Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Dear Doctor...
Today's Wall Street Journal Online Edition has a heart-breaking story by Suzanne Sataline titled "To Treat Cancer, Herbs and Prayer" about Christian quacks who prey on those struggling with cancer and other serious illnesses. From the opening of the article:
As her lung cancer spread, shortening her breath, pressing into her back, Minna Shakespeare had faith that a thick, brown liquid she bought by mail from a California physician for $13,536 would cure her.
Her husband says Mrs. Shakespeare, a registered nurse and devout Christian in Cambridge, Mass., stopped chemotherapy on the doctor's advice. Easton Shakespeare recalls his wife assuring him that the doctor, who prayed with her over the phone, was trustworthy.
Mrs. Shakespeare died in April 2003, four months after her first dose of the viscous liquid. Her husband's complaints triggered a federal investigation of Christine Daniel, a licensed physician and Pentecostal minister practicing in Mission Hills, Calif. Investigators say she used religion to sell expensive nostrums that she claimed could cure cancer.
People who are confronted with medical problems that modern science cannot cure can be excused for desperately seeking magical solutions. Those who use this despair to enrich themselves with false hope are despicable, whether they are Christian or any other faith (or no faith at all). But the article goes on to document the rise of so-called "Christian Wellness" which specifically targets those of the Christian faith, using the tropes of Christian belief to convince the victims to trust - and pay.
Another example of the dangers of magical thinking. It is a small mental step to go from believing in the miracles of Christ to believing in the power of faith healing or Pat Robertson's "Power Shakes" - or that a mixture of alcohol, vitamins, and protein powder combined with sitting under a heat lamp will cure your tumors.
Many good, God-fearing people will claim that this is a distortion of their beliefs, that these people peddling snake oil are nothing but criminals. But the fact remains that religion itself helps make these scams possible, by inculcating a mindset of non-critical thinking, by claiming that prayer can cure, by saying that God still creates miracles for those who believe strongly enough.
Jim Downey
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Penn
Off topic, but I heard you on Penn's radio show. Nicely done, sir.
Brent?
BHM - you talking to Brent?
Jim Downey
"Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering."
- R. Buckminster Fuller
Actually
He must be referring to me. Penn allowed me to plug the site after a comment! It was very cool!
Spoiler Alert!!!
How about a spoiler alert next time. Some of us listen to the podcasts.
--
"Ponies are atheists, you know, technically."
- Me
That *is* cool!
Well, good on you, Rick!
Jim Downey
"Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering."
- R. Buckminster Fuller
Yeah, sorry, I should have
Yeah, sorry, I should have specified that it was Rick. I'm sure your hits went up after that plug ;)
Caveat Emptor
That is a sad, sad story. Those poor people. Her being a nurse, I can only think that Minna Shakespeare must have been so very vulnerable and desperate to have grasped at straws like that.
I am a libertarian, so I don't think that "Dr." Christine Daniel should be prosecuted for her role in Minna's death. However, I do believe in hurting her in her pocketbook by publishing her snake-oil scam and hopefully steering future vulnerable idiots away from her deadly do-nothing treatments.
It breaks my heart, but "buyer beware" applies here. It's a sad, devastating case, but it does indeed apply. The best way to regulate this type of scam is to publicize it as far and as wide as possible.
In contrast...
Well, we can debate the merits of Caveat Emptor in these situations, but the fact remains that others are prosecuted for pulling these kinds of scams - whereas so many Christian "faith healers" are given a pass because of their religion.
In contrast to that story, here's one:
That person has been arrested, pled guilty, and is awaiting sentencing. Would the same be true if she had said "God" instead of "CIA"?
And my fundamental point is that telling people it's OK to believe in the Sky Daddy makes them more susceptible to this whole line of scams.
Jim Downey
"Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering."
- R. Buckminster Fuller
Chickens and eggs
Some people exposed continuously to religion still reject it. Some people raised away from it seek it out because they feel some inner need for it. Was the woman credulous because she was religious or was she religious because she was inherently credulous?
Good question.
It is hard to say which way the causal chain works, and you are certainly right that even among those raised within a religion, some escape (true for me, for Brent, for others here). It might just be that we are wired in such a way as to be more critically-thinking than the average person.
But I would think that an established belief system, confirmed by those around you, tends to have a profound influence on most people. What we call "cults" are extreme examples of this - though I tend to see any established religion as being a cult that grew to a sufficient size as to force societal acceptance.
Jim Downey
"Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering."
- R. Buckminster Fuller
I certainly agree
That cultural and societal influences play a definite part in decision making. For instance it is rather inconceivable to me to eat my dog and yet that is perfectly acceptable in some cultures. I also agree that in general this society does a remarkably poor job of preparing people for critcal decision making, focusing rather on making us all into good little consumers. However, I would have to see the data as far as whether the avowedly religious are more or less poor decision makers in other areas. Not all Christians are Christian Scientists who refuse medical treatment after all. And then there is the matter of degree. Are those who are deeply religious more prone to poor decision making than those whose beliefs are more lightly held and is there a correlation to which beliefs make good markers for credulity? In my experience and observation a lot of people comparmentalize. They believe (or at least say they do), but it has little to no impact on their daily existence and the decisions they make there.
Libertarianism And Religious Hall Passes
I completely agree. Sorry for not making that clear.
That is also true. We do not have a libertarian form of general, day to day government in our country, and we never will. In our country we regulate what people and businesses may legally do and not do in their private transactions with one another - to protect them from themselves. We have a more-than-mild form of nanny-statism that assumes that we are all too stupid to take care of ourselves in business transactions and in health decisions - and in many other aspects of our personal lives.
And they're right, most of the time. Most of us are too damn stupid.
In an idealistic sense, I don't agree with it. I am a libertarian. I tend to believe that the free market, and individuals acting freely within it, will eventually regulate itself. It's like evolution in some ways. The problem with libertarianism (and evolution, when you think about it) is that it takes a long damn time to work, so people with their mayfly-like short-term views get impatient with the process and bail on it. Give a society a hundred years, and libertarianism would work out great.
Like I said, it'll never happen in our country. ;)
I stipulate...
Well, not without some sort of major changes, anyway - which is one of the reasons for my novel I stipulate a "largely libertarian" government in the reconstituted US some 40 years after the effects of a pandemic flu...
Jim Downey
"Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering."
- R. Buckminster Fuller