h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For the last week I've been suffering with awful toothache which has involved visits to the dentist and popping pills. As usual, I was taking Nurofen - an ibuprofen based painkiller which I've always found effective. In fact, I swear by it & use it for headaches, backaches, toothache and the days when my knees just sit there screaming at me. Subconsciously I think I knew it couldn't work on so many things but I convinced myself that Nurofen was the magic pill for pain. And it worked. But I was with a customer the other day and he saw me popping a couple with a cup of coffee. "Ah" he said, "You don't want to use them, you want to use these". He then went on to explain that ibuprofen works by reducing inflammation. It doesn't actually work on pain centres the way that paracetamol does. He reckoned I was wasting my time using it for toothache. Well, I nodded politely and took them anyway. An hour later and the toothache was still there. Bugger. The belief I'd had in Nurofen had been shaken, the spell was broken and the magic was gone.

Now, what did it matter to that guy what painkiller I took? It worked for me but he had to try and prove how clever he was.

The other day there was a story in the news about a teacher who'd told a class of 7 year olds that Santa didn't exist. Of course the kids got upset, as did the parents. But it's surprising the amount of support there was in newspapers and on message boards for the teacher. Yes, we know Santa doesn't exist and technically a teacher's job is to educate but what harm was Santa doing? Has there ever been someone psychologically damaged when they learned the truth? It's one of those nice wee stories we tell our kids and which kids actually keep going long after they rumble it. What's wrong with the magic of suspending dibelief for a while? Of course there's always the spotty wee Herbert who delights in telling the younger kids Santa doesn't exist and he's just exhibiting the same smug one-upmanship that my customer showed with the Nurofen.

When the truth hurts, is it better to keep quiet if no harm is being done?

Which made me think of Richard Dawkins, the arch-atheist who's made a career out of telling people what they knew but were ignoring anyway. The thing is, the vast majority of religious people don't give a lot of thought to their religion. It's enough to think that there is a God, someone's watching them and life has a purpose. Now Dawkins and his acolytes would argue that religion does do harm, that people use religion to discriminate and vilify others. Well, I don't think that's really true. I think the people that hate poofs or object to abortion would use any excuse to hang their views on and religion is just handy. Similarly, the religious leaders who spout guff would spout guff no matter what. It's not the religion, it's the people. When Dawkins attacks the existence of a God, he's missing the point. It's not God, Santa or Nurofen that's the problem it's the people who use these things to hurt others that are the problem. The people who say Santa won't come to bad girls or the people who say my God tells me to hate you.

The smug sods that think they know better, even when they do, should just learn to shut up & mind their own business.

My tooth still hurts.

Whisky is the best thing for toothache. About a bottle and you'll not notice any pain
And as goes the ibaprophin err neurophen and toothache... Yeh, it acts on reducing inflammation, if you've got toothache I bet the area of the tooth is inflammed, so it oughta help...
Morphine would probalby work quicker though

Clove oil and Solpadeines are what I swear by for toothache. And the bairn's Bonjela if it's really bad

I'm not sure I agree. I suspect your customer wasn't just showing off, though he may have been. And I suspect religion can do actual harm in itself.

I might even give some examples, some time when I'm awake.

TRiG.