So the list is asked, "what about dowsing?" and we give our opinions, pro
or con, and those who badmouth dowsing are immediately called "scientific
bigots," and "closed minds."  Interesting discussion method.  (On the other
hand, I've heard computer technology referred to as "white collar voodoo")

A number of people believe in or have believed in astrology, alchemy, the
Flat Earth, crystal heavenly spheres, space aliens and so on.  Is it
scientific bigotry to dismiss those beliefs, or do we have to revisit them
and throw them out all over again every generation?  In anthropology we've
tossed the ideas that bumps on the head tell us about personality, that
primitive people are inferior to western Europeans, and so on ad nauseum;
are we being close-minded when we do so?  Should we seriously reconsider
those arguments again?

To paraphrase a remark made earlier in this discussion, "if dowsing worked,
we'd be using it."  It doesn't work, which is why we don't use it.  This is
not bigotry, it's pragmatics.

Jake