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Christian scientists and disability

I will look up Twain's thoughts, was he contemporary with Mary Baker Eddy? Seems like he would have been.

How on earth could an autobiography be "ridiculous"? Maybe if she were a comedienne or clown? Actually it has been really sad, her mom got cancer and didn't get treatment, so, the obvious happened. The author herself is now a young adult (now being, where I am in the book) and realizing the various childhood traumas that caused her parents to run towards zealotry. As so often happens.
 
So I just came upon this in the book:
For reasons I don’t fully understand, and may never, my father needs the security of a way of life that leaves nothing to doubt—at least in its teachings—a belief system that tells him exactly what to think, not how to think.
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And that really struck me. Does that not explain a lot about people who follow organized religion? I know it certain explains why I was drawn to it, and why I ultimately left. It promises control and predictability and no doubt, but that doesn't work.
 
RogueKitten said:
So I just came upon this in the book:


And that really struck me. Does that not explain a lot about people who follow organized religion? I know it certain explains why I was drawn to it, and why I ultimately left. It promises control and predictability and no doubt, but that doesn't work.
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I find it very sad there are people that this does work for. Perhaps they are the ones you will never shake the faith of, because they cling to it so desperately.
 
RogueKitten said:
So I just came upon this in the book:


And that really struck me. Does that not explain a lot about people who follow organized religion? I know it certain explains why I was drawn to it, and why I ultimately left. It promises control and predictability and no doubt, but that doesn't work.
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I think it's very much the case for some. Not I'm sure for everyone. There are profound thinkers and searchers in and out of religion, but for many, it's a way to handle things one cannot understand without admitting either to their density or our own limitation, and a way to escape the responsibility for complicated and uncomfortable decisions. I don't hate you but God says you're wrong.
 
I'm fairly sure that Christian Scientists were the only group granted a religious exemption from mandatory vaccination ("no jab no play") measures in Australia recently.

And they have a stated policy of not discouraging members from vaccinating.
 
arthwollipot said:
I'm fairly sure that Christian Scientists were the only group granted a religious exemption from mandatory vaccination ("no jab no play") measures in Australia recently.

And they have a stated policy of not discouraging members from vaccinating.
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But they teach that germs do not exist and sickness is an illusion, so why would you vaccinate?

I finished the book. Heart rending. I can't imagine pursuing a faith so fervently that it costs me my family.
 
I can understand relying on prayer at the time Eddy created this. It wasn't safe to have surgery. Medicine wasn't very advanced. Come to think of it, vaccinations probably aren't specifically prohibited because they hadn't been invented yet when Eddy made all this up.

What I can't understand is denying the existence of germs, contagion, illness, in 2016.
 
RogueKitten said:
I can understand relying on prayer at the time Eddy created this. It wasn't safe to have surgery. Medicine wasn't very advanced. Come to think of it, vaccinations probably aren't specifically prohibited because they hadn't been invented yet when Eddy made all this up.

What I can't understand is denying the existence of germs, contagion, illness, in 2016.
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It's ironic the strides that medicine was making in Eddy's lifetime. Anaesthesia, germ theory, antiseptic surgery were all developed. Smallpox vaccine was older than she was, by a couple decades. I can understand the rise of alternatives to mainstream medicine in the heroic era and even up through the 1860s, but when you're fighting germ theory and antisepsis in the 1870s, you're on the wrong side of history, doing more harm than good. Sometime in the 20th Century they should have figured it out.
 
Pup said:
It's ironic the strides that medicine was making in Eddy's lifetime. Anaesthesia, germ theory, antiseptic surgery were all developed. Smallpox vaccine was older than she was, by a couple decades. I can understand the rise of alternatives to mainstream medicine in the heroic era and even up through the 1860s, but when you're fighting germ theory and antisepsis in the 1870s, you're on the wrong side of history, doing more harm than good. Sometime in the 20th Century they should have figured it out.
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The end of the book has an interview with the author and she said that today, christian science seems to be positioning itself as an "affordable alternative to medicine". I don't care how cheap it is, I can't believe anyone with even rudimentary understanding of science could imagine this would work.
 
RogueKitten said:
I can understand relying on prayer at the time Eddy created this. It wasn't safe to have surgery. Medicine wasn't very advanced. Come to think of it, vaccinations probably aren't specifically prohibited because they hadn't been invented yet when Eddy made all this up.

What I can't understand is denying the existence of germs, contagion, illness, in 2016.
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Vaccination for small pox occurred long before Christian Science.

eta I should add that Eddy apparently went on record as not objecting to vaccination, because by the time she was active, small pox vaccination was already compulsory, and she believed that one should be law abiding. Since one can presume the ill effect of a vaccination is no more real than the disease, she recommended that people comply and then pray. She also did not discourage the reporting of epidemics and the like. There's also some evidence that she was a morphine addict, but who needs consistency and rationality when you have god to set things straight.
 
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bruto said:
Vaccination for small pox occurred long before Christian Science.

eta I should add that Eddy apparently went on record as not objecting to vaccination, because by the time she was active, small pox vaccination was already compulsory, and she believed that one should be law abiding. Since one can presume the ill effect of a vaccination is no more real than the disease, she recommended that people comply and then pray. She also did not discourage the reporting of epidemics and the like. There's also some evidence that she was a morphine addict, but who needs consistency and rationality when you have god to set things straight.
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I must have misunderstood the author when she talked about this.

Okay just checked. I misunderstood. She said eddy lived before most vaccines. Now that i think about it I knew small pox vaccine came before then. Sorry!
 
RogueKitten said:
Do they get vaccinations? I'm assuming not. And do they see a difference between diseases you're born with (say, type I diabetes) and stuff you contract?
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I and my siblings did, and my parents were still going to church then. I also had a tonsillectomy, after having pneumonia so it was a mixed bag.

As to the rest I don't know... some are more foolish than others. It is an individual choice.
 
Dancing David said:
I and my siblings did, and my parents were still going to church then. I also had a tonsillectomy, after having pneumonia so it was a mixed bag.

As to the rest I don't know... some are more foolish than others. It is an individual choice.
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There would seem to be a variation between one congregation and another here. Do the CS have a strong leadership I wonder?
 
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