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I did not mean to accuse you of saying that women are predisposed for less rationality than men. Sorry for the confusion. With that said, you still, to me, see

I did not mean to accuse you of saying that women are predisposed for less rationality than men. Sorry for the confusion. With that said, you still, to me, seem to be saying that women are currently employing less rationality than men, due to failure in education, culture, or something else. This is what I want to dispute. I disagree that alternative medicine being more popular with women means that women as a whole have been given less critical thinking skills. I think it's just because some things are more popular with women, and some with men. Alternative medicine appears to me to be something that is more popular with women, and it also happens to be irrational.

Udo 14y ago
> I disagree that alternative medicine being more popular with women means that women as a whole have been given less critical thinking skills Well, we're failing women here somewhere and my first guess would indeed be the education system in general, and maybe the image of science education in particular. I'm not saying that women generally employ less critical thinking skills (hence my original comment about astrophysics in that context), but at the same time there is very clearly something wrong that makes women more susceptible to this C/AM bullshit. There are clearly antibodies missing here, the question then becomes why are we giving those antibodies to men and denying them to women? > I think it's just because some things are more popular with women, and some with men. Sure, though as I said in other comments, by default I tend to attribute these things overwhelmingly to culture, not physiology. Being susceptible to C/AM and other crap is not a cute little boy-girl difference, however. It's a massive problem, because having a mind with this faith-based nonsense in it is clearly a disadvantage that precludes victims from actually understanding the world. Not to mention it's a risk whenever "alternative medicine" is favored over actual treatment in critical situations. > Alternative medicine appears to me to be something that is more popular with women, and it also happens to be irrational. My point is, that needs to change. It's not an innocent phenomenon. There is something deeply wrong here. To shift the focus a little, do you know which group is also extremely susceptible to non-scientific bullshit? Medical doctors. It's a huge problem. We're currently addressing this issue both in medical school and in hospital culture, but it's still an uphill battle. We need to do the same for women.

Udo 14y ago

> I disagree that alternative medicine being more popular with women means that women as a whole have been given less critical thinking skills Well, we're failing women here somewhere and my first guess would indeed be the education system in general, and maybe the image of science education in particular. I'm not saying that women generally employ less critical thinking skills (hence my original comment about astrophysics in that context), but at the same time there is very clearly something wrong that makes women more susceptible to this C/AM bullshit. There are clearly antibodies missing here, the question then becomes why are we giving those antibodies to men and denying them to women? > I think it's just because some things are more popular with women, and some with men. Sure, though as I said in other comments, by default I tend to attribute these things overwhelmingly to culture, not physiology. Being susceptible to C/AM and other crap is not a cute little boy-girl difference, however. It's a massive problem, because having a mind with this faith-based nonsense in it is clearly a disadvantage that precludes victims from actually understanding the world. Not to mention it's a risk whenever "alternative medicine" is favored over actual treatment in critical situations. > Alternative medicine appears to me to be something that is more popular with women, and it also happens to be irrational. My point is, that needs to change. It's not an innocent phenomenon. There is something deeply wrong here. To shift the focus a little, do you know which group is also extremely susceptible to non-scientific bullshit? Medical doctors. It's a huge problem. We're currently addressing this issue both in medical school and in hospital culture, but it's still an uphill battle. We need to do the same for women.