And this was science ...

... not religion. Or maybe ... Destructive Delusions. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Perhaps the most alarming (or depressing) thing about this story -- clearly, economically and sometimes amusingly told by Dr. McHugh -- is that the worst excesses did not take place among the poorly educated class of society, whom one might expect to be easiest prey to ludicrous notions, but among the well educated.

This does not surprise me. The well-schooled are quite superstitious when it comes to degrees, fashionable theories, and books praised in the right places by the right people.