I view religion and rationality as very separate. But with most religious ideas, I can at least grasp why people believe them. However, when it comes to Christian Science, I just don’t get it no-how.
A column on the local paper’s religion page by Adam Scherr (March 20, click here) urged inclusion of “spiritual care” in health coverage. He says his family “chose spiritual care for one simple reason—it is effective and results-based.” He tells of an arm injury: “Through my practice of Christian Science I was confident that I would see a healing result … I prayed and trusted that healing would occur.” He refused medical treatment.
I too had a recent arm injury, and it too healed by itself. But I hope Mr. Scherr never gets heart disease, kidney disease, cancer, or anything else that just doesn’t heal by itself.
Old joke: a guy stands on his roof as floodwaters rise. A navy rescue diver swims by and offers to carry him to safety. “No thanks,” he answers, “I trust in God, he’ll save me.” Then comes a boat, and he waves that away too; “God will save me.” Then a helicopter: same answer.
Finally, he drowns. Meeting God, he asks, “Why didn’t you save me?”
God replies, “I sent you a diver. I sent you a boat. I sent you a helicopter. What more did you want, schmuck?”
God sends us doctors. He sends us medicines, and treatments. And Christian Scientists wave them away.
How is that “spiritual” or Godly? To stay healthy, eating food also helps. Christian Scientists don’t refuse food. Why refuse medicine? Because, they believe, faith and prayer is effective, but medical science is all bunkum. That was the doctrine of their prophetess, Mary Baker Eddy, writing back in the 1870s, when the state of medical knowledge was in truth still primitive, compared to now. Refusing to recognize the advancement is absurd. And it’s funny how the extreme skepticism Eddy’s followers still exhibit toward medical science turns into extreme credulity when it comes to prayer.
The prehistoric average lifespan was twentyish. As late as 1900, it was only 31, worldwide. Today it’s about 67, and nearly 80 in developed nations. Christian Scientists hold that faith and prayer, not medical treatment, are the keys to health. So the huge observed improvement in health and longevity must have occurred because people in the last century became so much more spiritual and prayerful—especially in developed nations. Right.
A scientific study by W.F. Simpson has found that Christian Science believers – despite healthier life styles in some respects, e.g., regarding tobacco and alcohol – had significantly shorter lifespans than a comparable non-CS control group. What a surprise.
But I suppose that if you believe you’re going to Heaven, then dying sooner is no bad thing. Maybe that’s the rationality of Christian Science: getting to Heaven quicker.
My libertarian instincts say let them. Unfortunately, there is evidence (click here) that Christian Science beliefs have (for obvious reasons) helped spread contagious diseases. And then there’s the issue of their children.
The Rational Optimist 
March 28, 2010 at 9:02 am
What if you accidentally crushed a hornet’s nest and were swarmed and bitten numerous times, but then, realizing that you could not outrun them, you instead closed your eyes and started to pray, but to pray in a way not commonly thought of as prayer, and opened your eyes in about a minute to see all the hornets crawling around on their ruined nest ignoring you completely?
What it you then continued to pray, but using a method not commonly thought of as prayer, and saw all the swollen bites vanish and perfect normalcy return within five minutes?
Would you think there might be more to things than you had realized?
I am a retired electronic designer and programmer, a very hard science type. Fifteen years ago, after a life of ignoring organized religion, I was healed of a likely fatal condition by the silent prayer of a co-worker who was a Christian Scientist. After I agreed to let him try to heal me, all symptoms vanished in less than twenty four hours.
The healing, and the elevation of thought that accompainied it, were so incredible and amazing that I took up the study of Christian Science.
It really works. You should look in to it. The best book ABOUT Christian Science is “Spiritual Healing In A Scientific Age” by Peel. For a quick take of the key details read from page 16 to the end of the chapter, and then read the part beginning on page 54.
The book is out of print but is available on Amazon used books.
It really works, and for very logical reasons. Any human can do it, and any human can learn it.
FSR COMMENT: What if . . . ? What if God decided to stop torturing innocent human beings, some of them small children, with horrific diseases? What if human beings stopped indulging in infantile fairy tales and mumbo-jumbo (like Christian “Science”) and started confronting the reality of life and the world (as some have in fact done)? To repeat, I’m willing to let fools believe what they like. I’m not for burning at the stake anyone with religious ideas different from mine. But I don’t think they should be allowed to spread communicable diseases, or to deny their children medical treatment.
March 29, 2010 at 8:17 am
The hornet’s nest experience described above actually happened to me. The things that Christian Scientists do routinely are so unbelivable to those not involved in it that they seem totally impossible.
If God is all powerful, how could mere humans possibly ease the suffering and torture inflicted on small children by him?
The small child issue is addressed in the part of the Spiritual Healing book beginning on page 54. Other issues about God aflicting mankind is addressed in the material starting on page 16.
A Rational Optimist should not fear knowledge that might enlarge his understanding of the world he lives in.
After time in the Army, where I reached the rank of SSG, I went to college and spent my life designing circuit boards and writing code. I was always a mind over matter person until I hit a problem in my fifties that I couldn’t will away. I was healed totally within twenty four hours of a well diagnosed problem.
I began studying Christian Science, and have mastered enough of it to do things that I would have never believed possible. I am healthier now at 70 than in my 50’s. My ability to design and implement have improved dramatically.
