Sunday, July 15, 2007

Medicine and Religion

Some of the dramatic change that is happening at present is the number of people looking for healing of the body in their religious activities. This is mostly due to the number of religious ministries who are offering this divine healing that offer almost instant recovery from so many physical illnesses. And if this does not help them, then they keep on looking for other ministry that gives them satisfaction, even for a temporary. When we watch TV ministry that offer this event happening before our eyes, we can not stop thinking, is this real, or is this just suggestion ? But is that the right way to join a church ? I happen to be a member of church assembly for many years in Indonesia, and I have witnessed so many people have abandoned our conservatif mainstream church that does not put this rituals in our service. Health have become their main motive to join a church. Medicine become most important, rather than spiritual salvation. I am quoting some of the observations made by Olivier Clerc, a French writer in his book "Médecine, Religion et Peur; l’influence cachée des croyances” . He noted the following changes that are happening right now in many parts of the world, but mostly in Catholic settings :

- physicians have taken the place of priests;

- vaccination plays the same initiatory role as baptism, and is accompanied by the same threats and fears;

- the search for health has replaced the quest for salvation;

- the fight against disease has replaced the fight against sin;

- eradication of viruses has taken the place of exorcising demons;

- the hope of physical immortality (cloning, genetic engineering) has been substituted for the hope of eternal life;

- pills have replaced the sacrament of bread and wine;

- donations to cancer research take precedence over donations to the church;

- a hypothetical universal vaccine could save humanity from all its illnesses, as the Saviour has saved the world from all its sins;

- the medical power has become the government’s ally, as was the Catholic Church in the past;

- "charlatans” are persecuted today as "heretics” were yesterday;

- dogmatism rules out promising alternative medical theories;

- the same absence of individual responsibility is now found in medicine, as previously in the Christian religion;

- patients are alienated from their bodies, as sinners used to be from their souls.

People are still being manipulated by their fears and childish hopes. They are still told that the source of their problems is outside them, and that the solution can only come from the outside. They are not allowed to do anything by themselves and they must have the mediation of priest-physicians, the administration of drug-hosts, and the protection of vaccine-absolutions.(end quote)

Medical technology progress very fast, and sometimes it is frightening to imagine what can happen in the near future, especially in the field like cloning and stem cells research. People will depend more and more upon this medical breakthrough and young people especially might have second thoughts about joining or leaving a religion. Medicine promise so much, even to extend life expectancy, improve physical appearance, energy, and satisfaction. Can our religion compete with that ?