Until the real life-saving treatment is removed, of course…
Filed under: Humor | Tagged: Belief without evidence, Christian Science, faith, Medicine, Praying | 17 Comments »
Christian ‘Science’ again
Posted on December 9, 2009 by Michael
Seth Johnson is back in the local paper. I’ve responded to his nonsense in the past, but he keeps on going. My recent letter supporting atheism was published within the past 30 days, so I am not able to send in another letter to make sure people don’t buy into this Christian Science malarkey, so FTSOS will have to do. Here is the letter.
I’d like to respond to the article “‘Spiritual health care’ advocates seeking inclusion in legislation” which appeared on Nov. 27.
The Christian Science church has asked Congress to include a provision so that insurance companies do not discriminate against people who choose spiritual care to meet their health-care needs. The federal government will not be “paying for prayer.” The intent is to allow people who pay in to private insurance to get the care they find effective.
Many people have found spiritual care, such as Christian Science, to be reliable and affordable in meeting their health-care needs for many generations. Individuals pay for this form of treatment as a professional service. Payments go directly to Christian Science practitioners, or full-time healers, who are self-employed and receive no compensation from the church. It’s their only livelihood.
The legislative provision under consideration does not change child protection laws.
That being said, is spiritual care safe for children? Parents are required by law to provide proper health care to children, and the Christian Science church fully supports laws that require parents to act responsibly and provide good care. If families use spiritual care with their children, it must be done responsibly and with good results.
Also, this provision is not trying to put spiritual care on the same level as medical care. It is only about what private insurance companies decide to cover in their policies.
Everyone should receive good health care. In the current debate about mandating health insurance, methods of proven effective treatment should be made available to the public.
Seth Johnson
Christian Science Committee on Publication for Maine
Falmouth
As usual, a pusher of bad medicine isn’t being entirely forthcoming. The inclusion of Christian Science in the health care bill would require insurance companies to consider covering “religious and spiritual healthcare”. Such a requirement (even if it’s only a requirement of consideration) is obviously unconstitutional. Perhaps more important, however, is the fact that these anti-medical faith-heads don’t have a shred of evidence which suggests that anything they do actually works.
I mean, goodness, is that so much for people to ask? Just offer us some actual experiments, some studies, some tests. Give us something which can actually be discussed. Right now all we’re seeing is a bunch of malarkey which appeals to nothing but faith and placebo effects. It’s ludicrous that anyone could support this rubbish.
On a separate note, the Kennebec Journal (the paper in which the letter appeared) is showing itself to have a favoritism toward this anti-science nonsense. First it goes out of its way to offer extra space and apologetics to some naturopathic quack at the end of a letter, then it refuses to publish letters critical of that sort of junk, going so far as to lie about why they won’t publish quality criticisms. This pattern of dishonesty is getting out of control.
Filed under: News | Tagged: Christian Science, Health care, Kennebec Journal, Seth Johnson | 1 Comment »
Christian 'Science' again
Posted on December 9, 2009 by Michael
Seth Johnson is back in the local paper. I’ve responded to his nonsense in the past, but he keeps on going. My recent letter supporting atheism was published within the past 30 days, so I am not able to send in another letter to make sure people don’t buy into this Christian Science malarkey, so FTSOS will have to do. Here is the letter.
I’d like to respond to the article “‘Spiritual health care’ advocates seeking inclusion in legislation” which appeared on Nov. 27.
The Christian Science church has asked Congress to include a provision so that insurance companies do not discriminate against people who choose spiritual care to meet their health-care needs. The federal government will not be “paying for prayer.” The intent is to allow people who pay in to private insurance to get the care they find effective.
Many people have found spiritual care, such as Christian Science, to be reliable and affordable in meeting their health-care needs for many generations. Individuals pay for this form of treatment as a professional service. Payments go directly to Christian Science practitioners, or full-time healers, who are self-employed and receive no compensation from the church. It’s their only livelihood.
The legislative provision under consideration does not change child protection laws.
That being said, is spiritual care safe for children? Parents are required by law to provide proper health care to children, and the Christian Science church fully supports laws that require parents to act responsibly and provide good care. If families use spiritual care with their children, it must be done responsibly and with good results.
Also, this provision is not trying to put spiritual care on the same level as medical care. It is only about what private insurance companies decide to cover in their policies.
Everyone should receive good health care. In the current debate about mandating health insurance, methods of proven effective treatment should be made available to the public.
Seth Johnson
Christian Science Committee on Publication for Maine
Falmouth
As usual, a pusher of bad medicine isn’t being entirely forthcoming. The inclusion of Christian Science in the health care bill would require insurance companies to consider covering “religious and spiritual healthcare”. Such a requirement (even if it’s only a requirement of consideration) is obviously unconstitutional. Perhaps more important, however, is the fact that these anti-medical faith-heads don’t have a shred of evidence which suggests that anything they do actually works.
