THE MANY ‘RELIGIONS’ OF MEDICINE
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t’s been said that one is wise to avoid public discussions of “politics and religion.” It may now be time to add to that caveat… the conversations of medicine.
There was a past era when nothing could be further apart than science and religion. After all, one school was based purely on fact and the other was RIC COGGINS based entirely on faith, right? It is my observation that religion has become increasingly secular, and that science—especially the science of medicine—has become more and more religious. Let me explain. I believe there was a time when fact-based medicine spoke with one clear voice. To be sure, there was always healthy debate over what the facts told us, but the facts always remained the center of focus. But over time, just like religion, medicine began breaking apart into its own denominations, all which claim to worship the god of health. And just like religion, today’s medicinal denominations have completely diverse ways to worship that god, and just as many religious irrationalities.
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greenliving | June/July 2020
Some of the medicinal denominations are called allopathic medicine, naturopathic medicine, osteopathic medicine, chiropractic medicine, and homeopathic medicine. To be sure, there are many more, but these are sufficient to make my point. Most would agree that religion and money can be a bad combination. Perhaps where the wheels came off the medicinal wagon was the mixture of medicine and money in the early part of the 20th century, when Standard Oil monopolist John D. Rockefeller discovered that the byproducts of processing his crude oil from the ground into diesel fuel, gasoline, and kerosene could be made into substances that impacted the body and nervous system. In fact, the Rockefeller family is even known to have marketed a “natural cure” for cancer made from raw petroleum and opium. It didn’t taste very good, but who cared? It made you feel better! Just as Rockefeller monopolized transportation by secretly buying, then dismantling, perfectly functioning public transportation systems to increase the demand for his oil products, he also began funding medical schools and trade associations that would embrace his petro-based cures. greenlivingaz.com
