(Cont…)

Ditto to you, Yabby…your comments are so predictable that I could answer your post without even reading it.

While I bow to your personal knowledge and/or experience with Schizophrenia, I concur with Compassionate Catholic and suggest that both medical professionals would have done extensive tests knowing that theirs would not be the last medical examinations performed to verify the results…

RE: Robyn…check that paragraph for spelling and start wiping the egg off your own face since that’s the very reason I assumed the wrong Robyn…as it is a VERY common name and the recent outspokenness of Robin Williams led me to the reasonable conclusion.

Both yourself and Scout generally ‘reference everything to a single collection of texts’, usually heresay rather than scientific evidence…

I am curious to know whether you ‘spent years on some of the skeptics lists’ as the object of their ridicule or as their hero? You didn’t specify…

If you are an example of the ‘best’ of skepticism…lol…ROFL… : ) I’d enjoy a meeting just to see all of ‘your entrails tragging behind you’.

‘On OLO there are so many xtian taliban who attack
the muslims, there is no need for me to say anything.’

Since there are plenty of your anti-Catholic ilk on OLO also…why do you bother to say anything…especially as it is not the topic of any of the threads involved? You have again ‘voiced your ignorance’ as there are no Christians in the taliban…lots of skeptics though, I hear…of course, unlike you, I don’t believe everything I hear…

Yabby, when it comes to the Catholic Church or anything else…you appear incapable of analyzing…let alone analyzing critically…enough said and still you’re unable to offer any evidential replies.

Perhaps, in the final analysis, messing around with nature may be the biggest mistake Yabby…nature’s an exacting accountant…I wonder if there’ll be research done into why some male children no longer have the Y-chromosome, the growing fertility ‘crisis’ in the western world, or the increasingly documented ‘effeminism’ of men …could-messing-with-hormone-drugs- (the pill, etc.)-during-reproductive-years,be-responsible-for-problems-in-subsequent-generations? Perhaps-it’s-involvement-with-other-drugs? Who-knows,but-you-may-not-have-to-worry-about-future-population-increases…

Meg1,

Thanks for the posts and the courage to put your points forward. You know I thought it was a waste of time responding to yabby and the other guy but you have done it for me.

My aim was to share a positive uplifting story but it appears yabby spends a lot of time dishing up canned responses without ever digesting what has been written. You have taken the time to understand and explain it to these guys. Well done.

I don't think I have experienced this level of venom and vitriol before. It's quite disturbing especially with all these claims of saving the developing world. I think it's a bit of a smoke screen. I think the reality is we are dealing with angry young men who fuel these views with a bit of reading and then add a lot of distortion.

All I can say is, for those who have ears to hear...listen.

Compassionate Catholic

Meg1,

“If you were submitting the comments on a medical diagnosis as a medical student and I was evaluating…I may have suggested that you refrain from voicing your ignorance…you’d have to provide better argument to gain a passing grade.”

Having sat on both sides of the table in medical students’ examinations I am well aware of the type of critical thinking that is expected in medical science. I was, I thought, quite careful not to make specific comments about this lady’s clinical status, as CC’s information does not provide any accurate clinical data. I merely described in very general terms some of the common pitfalls non medical people make in interpreting testimonial stories of this type.

“…carpal tunnel syndrome doesn’t disappear without treatment either”

Actually, it quite often does. Surgical treatment is usually reserved for the most persistent cases.

“osteopaenia is painless in itself, but its effects are measurable”

Neither of the doctors appear to have made any comment on changes to this condition, let alone provided any data to support such a change.

“neither of the two doctors mentioned would’ve risked their patient’s life by removing thyroid medication unless they were sure that the patient was cured and had done the necessary tests”

You’re making some assumptions here about the cause, severity and usual course of this lady’s specific condition. People quite often go on and off thyroid hormone (sometimes against medical advice) and the course of the condition can vary significantly over time, particularly in borderline cases.

continued below

“Hypoglycaemia” meaning the common post prandial syndrome rather than the potentially life threatening complication of diabetes treatment, does not correspond to any readily available pathological test such as blood glucose monitoring. It does, however, have a strong association with somatization (the tendency to express psychological distress through bodily symptoms and illness behavior). Of course it would be purely speculative to suggest that this might have anything to do with this lady’s “miraculous” recovery. We simply do not have enough evidence to say that there has been any objective change in this lady’s physical pathology.

As I said earlier I would be quite open to the possibility that this lady’s experience has led to a positive improvement in her sense of health and well being. My clinical experience leads me to believe that such dramatic changes are not always sustained long term. I hope this lady is one of the fortunate ones.

Meg1, my medical training teaches me not to “point out the obvious easily” from a testimonial report while being unaware of the objective measurable facts of a specific case. This is not “voicing ignorance”: I can only comment about medical conditions in general terms. If such information is not useful to you, then so be it. While a skeptical, scientific mindset might be unattractive to you, it is essential to medical practice – a fact not lost on those who do, in fact, assess medical students.

Finally, I might point out that I don’t believe that “Compassionate” and “Catholic” are necessarily oxymoronic, although I have no religious beliefs myself. In my early days I worked with some splendid women who happened to be Catholic nuns, and who took a – shall we say “freethinking” – view of some of the more dogmatic pronouncements emanating from Rome and the Melbourne archdiocese

Meg, your posts simply reflect your arrogance. If you had been
half decent, you would have apologised to Scout about the Robyn
saga. She had written a message to me, you butted in, ignorantly,
calling her gullible etc. Now you claim that was all reasonable!
Reasonable perhaps for somebody who reads the gossip columns
and who knows nothing about Australian Science! I knew
immediately who Scout was referring to, not only based on
the name, but on the description. Your arrogance and
ignorance have all shown through yet once again. Now say
sorry to Scout.

I was a participant on some skeptics lists. If you want to
learn about critical thinking, compared to the gullibility
of many religious zealots, thats where you could learn something.

Hundreds of millions prayed for the last pope, the old boy still
fell off the perch in the end, so much for your power of prayer :)
But of course it makes you feel better to think it works, so thats
all that matters.

Not nearly enough of my anti Catholic ilk on OLO Meg, mainly because
few know enough about what the Vatican gets up to in the third world.
Hopefully I am busy changing that, so that more will question why
the Church can get away with causing so much misery and suffering
in the third world, yet claim to be compassionate.

The Christian Taliban are simply Christians who are as fanatical
as the Muslim Taliban. There are plenty of those around.

I agree that messing with nature can be a problem. Thing is, if
you mess with nature in some things, but not with others, if the
result is unsustainable, in the end, nature will bite you in your
proverbial arse and restore the balance. If humanity is not careful,
the planet will land up spinning with little more then cockroaches
and ants on board. Our species and that of other mammals will have
been a mere blimp in the history of planet earth. Mother nature
will have her own judgement day, it will all have been our own fault.

Thanks Yabby, yes my message was just for you. However, Meg (yet again) has condemned herself by her own words. I would appreciate an apology but won't hold my breath.

Snout, again logic and reason prevail, excellent rebuttal of CC's claim.

Regards