Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Science and religion continued


Religion must agree with science, so that science shall sustain religion and religion explain science. The two must be brought together, indissolubly, in reality. Down to the present day it has been customary for man to accept blindly what was called religion, even though it were not in accord with human reason.
               (Abdu’l-Bahá, Divine Philosophy, p. 26)

At whatever time highly-skilled physicians shall have developed the healing of illnesses by means of foods, and shall make provision for simple foods, and shall prohibit humankind from living as slaves to their lustful appetites, it is certain that the incidence of chronic and diversified illnesses will abate, and the general health of all mankind will be much improved. This is destined to come about. In the same way, in the character, the conduct and the manners of men, universal modifications will be made.
               (Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 155)
We sometimes need to think things over before we act. I learned the hard way that, just because someone claims to be spiritually guided, it does not mean they are acting in my best interest. Perhaps you remember the chiropractor that explained that he was opening up the channels for the nerves running through your back in order to get them back to the way the creator meant them to be. Since, as a Baha’i I accept that science and religion must go hand in hand, I jumped on this philosophy and went about promoting him. Then I went to another meeting where he talked of how all illness could be cured by opening up the channels of communication through the body’s nervous system. Okay, now I’m a little suspicious since I’ve heard a few cure all theories before. He continued on to explain that it did not matter what you put into the body explaining that even people who smoke sometime live to a very old age. It is all about the condition of the back and how the nerve cells are relaying the body’s messages. Now something is not right. This does not seem to be in conformity with science and reason. Surely, with all the scientific knowledge to the contrary, a competent doctor would not promote smoking and lustful eating habits.
Still, with my doubts, I continued to talk with him and stupidly allowed him to give me a free adjustment. Ouch! That hurt. Three months later I still have pain and have finally made an appointment to see a medical doctor.
To be fair, the chiropractor did offer further adjustments and explained that pain after the first adjustment was normal, but I wasn’t willing to risk it. For three months now, I have been unable to do normal work and sometimes something as simple as lifting my hand to point a finger causes a sharp pain to shoot through my back and stomach area. He may be right and be able to correct it, but reason tells me that, when the pain continues to get worse over three months, something is happening that another whack in the back is unlikely to correct and could very well do more damage. So tonight I will endure another painful night of sleep and tomorrow I will get another opinion, this time from a medical doctor.