Claiming to be practicing EVIDENCE BASED HOMEOPATHY is the latest fashion among modern ‘elite’ homeopaths. By this claim, they actually hope to practice as ‘free birds’, conveniently evading from all hard questions regarding ‘how homeopathy works’, as well as without any commitment to ‘classical’ philosophy or principles of homeopathy. By this way, they try to mask their lack of scientific knowledge, and their perennial laziness to update themselves. They also think, by using the title of ‘evidence based medicine’ it will make them appear as peers with modern ‘physicians’.
Concept of ‘evidence based medicine’ was actually coined by modern medicine to ensure that current medical practice does not suffer from the inevitable delay in ‘explaining’ each and every clinical experiences through scientific protocols, and to incorporate clinical ‘evidences’ also as factors in therapeutic decision making. For them, ‘evidence based medicine’ is only a practical extension of ‘science based medicine’ they are practicing.
‘Evidence based medicine’ is an important concept in modern medical practice, as it is based on RATIONAL ‘scientific evidence’, and practiced as an extension of ‘science based medicine’. It cannot be used to displace or ignore the relevance of scientific understanding or explaining in medicine. Evidence based medicine never deny the importance of scientific knowledge, but it utilizes ‘evidences’ anticipating their scientific explanation- it is a form of forecasting into the future medicine, based on existing scientific knowledge. That means, ‘evidences’ used in ‘evidence based medicine’ should be strictly based on and fitting to the existing scientific knowledge- not contradicting it. Modern medicine uses the term ‘evidence’ to refer to scientifically proven evidences fitting well to the existing scientific knowledge system.
But our ‘evidence based’ homeopaths actually use the term ‘evidence’ in the meaning ‘experiences’ of individual practitioners and their subjective interpretations, or some ‘studies’ without any scientific foundation, which totally contradict existing scientific knowledge. They practice it without any understanding of the exact scientific basis of what they are practicing. They try to use the concept of ‘evidence based medicine’ to mask their inability even to explain ‘how homeopathy works’, or ‘what are the active principles of potentized drugs’. They try to evade from all fundamental questions of homeopathy by talking about ‘evidence based medicine’. Some convenient phrases hijacked from modern medicine will not be enough to hide the scientific deficiencies of homeopaths, unless they update homeopathy in accordance with advancing scientific knowledge existing around us.
‘Evidence based medicine’ should not mean ‘irrational medicine’ or ‘ignorance based medicine’. It should be based on rational and logical ‘evidence’ that fit to the existing scientific knowledge system. Claims of ‘experiences’ that contradict existing scientific knowledge system and logical reasoning do not come under the purview of authentic ‘evidence’. Without explaining and proving homeopathy in terms of modern science, it will be a futile exercise to hide behind the term ‘evidence based medicine’.
Before talking about ‘evidence based medicine’, homeopathy should be first of all placed on a reasonably sound scientific footing. At least, we have to be able to answer the question ‘what are the active principles of potentized drugs’. It simply means, ‘what are you actually giving to the patient’ as ‘medicine’? In order to answer that question, you will have to explain what is the exact process happening during potentization. Of course, you will be required to propose a scientifically viable biological mechanism for its therapeutic action. Only after that much is attained, we can talk about practicing ‘evidence based medicine’ in homeopathy.
‘Evidence based’ homeopaths conveniently ignore all the fundamental hard questions, because they really know nothing about the science involved in homeopathy. They are also not willing to learn and update themselves. To evade from fundamental questions and to hide the deficiencies, they are pretending to be practicing ‘evidence based medicine’.
One prominent ‘evidence based’ homeopath explained his ‘philosophy’ as follows on my page:
“Let likes be treated with likes. This is the real fact you cannot deny. This fact can be described and explained in thousands of daily examples. Homeopathy works under the law of similar. Thousands of examples could be cited. Suppose this is real fact and reality you also accept. Can you prove the existence of spirit or soul? But you cannot deny it. Similar way, homeopathy is reality, which cannot be denied. It is not important to explain its existence in the acceptable meaning of skeptic . Fact is fact”.
This statement is a classical example demonstrating the approach of ‘evidence based’ homeopaths. For him, scientific explanation is only for “the acceptance of skeptics”. Law of similars is “described and explained in thousands of daily examples”, and hence, scientific explanations are “not important”! Homeopaths should learn only to treat “likes with likes”- no need to understand or explain how ‘likes cure the likes’. Proving homeopathy is like proving the existence of “spirit or soul”. “Homeopathy is a reality that cannot be denied”. Finished!
Talking about ‘evidence based homeopathy’, and practicing ‘freely’, merely on the basis of ‘experiences’ and ‘clinical results’ will not any way help in the future advancement of homeopathy as a MEDICAL SCIENCE. You cannot ignore the fundamental questions by this type of gimmicks for long. Without even any idea about the contents of ‘substances’ you are giving to the patients as medicines, how can you talk about any ‘scientific evidence’?
Please do not hope to mask your intellectual inertia and lack of scientific knowledge by declaring ‘we practice evidence based medicine’. Please do not think that fundamental questions such as ‘what is the biological mechanism by which homeopathy works’, ‘what happens during potentization’, ‘what are the active principles of potentized drugs’ could be wished away as ‘irrelevant’ as far as you are ‘producing results’ in your practice. Anybody practicing occults and woodoo also argue the same way: ‘we produce results as per experience’. They also claim to be ‘evidence based practitioners’ in their own domains.
Homeopaths can practice ‘evidence based medicine’ only after making homeopathy a ‘scientific medicine’ by answering the fundamental questions about homeopathy- only as an extension of scientific homeopathy. Do not be under the false notion that you can fool the science-conscious community by mere play of words such as ‘evidence based medicine’ and ‘experience based medicine’.
YOU DO NOT KNOW SOMETHING IS NOT A SIN. BUT, HESITATING TO LEARN WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW IS NOT ONLY A SIN, BUT A CRIME! WHEN IT IS COMMITTED BY PEOPLE CLAIMING TO BE PHYSICIANS, IT IS AN UNPARDONABLE CRIME.
REDEFINING HOMEOPATHY 