The Mythology of Science-Based Medicine

This is a year-old article which I just found linked here.

If a pill or surgery won't do the trick, most patients are sent home to await their fate. There is an implied faith here that if a new drug manufacturer has paid for the research for FDA approval, then it is scientifically proven to be effective. As it turns out, this belief is by no means fully justified.

One might think this article was written by Christian Scientists.  Actually, it wasn't.  It was attributed to Dr. Larry Dossey, Deeprak Chopra, and Dr. Rustum Roy, and it was posted at the Huffington Post.

The article cites The British Medical Journal:

Of 2,500 treatments,

• 13 percent were found to be beneficial
• 23 percent were likely to be beneficial
• Eight percent were as likely to be harmful as beneficial
• Six percent were unlikely to be beneficial
• Four percent were likely to be harmful or ineffective.

So 46 percent, the largest category, has unknown effectiveness. A hospitalized person has only a 36 percent chance of receiving a treatment scientifically demonstrated to be beneficial (or likely to be!).

At another point, the authors write,

We all marvel at the technological advances in materials and techniques that allow doctors to perform quadruple bypass surgeries and angioplasties without marveling that recent studies indicate that coronary bypass surgery will extend life expectancy in only about three percent of cases. For angioplasty that figure sinks to zero percent. Those numbers might be close to what you could expect from a witch doctor, one difference being that witch doctors don't submit bills in the tens of thousands of dollars.

My father was rushed into a heart bypass operation.  He contracted a serious infection which lasted the better part of a year.  Following that, he developed pulmonary fibrosis.  He and I were estranged, but I wouldn't wish his death, by slow, inevitable suffocation, on a dog.

The medical industry does seem to take itself very seriously.  It is based mainly on fear.  It touts horrific treatments which may or may not work, and for which enormous bills are submitted.

The health care reform law - "Obamacare" - might just be a good thing, after all.  It will jack up premiums, so fewer people can afford insurance, medicine, or treatment.  It employs "death panels," so people will rightfully avoid depending on it.

Are there any options?  Certainly.  Christian Science is one.

No, it isn't an oxymoron.  Scientific Christianity is a system of understanding the Scriptures which often results in healing.  The work which reveals Christian Science is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy.  It is one of those books that everyone should read, if only to know about it.  It's a unique work which has comforted and helped millions of people.  Read the first page of the first chapter ("Prayer"), and see what you think.

I am not a member of the Christian Science church, but I study Christian Science.  I'm a student of Christian religion and thought.  I see tendrils of Christian Science thought throughout many writings of saints ("The science of love! Ah! sweet is the echo of that word to the ear of my soul! I desire no other science than that.") and wise preachers. ("When we touch the cosmic force apart from the “blinkers” of intellect, there is a wild problem in it. Nature is wild not tame. Modern science would have us believe it is tame, that we can harness the sea and the air. Quite true, if we only read scientific manuals, and deal with successful experiments; but after a while we discover that there are elements which knock men’s calculations on the head and prove that the universe is wild and unmanageable and yet God in the beginning created man to have dominion over it! The reason he cannot is because he has twisted the order and become master of himself, instead of recognising God’s dominion over him.") [emphasis added in both quotes]

Christian Science is the science of Love.  God is love, St. John assures us.  What does that mean to daily life?  Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the Christian Science textbook, is a good place to start.