Forgetting Wisdom

We let ourselves be tyrannized by data, by information, and have forgotten wisdom. Good science requires good questions.


Excerpt from "Pharmacy and Medical Interventions"

Ignoring the Monster Inside

Science in medicine has become master instead of servant. We have viewed health and illness as an alien something that leaps upon our backs in the dark and fastens to our flesh. This model of sickness suggests that all that is needed is to peel the monster off of our outside. We can leave what we are inside, in our spirit, alone. Indeed, there is plenty of therapy which fits that model quite well. Yet, illness is more often substantially subjective.


Excerpt from "Pharmacy and Medical Interventions"

Free Economy

The opposite of a controlled, monopolistic economy is a free economy, in which the marketplace allows people to assign values to the various products and services which are available. Value is, remember, subjective, not objective. In a truly free economic exchange, both buyer and seller come away winners. If value were objective rather than subjective, every economic transaction would produce a winner and a loser. Someone would have traded something of more value for something of less value. The best that could be expected would be a tie. But, since value is subjective, the value to me of my $20 is not as great as the bottle of medicine sitting on your shelf. To you, my $20 is more valuable than that bottle. We exchange, and both are winners.


Excerpt from "Pharmacy and Medical Interventions"

Sovereign God in Medicine

I have confidence... in a Provident God, who exerts His will in ways that are partly comprehensible to us by means of principles. Our present system [of medicine] in many ways is trying to overrule God. Have no fear. It won't.


Excerpt from "Pharmacy and Medical Interventions"

Bearer of Justice, Not Compassion

A requirement by the state that a certain privileged group (doctors) be inserted into the patient's decision is accepted by us as natural, but it is only about a hundred years old. Were things so awful before? Even if they were, has God set up civil rulers to govern the health of individuals, or has He set up the individuals as the ones who are responsible? If you think the former, what is your Biblical grounds for thinking that? Government is for the punishment of evildoers. It is an instrument of justice, the bearer of the sword. It is incongruous to see the compassion and care of the injured and ill as a part of a ministry of justice and coercion.


Excerpt from "Pharmacy and Medical Interventions"

A "Right" to Health Care?

How would you deal with the more fundamental statist argument that underlies this socialized approach to medicine? The argument goes that “Everyone has a right to health care, and it is the duty of the federal government to provide health care.”

I’d question on a presuppositional basis, first, where does this right emanate, and how do we know that we have it. I don’t think I could get an adequate Biblical answer. Secondly, it treats health care as something that is applied to people, like clothing to our backs, or roofs over our heads. Health is something that is intimately tied up with what we think, and therefore what we do. It is not something to be applied to people as a stamp is applied to an envelope. And the system we are headed for treats health care as some sort of commodity, which it is absolutely not, and cannot be…. It can’t be provided like a commodity. People that say they have a right to health care could say that they have a right to a certain amount of money, without engaging in any of the activities to acquire and preserve and increase it. It’s preposterous. It’s not going to be handed out that way. Which is why I am confident it is going to fail. A lot earlier in this country than in the more cohesive countries of Europe.


Excerpt from an interview with Dr. Terrell

Unecessary Mammograms?

Dr. Terrell was not a fan of mammograms, and it seems that a larger medical community may now agree with him. Recently, The American Conservative posted an article stating,

"In a randomized controlled study (the gold standard of medical research), women who received regular mammograms were no less likely to die of breast cancer than those who went without. Although they received no additional protection, women who were screened paid an additional price. One in five of the cancers or abnormalities identified by mammography were ultimately harmless, but the women went through biopsies in order to be sure. Even worse, one out of every 424 women who were screened received treatment for a nonexistent cancer, enduring needless and debilitating radiation, chemotherapy, or surgery."

Read the rest of The American Conservative article here.