I mean, goodness, is that so much for people to ask? Just offer us some actual experiments, some studies, some tests. Give us something which can actually be discussed. Right now all we’re seeing is a bunch of malarkey which appeals to nothing but faith and placebo effects. It’s ludicrous that anyone could support this rubbish.
On a separate note, the Kennebec Journal (the paper in which the letter appeared) is showing itself to have a favoritism toward this anti-science nonsense. First it goes out of its way to offer extra space and apologetics to some naturopathic quack at the end of a letter, then it refuses to publish letters critical of that sort of junk, going so far as to lie about why they won’t publish quality criticisms. This pattern of dishonesty is getting out of control.
Filed under: News | Tagged: Christian Science, Health care, Kennebec Journal, Seth Johnson | 1 Comment »
The Ostrich Strategy
Posted on September 8, 2009 by Michael
Apologist after apologist will claim that there is evidence for God. Ya know, if you want to find it. The reasoning for this claim is that those who have found clearly must have wanted it, otherwise they wouldn’t have found it. It’s sort of like how when you find 5 bucks on the ground. You must have wanted to for it, otherwise you would have looked right over it. In the wacky worldview of the religious, scientists don’t want to find 5 bucks.
Of course, it’s all hogwash. There are plenty of ways for science to verify or deny certain claims made by religions. Does faith healing work or is it all a load of horseshit? It isn’t too uncommon a tactic at this point for the religious to use The Ostrich Strategy (TOS). This is where they bury their heads in the sand* and ignore all the evidence against their anti-evidence faith. Jerry Coyne sums it up nicely.
Oh dear dear dear. Russell, I, and others have addressed the idea of science and the supernatural many times before (see here, here, and here, for example), dispelling the soothing idea that “science has nothing to say about the supernatural.” That is, of course, hogwash. Science has plenty to say about the Shroud of Turin, whether faith healing works, whether prayer works, whether God seems to be both beneficent and omnipotent, world without end. Science can, as we’ve repeated endlessly, address specific claims about the supernatural, though it’s impotent before the idea that behind it all is a hands-off, deistic Transcendent Force.
People who deny these facts always engage in TOS. You may say this makes them all a bunch of TOSSERS.
*Ostriches don’t actually do this. At least they don’t do it for reasons that merit the meaning of the phrase “head in the sand”. They do turn their eggs by putting their heads in the sand/ground, but they do not do it to avoid danger or ignore what they don’t like. That may well be a bad survival strategy. Though it is cute when dogs do it under the coffee table.
Filed under: Religions, Science | Tagged: Christian Science, Faith healing, Jerry Coyne, NOMA, Ostriches, The Ostrich Strategy, TOS, TOSSERS | Leave a comment »
More Christian Science
Posted on January 18, 2009 by Michael
I’ve been kicking around some thoughts. There’s a lot of pseudoscience out there. It’s bull. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence can tell it’s bull. So I’d like to put forth a challenge. This specifically goes out to Christian Science. Offer me some good evidence that believing really, really hard can heal a person. I’m not talking about spiritual healing. It’d be silly and worthless to seek evidence of something which is actively hidden from evidence. I’m talking about physical healing – something real.
To be fair, asking for evidence of magic is, of course, silly. However, as long as there are people out there making claims – ones which are dangerous – I feel it necessary to ask for some evidence. Given the nature of the people who so readily accept pseudoscience, it may be helpful to define what evidence is not:
- It is not correlation – correlation is helpful, but just because Jimmy got better when you started praying does not mean your prayers did anything
- It is not declaration – claim does not make a ‘miracle’ so
- It is not anecdote – saying Jimmy was healed due to prayer does not offer much evidence; this crosses into my first point
- It is not mystery – because something is yet unexplained by science does not mean God Did It.
These few points I’ve listed are pretty standard. I’d assume something as ‘true’ as Christian Science could surely offer up evidence which held to such standards? Nay, it should be lightyears ahead it’s so real!
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Christian Science, Evidence | 5 Comments »
Writing to the editor
Posted on December 11, 2008 by Michael
Not long ago, I wrote about the ineffectiveness that is magic, i.e., Christian Science. In today’s Kennebec Journal I had a letter on the subject published.
I am writing in response to the Dec. 4 letter from Seth Johnson. He makes the odious claim that Christian Science is somehow a responsible alternative to actual medical practices. He is wrong.
Christian Science belongs alongside astrology, creationism, acupuncture and all the other pseudoscience practices, notions and ideologies that have pervaded the minds of the gullible.
Johnson may very well care dearly for his children; I believe his word.
But it is nevertheless frightening that he would place their well-being in superstition and mythology.
Until he realizes that actual medical practitioners are the ones qualified to care for his children — not prayer or really, really strong belief — the health of his children remains as at risk as the child who has no health insurance.
Christian Science does not work.
It is a belief that undermines legitimate medicine.
It’s unfortunate the editor chose to give this piece the title “‘Christian Science does not work’ in medicine”. It actually does not work in anything.
Filed under: News | Tagged: Christian Science, Kennebec Journal, letter to the editor, me | 7 Comments »
For the Sake of Science 