Herbert and Catherine Schaible are facing a charge of involuntary manslaughter after their son died of bacterial pneumonia. The parents are Christian fundamentalists who chose to forgo proper and effective medical intervention for their son in favor of prayer. The couple has other children that have been allowed to remain in their care since their arrest.
When someone asks "What is the harm in faith?"
BAM! Right there. This is why faith is destructive and opposed to a civil and enlightened society. The belief that you can suspend reality and alter the course of nature through the power of invocations to a magician in the sky. Does it sound absurd when phrased like that?
Any way I try to describe the actions of individuals who engage in this type of behavior. Any way I try to put myself in their shoes. Any way I try to rationalize their actions. I always come to the same conclusion. These people are nuts. I mean not just in the colloquial use of the term. I mean they are stark raving mad! Diagnosable as insane. Off their rocker. A few instruments short of an orchestra. They're... well I think you get the point.
Think about it in isolation. They believe in an invisible and all powerful being. That created the entire universe solely for their benefit. And they have private conservations with this being in which they ask him to cure their son of an illness the aforementioned being created. Sounds insane to me.
If these people were not Christians and had been praying to, say, aliens to save their child. Might the reaction have been different? Might there have been more outrage perhaps? Maybe they would have been put in a hospital instead of a jail cell. What if they had been practicing Voodoo, or Mayan ritual animal sacrifice in an attempt to appease their deity and save their son?
The point that I'm trying so subtly to make here is that this is not an isolated case of crazy. It is an extreme symptom of a world where irrationality and superstition (yes religion is superstition) are allowed to flourish. And indeed are accepted and encouraged. While I am aware that the vast majority of the religious population would not rely on prayer and would seek medical attention in the same situation. It cannot be avoided that the death of this young child is a direct result of broken thinking due to religion.
From the website What's the Harm.net
Here is a short (and incomplete) list of lives lost due to the ineffective "treatment" of just Christian Science prayer healing.
Nancy Brewster, Aged 7, Cancer
Ian Burdick, Aged 15, Diabetes
Seth Ian Glasser, Aged 17 Months, Bacterial Meningitis
Amy Hermanson, Aged 7, Diabetes
Elizabeth Ashley King, Aged 12, Cancer
Andrew Pinkham, Aged 3, Pneumonia
Natalie Reppberger, Aged 8 months, Meningitis
Michael Schram, Aged 12, Ruptured Appendix
"When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer form a delusion it is called religion." Robert Pirsig.
The article “Parents Pray and a Child Dies” expresses a passion about the well being of children and I would hope that everyone would honor the sanctity of a human being. The article mixes terms and misleads the reader and because of this I found the article less than helpful. The terms faith healers, Christian, and Christian Science are used interchangeably and even the names of at least one individual I checked on was incorrectly spelled. As a Christian Scientist, I wish to clarify and correct your comments with regard to Christian Science. It is not a “faith healing” religion. However, it does believe in and practice spiritual healing through prayer. Faith healing refers to a rewarding and punishing God. Christian Science defines God as good and never punishing. Every Christian Scientist makes his own decision about what health care system to use. A Christian Scientist believes that “results matter” and consequently takes whatever steps are necessary for the well being of a child, even if that means going to a hospital. The Christian Science Church has never and will never intentionally advocate for laws that accommodate reckless behavior or could be used as a disingenuous shield against prosecution. There were a small number of child deaths that occurred over 20 years ago. Although tragic, these events served as a reminder to us all that a child’s safety and well being are paramount and should never be trumped or compromised by religious dogma.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Don. I have used the term faith healing in the context of my article to refer to all methods of healing through prayer. I had thought that this was evident by the way in which I used it but perhaps I should have explained my usage better. I of course agree with your sentiments about the need to put a child's well being above all else and this was a major point of my post.
ReplyDeleteIt may in fact be the case that your characterization of Christian Science is completely accurate. I simply do not have any significant knowledge about modern Christian Science. However I think that your criticism misses the point. The cases I used. I chose because they were clear and easily accessible examples of the damage that occurs as a direct result of relying on prayer for healing. They were not an attack on the Christian Science religion directly. This post is an attack on the idea of prayer as useful for any kind of physical healing. It does not matter if the person praying is a Christian scientist, a Buddhist, a Hindu or a fundamentalist Christian. The prayers are equally useless in all instances.
Sorry that you think I missed your point. I don’t think I did. I respect your right to have a viewpoint different than mine. When your viewpoint about Christian Science in not based upon facts, I would like to present the facts about Christian Science. Your statement that all prayers, including those by Christian Scientists, are useless when used to heal physical problems is not a factually correct statement. I have had a broken bone in my hand healed and the bone was medically diagnosed as broken by a medical doctor. My grandson could not play high school football because a doctor diagnosed that he had a hernia. The condition was healed through prayer and he was allowed to play football after being cleared by the same doctor. I could give you literally hundreds of these healings. In Science & Health with key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy lists many documented healings of physical and other problems. I’m not indicating that all our prayers heal every condition but it does appear that spiritual care is an important aspect of health care for many. In a 2004 survey by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the study revealed that more than half of the population sought alternatives to mainstream medicine.
ReplyDeleteDon. An anecdote is not evidence. Existential prayer has no benefit for the the healing of physical injury. Every time this question is looked at in a quality study it returns this conclusion. That you personally have stories of it working is irrelevant. That many people seek prayer and other alternatives to scientific medicine is also irrelevant. We do not get to vote on reality. It is not a popularity contest. The facts are the facts and the evidence says overwhelmingly that prayer has no effect on any measurable patient outcomes.
ReplyDeleteSkeptic Flyer: Your comments are intriguing to me and they have encouraged me to try and understand how you may have drawn those conclusions. A recent article in the November 2010 Atlantic Magazine “Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science” by David H Freedman offer some suggestions about the quality and validity of present research, and the book “Irreducible Mind” by Kelly and Kelly would suggest that reality may not be as you described and that there needs to be an openness to what research is finding. I believe that we should continue to look at the evidence and base our conclusions on the data. It seems to me that the world is constantly changing and that each change is bringing new definitions. At one time the earth was considered flat and now it has been proven to be more of a sphere. I would hope that we could all be flexible enough to listen and determine the merits of new information about any subject. In this situation I do have a vote on reality.
ReplyDeleteI'm aware of the article "Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science” as well as work that it relies on. In my opinion, and the opinions of many far more qualified individuals. The evidence does not support many of the conclusions drawn in the article.
ReplyDelete"we should continue to look at the evidence and base our conclusions on the data"
Yes! Always. This is the only way that we can know what is reality and whet is a construct of our flawed human minds.
" I would hope that we could all be flexible enough to listen and determine the merits of new information about any subject."
Yes! When new data and evidence arrives it is our duty to follow it wherever it leads.