Gene L
21st May 2008, 09:05 AM
And it's kind of a soft-shoe cause at that.
Anyway, this one has to do with homeopathic medicine.
In 1995, my wife died of kidney cancer, a disease she'd had for two years or so, and which went away after each previous operation, to only appear again somewhere else. You know how cancer is.
My wife was an extremely healthy woman, other wise. She ate "right" for her, meaning mostly vegetables and almost no red meat, never smoked, drank a beer or two a year, and rode her bicycle 20 miles or so during her lunch break. This before her diagnosis, and after her two operations. The third diagnosis was the fatal one.
After diagnosis two, and before surgery to remove a lobe of her lung, she became interested in homeopathic cures. She read a lot on the subject and made contact with the local homeopathic (HM hereafter for convenience's sake) folks in the area, which was mostly in Durham, NC, where we lived. We went to Belieze so she could try to find some HM of note, and we got the literature.
As a person who thought her chances of survival very slim (she was told this by a medical doctor) she looked for other ways. And, of course, started a "macrobiotic" diet, if I'm spelling it that way. Lots of fresh organic grain foods, no meat, I can't remember the details. This put her in touch with the HM groups in the area. She also received prayer from neighbors and from friends of hers. Although she wasn't particularly religious and seldom went to church, she wasn't an atheist, either.
So far, so good. Here's my rant: the HM medicine folks assured her if she followed their recommendations she'd be well. The MD told her what her chances were, and they were very grim. The religious folks said, "God's will be done" and prayed for her recovery.
I should stress that the HM folks did not charge her for their advice. I suppose there were costs for the recipes and literature, and one had to pay a nominal fee for the pot-luck dinners, but generally it seemed they were not out to make a buck. The believed in their cause with the same zeal as any fundamentalist in any religion.
My main rant is that the HM people did something neither the medical establishment nor the religous establishment did, which is to guarantee her a full recovery. This built up false hope in her for a time, and caused a lot of emotional problems, leading her to believe that somehow she'd failed and was a contributor to her own death. Not good.
My wife had an uncurable disease. The HM folks did not contribute to that, and if they made her life shorter by weakening her immune system, it was an unforseen blessing, as her last days were not pleasant.
No, my problem is the absolute assurance they dispersed. While this did not negatively affect my wife's medical condition, I'm pretty sure it did affect a woman she met at those meetings and became friends with. This woman had breast cancer, which is generally very treatable. But this woman opted instead for the Holistic Approach. The last time I saw her she looked ghastly.
The Christian prayer groups were nice people, brining food to my house when I needed it during the last days. They asked nothing, and gave freely of their time, and were realistic about the odds of survival.
These HM people with whom my wife was associated were not charletans of snake-oil salesmen. They were folks who believed in HM, and apparently who had never had a serious illness themselves. They were good folks, so far as I could tell, but they were WRONG.
And that wrongness mentally affected my wife. As I said earlier, she felt she'd somehow failed the resolve it took to observe a "macrobiotic" lifestyle. She didn't think she'd failed as a Christian, nor as a medical patient, because she wasn't given unrealistic promises by either of those.
So, there is a basic dishonesty inherit to HM. Those who make a buck at it should be exposed and punished. Those who preach it and don't make money should at least know they are causing harm to sick people.
I'm tolerant of what people believe so long as it doesn't exploit others who don't want to be exploited, as I said earlier. Especially if it doesn't affect me in a significant way. So, Christians, Wiccans, whatever, some people get a benefit from it (as in a spiritual benefit, which I guess important, although I don't myself know that benefit).
Atheists who rant against religion in general astound me, as they are squandering a good argument for a dumb purpose. Many of them are spiritualists in another way, and yet call themselves "atheists." But strongly championing a casue without purpose and by the method of loudly dismissing the other side is "ranting." And ranting is not the method of a mature skeptic, IMO.
So, you've heard my cause, and may even think it a rant.
Anyway, this one has to do with homeopathic medicine.
In 1995, my wife died of kidney cancer, a disease she'd had for two years or so, and which went away after each previous operation, to only appear again somewhere else. You know how cancer is.
My wife was an extremely healthy woman, other wise. She ate "right" for her, meaning mostly vegetables and almost no red meat, never smoked, drank a beer or two a year, and rode her bicycle 20 miles or so during her lunch break. This before her diagnosis, and after her two operations. The third diagnosis was the fatal one.
After diagnosis two, and before surgery to remove a lobe of her lung, she became interested in homeopathic cures. She read a lot on the subject and made contact with the local homeopathic (HM hereafter for convenience's sake) folks in the area, which was mostly in Durham, NC, where we lived. We went to Belieze so she could try to find some HM of note, and we got the literature.
As a person who thought her chances of survival very slim (she was told this by a medical doctor) she looked for other ways. And, of course, started a "macrobiotic" diet, if I'm spelling it that way. Lots of fresh organic grain foods, no meat, I can't remember the details. This put her in touch with the HM groups in the area. She also received prayer from neighbors and from friends of hers. Although she wasn't particularly religious and seldom went to church, she wasn't an atheist, either.
So far, so good. Here's my rant: the HM medicine folks assured her if she followed their recommendations she'd be well. The MD told her what her chances were, and they were very grim. The religious folks said, "God's will be done" and prayed for her recovery.
I should stress that the HM folks did not charge her for their advice. I suppose there were costs for the recipes and literature, and one had to pay a nominal fee for the pot-luck dinners, but generally it seemed they were not out to make a buck. The believed in their cause with the same zeal as any fundamentalist in any religion.
My main rant is that the HM people did something neither the medical establishment nor the religous establishment did, which is to guarantee her a full recovery. This built up false hope in her for a time, and caused a lot of emotional problems, leading her to believe that somehow she'd failed and was a contributor to her own death. Not good.
My wife had an uncurable disease. The HM folks did not contribute to that, and if they made her life shorter by weakening her immune system, it was an unforseen blessing, as her last days were not pleasant.
No, my problem is the absolute assurance they dispersed. While this did not negatively affect my wife's medical condition, I'm pretty sure it did affect a woman she met at those meetings and became friends with. This woman had breast cancer, which is generally very treatable. But this woman opted instead for the Holistic Approach. The last time I saw her she looked ghastly.
The Christian prayer groups were nice people, brining food to my house when I needed it during the last days. They asked nothing, and gave freely of their time, and were realistic about the odds of survival.
These HM people with whom my wife was associated were not charletans of snake-oil salesmen. They were folks who believed in HM, and apparently who had never had a serious illness themselves. They were good folks, so far as I could tell, but they were WRONG.
And that wrongness mentally affected my wife. As I said earlier, she felt she'd somehow failed the resolve it took to observe a "macrobiotic" lifestyle. She didn't think she'd failed as a Christian, nor as a medical patient, because she wasn't given unrealistic promises by either of those.
So, there is a basic dishonesty inherit to HM. Those who make a buck at it should be exposed and punished. Those who preach it and don't make money should at least know they are causing harm to sick people.
I'm tolerant of what people believe so long as it doesn't exploit others who don't want to be exploited, as I said earlier. Especially if it doesn't affect me in a significant way. So, Christians, Wiccans, whatever, some people get a benefit from it (as in a spiritual benefit, which I guess important, although I don't myself know that benefit).
Atheists who rant against religion in general astound me, as they are squandering a good argument for a dumb purpose. Many of them are spiritualists in another way, and yet call themselves "atheists." But strongly championing a casue without purpose and by the method of loudly dismissing the other side is "ranting." And ranting is not the method of a mature skeptic, IMO.
So, you've heard my cause, and may even think it a rant.