Randi on Acupuncture 'Primative Mystical Idiocy', & Extended To Naturopathy-Homeopathy-Acupuncture "SCIENCE" at UB:

here, I quote something Randi recently wrote about acupuncture [see 001., below]; and I extend it into the realm of UB nonsense [see the rest, below]:

001. James Randi recently wrote in "We Should Be Insulted":

"the 'complimentary and alternative medicine' [sCAM!] business brings in some $34 billion a year in direct out-of-pocket spending from American consumers [...] I recently came into possession of a 62-page full-color booklet produced and distributed by the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. This comprehensive publication - in its 'Words To Know' glossary, begins with a definition of what is possibly the only form of quackery that outranks homeopathy for idiocy: acupuncture [...] acupuncture is only a notion, a colorful way of looking at the human condition, a mystical and primitive concept of how the human body works and survives. It has no basis in fact or in observation. It is a dangerous myth. For the US National Institutes of Health to support it - though in an uncertain, luke-warm fashion - is farcical. The JREF has consistently offered its million-dollar prize to any and all acupuncturists."

Note: I don't think that that $35 billion includes the amount of money people spend on degrees encompassing CAM idiocies.

002. along the lines of "idiocy" and "mystical and primitive" mythical concepts [and academic malpractice, of a most blatant kind!], I give you naturopathy at the University of Bridgeport, which includes both homeopathy and acupuncture in its curriculum, and labels nonscience science and takes money for such, as a fully sanctioned degree granting entity [farcical to the thousand power]:

002.a. at UB, naturopathy's requisite homeopathy & acupuncture are readily apparent:

"a licensed naturopathic physician (N.D.) attends a four-year graduate level naturopathic medical school and is educated in all of the same basic sciences as an M.D. [...] the basic medical sciences [...] naturopathic education includes [...] homeopathy [...] the naturopathic physician is required to complete training [...] acupuncture [and] homeopathic medicine";

Note: the claim of science as a basis / umbrella, regular ordinary basic science like at all other colleges and universities in this day and age.

002.b. per acupuncture, UB states in "Acupuncture Institute":

"the Master of Science in Acupuncture degree."

Note: again, the categorical label of science upon...idiocy.

002.c. UB's 'vitalism is health science', overarching all of this:

002.c1. UB naturopathy's essential vitalism is readily apparent. And I've collected a preponderance of naturopathy vitalism ludicrously labeled scientific fact by .gov entities;

002.c2. and UB's label upon all of this, "health science".

003. and that is akin to stating that 'science is the nonscientific' or 'p and not-p', and it is madness:

to quote a particular set of logical rules, "the law of non-contradiction: a conjunctive proposition [...] cannot be both true and false at the same time and in the same respect. Thus the proposition 'p and not-p' cannot be true. For example, the proposition 'it is raining and it is not raining' is a contradiction, and must be false."

004. NYU physicist and UCL mathematician Alan Sokal says it best in "Archaeological Fantasies. How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public" (ISBN 0415305934; 2006):

"for my own part, I have been struck by the fact that nearly all the pseudoscientific systems to be examined in this essay are based philosophically on vitalism [...a.k.a.] 'life energy', elan vital, prana, qi [...] mainstream science has rejected vitalism since at least the 1930s for a plethora of good reasons that have only become stronger with time [p.347]."

Perfect. I've a preponderance stating that vitalism is hugely not science.