I just followed a link to this site from Ben Goldacre's miniblog. The particular page is so utterly ridiculous you can't help but think it has to be a parody (I'm not going to go into why it's wrong: morally, scientifically, historically, pretty much any sort of "ly" you can think of).
Then you read the rest of the site, and it's also so utterly ridiculous you think it has to be a parody. They have God's Hit List (which includes, vegetarians, Linux users and Barrack Obama, and gleefully declares "god won" every time someone on it has died), a problem page (which includes the helpful advice "sorry, you are going to hell" among other things) and quite an excellent bumper sticker page (Lost? GPS – God’s Plan of Salvation).the more I read, the more I'm convinced that it really can't possibly be for real. But there's still a lingering doubt somewhere in the back of my mind. Remember this interview? Randall Munroe once suggested the game 'make a YouTube comment so ridiculous people realise you have to be joking'. Is this it?
Unlike my previous favourite spoof website, there doesn't seem to be any little 'giveaways' hidden away. But it has to be a spoof. Doesn't it?
Friday, 22 January 2010
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1 comment:
For me, Shelly's website highlights two things:
1. The demarcation problem for real pseudoscience and satire is a tough one - just because it's really hard to come up with things wackier than what real real pseudoscientists believe. Shelly the republican's website is perhaps too ludicrous to fake.
2. One of the things I read/hear a lot in pseudoscience debates is the countering of an argument with "Well I'm not a scientist, but.." e.g. on STR's site...
"Alice January 20th, 2010 8:28 PM
If like cures like, does that mean that Natrum Bromatum is itself a homosexual ingredient?
jimmygoddard January 20th, 2010 8:57 PM
Alice, I do not pretend to understand all the science but basically..[]"
So he' is bascially saying: "When it comes to this topic, I can only speak out of my arse, but...[]"
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