no scientific evidence (WAS: NNF - Babbling About CAM)

[Guest guest]

> Please don't shoot the messenger, ...

I'm not shooting at you, Barb, but I can't resist commenting on a

statement in the " HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW " part of your quote:

>> While some CAM practitioners claim to manipulate

>> a patient's Qi, there is no objective scientific

>> evidence for its existence.

Some time back, I watched a press conference on TV in which some

German government official made a similar statement to refute a

certain theory. He repeated the statement several times until a

persistent reporter decided to ask him exactly how much scientific

research had in fact been carried out to obtain objective evidence

one way or the other.

After a heated exchange, the official was forced to admit that to his

knowledge no research at all had been carried out for that purpose.

He then had the nerve to point out that his original statement was

nevertheless, strictly speaking, the truth.

Since that time, I have assumed that anybody using the statement

that " no scientific evidence exists " , when he knows that nobody has

even seriously looked for any yet, is merely putting up a smoke

screen.

I am going to e-mail Nutrition News on that point and see if I can

catch them out, too.