Although the news that the University of Central Lancashire has suspended its BSc course in Homeopathy, the fraudulent sale of water as a medical treatment, is very welcome, the reasons are pretty appalling.
There is no absolutely no doubt that homeopathy is a fraudulent practice - that's been established after more than fifteen years and hundreds of scientific studies and reviews. There is not one shred of evidence that it is in any way effective other than as a placebo - and you always get the placebo effect for free with any treatment. So it's a fraud and a university, an institution supposedly offering higher learning, is disgracing itself pretending to offer a science degree in it.
Unfortunately, the University of Central Lancashire is not acknowledging the real nature of homeopathy. It's suspending the course because they can't get enough bums on seats.
According to the Guardian, Kate Chatfield and Jean Duckworth blamed the suspension of the course on low application numbers. But they said "Fortunately our masters course is thriving and we have been asked to focus upon this area and homeopathy research for the time being." In other words, those deluded individuals who have committed their time and money to studying a fraudulent methodology by signing up to the course, can continue doing so and still end up with a Master of Science degree.
That not only seriously undermines the value of possessing a Masters degree for all those scientists who have done serious scientific work, but also deludes the possessors of the fraudulent ones into thinking they are actually practising science.
When we can't distinguish between the scientific qualifications of those who have consistently and rigorously adopted a controlled scientific approach from those who believe fairy stories about water having a memory, the whole basis of science degrees is undermined.
No surprise then that many scientists, including Professor Colquhoun of University College, London have been so scathing. It remains a disgrace that 400 years after the scientific enlightenment, we have university departments peddling medieval magic as if it were science.
It's good news that the Lancashire BSc in Fraudulent Therapy has been suspended but disgraceful that so-called scientists do not have the intellectual honesty to admit that the courses they are offering are bogus, non-scientific, and based on belief in magic. They are putting their very suspect university positions before honesty and integrity. Shame on them!
If a science degree is worth anything, it is because of it's basis on the open, tested, evidenced, reliable, and rational scientific method in which results are openly presented and challenged, theories are put to the test, hypotheses disproved, and evidence is critically assessed. Knowledge of how the world works, whether we're talking about geology or neurology, astronomy or dermatology, is hard won - it takes work, gathering observations, assessing evidence, being willing to throw out theories that can't be backed by repeatable evidence.
Scientists earn their reputation not just through their intellectual and practical skills in obtaining those theories and evidence, but through their integrity in being prepared to acknowledge when the evidence contradicts them. Those running the courses in homeopathy in the University of Central Lancashire give us every reason to doubt both their integrity and their honesty.
