Well, I should say that there are several different methods of succussion, each of which is quite strict. The one I have heard about is that the solution has to be shaken up and down ten times, then banged against a leather-covered hard surface (such as a leather bound bible) ten times, then shaken left and right ten times, then banged ten times, then shaken up and down ten times, then banged ten times. Only then is the solution properly potentised.
If your toilet does this, I’ll be VERY impressed. :)
I suppose they argue that the memory is erased by distilling the water in the first place. And of course, the new agers can always fall back on the “intent” clause, wherein the intent of the preparer can affect the outcome.
I agree with Arthwollipot though… if we’re going to argue against homeopathy, we have to understand their arguments. (This is why I’m against the “homeopathic suicide” demonstrations.)
I’m pretty sure potentised poo would be a remedy against the horse-crap that is homeopathy…
Homoeopathy is nonsense, the case doesn’t hold water. Pun intended.
I’m not sure under their system of magic why distillation removes the memory of past potentisation, though
Someone should potentise some bull manure and slip it to these people…