Is it true that synthetic vitamins can be less effective than natural vitamins, and does that argue against using some of the top-selling multivitamins such as the Centrum brand as claimed by Dr. Al Sears?

Interestingly, this is quite correct although not understood scientifically, but that is the concrete thinking of the scientist and the belief in science almost like having faith in a religious ideology. Substances in nature, including simple molecules like vitamins and minerals, are truly blessed in the sense of possessing consciousness that comes from us. A chemical made synthetically will be devoid of divine consciousness of the same quality. It will have the consciousness of the simpler chemical elements used in the chemical reactions to cobble together the same discernible working structure chemically, as the natural equivalent, but those component parts will be a simulation, and thus phony in comparison to what the natural molecule that can be purified by extracting it from a natural source will represent and convey, correspondingly, as a benefit in carrying out the positive functions needed by the body to perform effectively. The view of science, that a human being or an animal is simply a bag of chemicals of the right kinds, is hopelessly simplistic and, in essence, a faulty notion. It is more akin to putting a flesh and blood person next to a pile of drawings of their organs and cells and the chemical structures of their makeup in real life. That contrast is not far from what the case is here with just a simple component or set of components in the form of vitamins versus a synthetic assortment—the latter will not be a suitably effective substitute for the real thing.