The New Faith

In [a] sense, very few people today ever trust in god. Very few people ever voluntarily put themselves in a position where, if their prayers are unanswered, or if god otherwise fails to act, they will suffer a physical or financial harm. Sure, they will pray, but it will always be in addition to doing whatever common sense, or science, tells them to do. This renders the outcome of the prayers completely irrelevant . . .



For example, whenever anybody is sick, they would unlikely be so foolhardy as to put their money on god in lieu of medical science. They may pray on the side, as a harmless, cost-free way of doubling down, but no way in hell would a rational person ignore their surgeon in favor of just prayer. Such rational people do not “trust in god.” His existence or nonexistence is rendered irrelevant by the medical advice they follow. 

InGod We (Do Not) Trust

An atheist wrote this, so i suppose it is not surprising that the writer equivocates trust in God with being mindless. But i do think they have a point about trust and science. In my opinion, most Christians these days have replaced trust in God with trust in medical science.

Maybe this wouldn't be bad if there was something to trust in medical science. The fact is, however, that most of what passes as “medical science” is a mishmash of politically driven interest. “Medicine” as it passes today is big business. The fact that most drug studies are highly biased for the drug company and are tainted at every step of the process is overlooked by the very people who are suppose to be protecting the consumers. Properly prescribed medications kill over 100,000 people a year, and conventional medicine kills over 700,000 people a year – all legally. But you never hear of this. You DO hear on the rare occasion that something alternative creates a problem. That becomes big news. The media will tell you that alternative treatments are not safe.  They are claiming that Steve Jobs was killed because he used alternative medicine. A friend wrote (Mellowsong's entry) that she felt that SJ didn't properly use either alternative or conventional medicine, and that was the problem. I think this is an accurate assessment.

My indictment of the above article written by an atheist is that the writer seems to put as much blind trust in science as he accuses Christians of having in God.  His faith in science is misplaced, i believe.

I do not think Christians should be mindless. There are some conventional treatments which i suppose are needed, especially if the person is not willing to make changes in diet and environment that will help to fight their disease.  But this means the person in question needs to be responsible to research treatments and not blindly trust “My doctor says . . . ” First off, doctors are not some great, infallible prophet. Second, most of the research in which they trust has been skewed and should not be trusted.  Third, in this day of easy access to alternatives, this is much easier to do.  It is hard, i admit, because there is so much available to read that you can be overwhelmed by the amount of info.  I don't think this excuses us from being responsible for our own decisions and choosing not to capitulate to the decision of a doctor. 

We have thousands of years of experience with natural, God-given plants, minerals, and vitamins in this world which treat illness and heal. But this doesn't make big money for the doctors and hospitals – or the drug companies. Instead, the scientists play with these natural things until they can create a synthetic substitute that they can then patent and sell. While these synthetic substances do seem to work more quickly than the natural one (and in our culture especially, “quick” relief is valued above all else), these synthetic drugs have a myriad of problems. First off, our body does not utilize them as well as the natural substance and as a result, the synthetic has a host of severe reactions and side effects.  These can be sudden and quick (such as anaphylactic shock) or long term (such as muscle weakness or liver damage).

One example: There is evidence that calcium fluoride can help build strong teeth – if taken in very limited doses. The industry making fertilizer (it was created in other manufacturing processes as well) created a huge surplus of very toxic sodium fluoride or other related fluorides. This type of fluoride is found nowhere in nature. But the theory (studies to back this were never completed because the results were so contrary to the theory) was that if calcium fluoride would be good, sodium fluoride would be as well. The industries could save huge amounts of money by selling this substance to the water districts and thus not have to deal with this very toxic chemical waste. However – it is still a chemical waste and if the water districts spill this stuff while they are adding it to the water, a Hazmat team has to be called in to handle the disposal of it. We want this in our water? And yet, the majority of Americans believe it when they are told that fluoride is healthy for us.

The American Medical Association was created with the specific goal to weed out all competition to their interests.  Heroic medicine was already in place at that time, but the goals of the AMA were to promote it over any other system. (Don't bother with Wikipedia for the definition of “Heroic medicine.” Their answer is much too incomplete. You could try this Healthwebsite.)  Supposedly, the days of heroic medicine - doing much damage to the patient in the meantime - are past, but in my mind much of conventional medicine – especially cancer treatments – are nothing but an updated version of heroic medicine.

So, my big question is why on earth would Christians blindly follow the advice of conventional medical doctors – whose track record in treating patients is really pathetic – instead of researching all possibilities? I strongly believe that nearly all illness we see these days is directly a result of the processed foods people eat, our polluted water and environment, the chemicals used in our homes and workplaces, and the medications so easily taken by people without much thought. It is time to start living as our creator designed us to live, with the good food and water provided, rather than trusting an industry to feed us or treat disease.

I think it strange that the Church (in early days it would have been the Catholic Church as there was no other) chose to fear natural medicine and healing and claim it "witchcraft" and in time has instead chosen to advocate current allopathic, heroic medicine. 

This is near and dear to my heart right now as i personally know of three people who are placing their lives in the hands of these medical folks. It is hard for me to bear.