The snooze of reason, if not actual sleep
Doctor prescribed crosses to beat black magic, tribunal told:
The patient, Mrs K, attended the Westside Contraceptive Clinic in Westminster, London, for a contraceptive injection after complaining of pain and bleeding. But the panel was told that Dr Pratt claimed to have special powers and gave her stones and crosses to protect her. She allegedly told her that her mother was a witch and was planning to kill her.
I'm all for doctors keeping open minds and not being reductionist materialists, but this is creepy.
I was reminded of this (at least, I think it was this article), which I also found worrying, about the rise of belief in creationism/intelligent design among university students:
Two years ago [Roger Downie, professor of zoological education at Glasgow University] surveyed the views on evolution of biology and medical students there. "What was extremely worrying for students embarking on evidence- and science-based disciplines was that they were perfectly prepared to say they had rejected it not on the basis of evidence but on the basis of their religious beliefs," he says.
He says schools and universities need to be clearer about how science differs from other evidence, such as that provided by religion. "The impression people get is that science is about accumulating a lot of facts in your head rather than testing of evidence and fine-tuning what you find."
I found it particularly bothering that this was happening in science disciplines, where students are, presumably, regurgitating what they're taught about evolution in the same spirit as parents are cynically tailoring their expressed beliefs and even practices to the requirements of faith schools.