Are religious people more likely to believe in the efficacy of alternative medicine?
October 13, 2010 by Herbals Medicines
Filed under conventional medicine
“Patients are fleeing the medical profession because doctors concentrate on rational knowledge at the expense of life’s mysteries,” he writes. “Organized religion concentrates exclusively on the unknown, and therefore seems to know nothing. In alternative medicine, people have discovered a compromise.” [...]
Alternative therapies … attract patients disaffected by conventional medicine as well as those dissatisfied by religion’s solutions. In Dworkin’s view, practitioners of alternative therapy appeal to patients because they synthesize the most attractive aspects of medical science and religion, “Because alternative medicine is not confined by the limits of rational or testable knowledge, its powers of explanation are enormous, and patients leave … thinking that their troubles have real spiritual significance.” [...]
Instead of receiving cold, hard truths — or the indifference of assembly-line medicine — patients are told by their alternative practitioners that their condition is unique to them, and that the power to heal may exist inside their own bodies. The “boundless possibilities that suddenly appear on the horizon raise the spirits of these patients in the present. This is not a bad thing.”
- “Science, Faith, and Alternative Medicine” by Ronald W. Dworkin, in Policy Review (Aug. & Sept. 2001)
I personally know a number of Christians, mostly women, who really buy into the whole alternative medicine scene. Just curious to hear your opinion and/or if you have had first-hand experience with this relationship between religion and alternative medicine
=what?
Yes religious people are extremely gullible especially when it comes to blindly trusting their own. In my state of Utah, Mormon con men have made fortunes off their fellow church goers. Ah, the peace and joy that comes from religion . . . the trust . . . the honesty . . . the screw job!!!
First I do not like the term “buy into”,it sounds like you are being fooled somehow.I am a Christian-I use several different vitamins and minerals to deal with health issues and they work very well.I also use prescription when the need arises.I think being a Christian gives me wisdom,GOD gives me wisdom-so that I am not fooled into believing everything a dr says,or every new supplement that comes along promising everything.Drs are often convinced they know more than we do-which in terms of anatomy and meds they might,but I know my body better than anyone.GOD-bless
Eh. I wouldn’t say there’s any direct link. I happen to know several atheists who are really into the whole alternative medicine thing- they buy essential oils and Bach Flower Remedies like total hippies.
That said, consider that there are also certain religions (like Amish and some Mennonites) whose members don’t use conventional medicine unless absolutely necessary.
Not any Christians I know of.
The studies cited by this Wall Street Journal article show that Christians are least likely to believe this kind of stuff:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178219865054585.html
Christianity did come from a time where “Suffer ye not a witch to live” was taken pretty seriously.
I would prefer cold hard truth’s and proven treatment over some hippie “Power of Fatih” crap and i’m an atheist, so maybe.
No
If you are sick, go to a doctor. It’s you best shot at getting well. Millions and millions of success stories prove this is true. But they don’t cure everybody so there’s a flourishing business taking money from those who doctors can’t cure, those who can’t afford doctors and those who are superstitious. Christians already believe in the supernatural so they are more inclined to accept cures that have no scientific basis.
Well… For Starters, I’m a Roman Catholic Astronautical Engineering and Physics double major, who also happens to be a First Responder and an EMT-B in training. Needless to say, I carry a jump kit with me wherever I go.
I am a firm believer in Evidence-based Medicine, and find all this “alternative medicine” to be new age quackery that should be illegal to practice.
My mother is a Protestant Fundamentalist.
She hasn’t been to the doctor since she was rushed to the ER after a bee sting. She refuses to carry her Epipen (my younger brother carries it around when he’s with her) and told me that she would be angry with me if I started BLS on her if she suffered cardiac arrest.
My dad is just a normal Roman Catholic civil servant.
My dad goes to the doctor when he feels ill. He carries an Epipen for an allergy he has. He knows how to use it, and he knows CPR, Advanced First-Aid and carries a cell phone and pocket mask with him. He finds all new age medicine to be quackery. He was slightly disappointed when he found out that I didn’t want to go onto Med school… That was until he found out that my major means “rocket scientist” in everyday speech.
EDIT:
@Annerice Herowngod: But that’s from the Catholic bible, and we all know that the Catholic bible is evil and ungodly, so everything in it is instantly wrong.
“Organized religion concentrates exclusively on the unknown, and therefore seems to know nothing.”
lolwut?
The organized religion I’m a part of focuses quite a bit on the here and now. It’s not all whispy clouds and angels with harps. Anyway, as far as I know the Catholic Church is a firm supporter of modern medicine (minus contraception, euthanasia, and abortion, that is).
Myself, I think that alternative medicine is mostly a lot of mumbo jumbo, conspiracy theories, and con artistry.