In the 1970s, a physicist wrote an inimically popular book that alleged a parallel between physics and Taoism, while other physicists did very little to challenge the allegation.
In the 1980s, a medical doctor fabricated “quantum healing,” accusing quantum physics of having an affinity with the ancient religious medicine of India, and the physics community remained essentially silent.
In 2007, a panel on The Oprah Winfrey Show suggested* that according to quantum physics, simply thinking about losing weight, making more money, and falling in love, you can become thin, wealthy, and happily married, and we physicists did effectually nothing to dispute that brazen nonsense.
As a concerned physicist, I, on behalf of my profession, apologize for all that and for things having gotten so out of hand that our most prestigious medical schools are now teaching our future doctors unsubstantiated alternative medical protocols mostly tied to Eastern theosophy, and billions of dollars of our precious resources are funneled into the teaching and practice of those protocols.
I have no excuse for my past acquiescence. In the future, however, I plan to devote a major portion of the royalties of Quanta in Distress to a fund earmarked for promulgating critical thinking and awakening the public from the stupor of aforementioned false beliefs. It is an ambitious task, and in light of the deluge of misinformation and apathy of the media, the task may seem impossible. But every song starts with a note, and Quanta in Distress is nothing but a single note. Let’s turn it into a song!
By making a donation -- and/or helping in other ways -- you'll make it possible for me to develop resources and to reach out to educators who are willing to use those resources to advance critical thinking in their curricula.
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*If you don't connect to the link, copy the URL and paste it in a new window's address bar. The reference to quantum physics occurs in minute marks 8:35 -- 8:50.
In the 1920s, some great physicists publicized the falsehood that quantum physics was somehow connected to Eastern theosophy, and aside from Einstein and Planck, few notable physicists stepped in to correct the falsehood.e your