What's the Harm?

Some people will ask the skeptic "what's the harm" of disbelieving in vaccination, believing in supplements, complimentary and alternative medicine in particular, or Woo in general?  "Even if this stuff isn't provable aren't adults are free to believe whatever they like?"  "It's all in good fun, right?"

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Unfortunately, there is a substantial body count, a long list of serious injuries, and billions of dollars lost to poor thinking about important issues that no amount of misapplied postmodernism or moral relativism can make right.  At his What's the Harm website Tim Farley chronicles many examples of the downside experienced when we relax our critical processes with regard to pseudoscience, medical quackery, and the paranormal.  In addition to the case studies the Resources and Press pages are rich sources of additional information.