the god God’s contribution to modern medicine
The Christian god God and his son, Jesus Christ, with whom he is one being, left some invaluable advice to us humans about life here on Earth, in their jointly authored book, the Bible. This book can be used to help us understand how to care for our fragile human bodies.
dr god the psychiatrist
When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way.‘What do you want with us, Son of God?’ they shouted. ‘Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?’ Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged Jesus, ‘If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.’ He said to them, ‘Go!’ So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. (Matthew 8:28-32)
When dealing with someone who has a mental illness, it seems odd that Jesus didn’t encourage the development of studies into the brain, or point to a locally growing herb that may have alleviated symptoms. He didn’t attempt to discuss anything with the two violent men to see if there were any issues that needed to be resolved. No, Jesus, the living incarnation of an omniscient god (perhaps the one and only creator god) believed what every primitive society in the history of mankind believed, and put it all down to evil spirits occupying their bodies. Dr God the psychiatrist is not off to a good start.
dr god the obstetrician
But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband’– here the priest is to put the woman under this curse – ‘may the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.’ (Numbers 5: 20-22)
The god God is a skilled abortionist and encourages adulterous women to rid themselves of pregnancies conceived out of wedlock. This isn’t the only occasion the Bible mentions abortion, it’s also encouraged as a battle tactic against people who have misbehaved.
The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open. (Hosea 13:16)
To my knowledge, abortion, which was a common practice in biblical days, isn’t mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. So it seems odd, given that the god God clearly had no moral issue with terminating pregnancies, that the pro-life crowd is dominated by Christians who claim to follow this book. Dr God is an enthusiastic and seasoned abortionist, but it doesn’t look like he has women’s best interests at heart in his recommended courses of action.
dr god the infectious diseases specialist
A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. (Matthew 8:2-4)
Jesus demonstrates here that if you have true faith in the god God you can cure people of infectious diseases by touching them. This knowledge hasn’t proved to be very useful to the millions of people that continued to suffer and die from leprosy after this one ‘show cure’. It would certainly have been useful, and impressive, to have revealed a longer term ‘show cure’, such as dapsone or the oil from the chaulmoogra nut. Given that even the high priest of Christianity, the Pope of Rome, can’t cure lepers with his faith by touching them, we can’t expect common garden Christians to have much more luck. And they don’t. However, Dr God the infectious diseases specialist did have one positive effect in this case, in that he eased some of the social stigma of leprosy.
conclusion
I wouldn’t like to jump to any rash conclusions based on this short analysis of the god God’s contribution to modern medicine. But, as far as I can see, the most technically relevant medical advice given in the Bible is that abortions can be performed by slicing a pregnant woman’s stomach open. Is this the sum total of helpful medical advice that an omniscient being can convey to humanity? Or was the Bible written by a rabble of Bronze Age men? I’ll leave my readers to come to their own conclusions
Thanks to Clare Flourish for inspiring this post by connecting me with this eejit who made the following declaration: “surgery is a rebellion against the way God created you”.
I think the eejit meant castration. Us trans women do make some people a wee bit upset. The trouble is when they imagine they are right to be upset. If castration is right for a person, it is just so right.
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Yeah but he’s in a bit of a corner now, because if he takes that view on one subject, for consistency he has to believe it across the board. It’s an interesting point of view that ties in well with the dubious quote about small pox from Pope Leo the whatever-eth. Medical intervention has been a problematic subject for Christianity – the god God curses and punishes with illness, and ‘sorcery’ is the cure when faith isn’t involved.
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Clearly you have not mentioned all his talents http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/lev/14.html
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Thank you! I’ve never seen that website before, and never read the Law for Leper’s either. How many seriously weird things are left to find??
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Oh, the good book has a few more 😉
I’ve just been in a ‘discussion’ with someone that thinks the magma in the earth’s core is scientific proof that hell exists… sigh
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What about Dr. God, the Entomologist:
“‘All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be regarded as unclean by you.”
or Dr. God, the Zoologist:
Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud—that you may eat. Nevertheless these you shall not eat among those that chew the cud or those that have cloven hooves: the camel, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you; the rock hyrax, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you; the hare, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you.
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Okay next post is the god God’s contribution to natural sciences. 🙂
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As a Christian theist I would not recommend going to the bible for medical advice. Neither would I recommend going to NEJM or JAMA for spiritual advice. 😀
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Wise words! But there’s something fishy about neither Jesus nor the god God saying anything that indicated knowledge beyond the times, given that prophesy is a big feature. Also, what they do contribute (perpetuation of belief in demons, or that unfaithful women can be cursed) is scientifically unsound and actually harms people. Let’s not even touch on ripping open any woman’s pregnant belly … benevolent, you say?
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Honestly, I don’t know why God would want to give us scientific knowledge. By placing you in Europe in the 21st century God has already given you a scientific advantage. Scientific knowledge is not what God wanted to reveal in the bible, but rather to set up beacons for us to learn from. And, God is not responsible for cultures and explanations that have caused harm like patriarchy and demonic explanations. That’s human generated. Lastly, with the verse in Hosea, what do you think it means, how do you interpret it?
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I know what you mean. There would be no particular reason for a deity to give scientific clues to the future. However, if the deity perpetuates ignorant and harmful practices, rather than correcting or even ignoring them, one has to wonder if omniscient, benevolent or even divine claims can be trusted.
The verse in Hosea is typical biblical myth designed to make people fear and follow the god God, isn’t it? Scare tactics, now that’s something that nice, clever beings use. 😀
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But he loves us —
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It seems so clear when you put it like that. 🙂
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Interesting, the things this god does
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