You owe it to yourself to look into it.
April 15, 2010 at 12:51 am
I would like to let your readers know that Christian Scientists do not believe that medical science is “bunkum”. Mary Baker Eddy had great respect for physicians. In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures she says, ” Great respect is due the motives and philanthropy of the higher class of physicians.” While you state that in the 1870’s medical science was still primitive, at the same time the teaching about God’s healing power, in Mrs. Eddy’s book, was healing hundreds of people (see the last 100 pages of her book – Chapter “Fruitage”)
Christian Scientists choose to turn to God in time of need – for health and other problems – and they do not criticize those who choose other methods. They choose prayer because they have seen it work.
May 18, 2010 at 9:53 pm
It is difficult for anyone to see God correctly, religious or otherwise. It often appears as though the religious must defend their God, or doctrines they feel come from God. It would we be wise if believers used both reason and faith. There are times in life to use reason and times in life to use faith.
Christian Science views medicine as material, or matter, which according to “Science and Health,” Mary Baker’s Textbook, was not created by God; thus, Christian Science leans toward the extreme. Medical practioners lean toward matter, or nature, and assess the situation apart from God and spirituality. Are either wrong? There is nothing in this toybox we call life that is off limits. All things may be freely contemplated, employed, dismissed, etc. In conclusion, let me say that the experiment of life is to test the earth for truth. Is it possible for oxygen to disappear from our universe? All life will continue to exist as “energy is never created or destroyed.” Let us seek for that understanding, whereby we shall excell both religion and our feeble understandings of science.
June 23, 2010 at 2:27 am
Thanks REI, Kathy – great examples of the post hoc fallacy that I can use in teaching critical thinking.
June 23, 2010 at 7:22 am
It is called Science because it can be demonstrated. You can demonstrate it too if you choose to learn it.
February 13, 2012 at 6:35 pm
To the guy saying Prayer healed him from serious illness in 24 hours I call bullshit. You know the rule of the internet, pics or it didn’t happen.
March 15, 2013 at 5:36 pm
In real science, experiments are repeatable or they’re not accepted (Do you remember the Cold Fusion results that no one could reproduce?). REI – Care to arrange a repeat of the experiment of the hornets under controlled conditions.
March 15, 2013 at 7:13 pm
It doesn’t work that way, but I did have another hornet experience that I found interesting. I had built a special wood box for my greenhouse and then not used it. Months later I saw it and thought I might use some of the wood for another project. When I opened it I found a hornet’s nest with a number of hornets inside. They showed no interest in me and I closed the box and moved it outside where nobody would disturb them. I found another piece of wood and continued working. Several minutes later a hornet flew to where the box had been. I thought to it about where the box was now and it flew directly out of the greenhouse and directly to the box.
I do believe that we are living in the ultimate virtual reality game. We do have unique self aware identities, but they are spiritual, not material. We are here for a purpose that is not easy to discern, and have to work it out. All the things that Jesus said are an amazing guide, as well as the works of Paul as he was led by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.
The reason that things can change instantly is that they are beliefs, not reality. When the belief changes, the apparent reality changes.
Those interested in this might find this site worth reading. http://www.afterlife-knowledge.com/answers.html
The best book ABOUT Christian Science is Spiritual Healing In A Scientific Age by Peel. Read from page 16 to the end of the chapter and then read the story beginning on page 54. To study it properly, get the Christian Science Textbook, Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy.
December 17, 2013 at 2:49 am
@ REI
In that case… I BELIEVE I CAN FLY!
*Jumps off bridge*
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Ahem. My point being, don’t you understand that the word beLIEve has the word LIE in the middle? Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Also: Pics or GTFO 🙂
January 19, 2014 at 1:13 pm
Christian science is a cult that is not even as old as mark twain.. the morons that follow it are empty headed nothings that deny real science, therefore their whole existence is a waste or all of our time
January 21, 2014 at 1:23 pm
Christian Scientists believe that we are living in the ultimate virtual reality game. When it was first discovered well before the computer era, it was described as the waking dream.
They believe that we are intelligent self aware spiritual beings having a human experience.
Since everything we experience here is solely a creation and projection of our mortal mind, a change in belief results in an instant change in the projection. Medical problems vanish instantly.
Christian Scientists believe that there is a God who created everything, and is a spirit, and who is defined as pure unconditional Love and Intelligence.
He sent a human into this experience, Jesus, to try to tell us how to make this experience a joy, and his message was to love our enemies, forgive 70 times 7, and overcome evil with good.
As an electronic designer and microprocessor programmer, and a former Army Sergeant, I was a very hard science type when I encountered Christian Science.
The healings I have experienced have convinced me that the insights described by Mary Baker Eddy in the CS Textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures are correct, and are able to teach people how to heal themselves and others.
Those who get so crazy in denouncing it seem to be acting out of fear that it might actually work, which apparently would endanger their set of beliefs and leave them vulnerable.
It really works. Any human can do it.
January 21, 2014 at 1:49 pm
Dear Doit: I recently met a woman who said her parents were Christian Scientists.
“How did that work out for them?” I asked.
“Badly. Both died early of illnesses that routine medical treatment could easily have cured.”
I am sincerely sorry, Doit, that you have somehow lost your rationality on this subject; I hope you never get an illness that your nonsensical beliefs cannot cure.
May 23, 2015 at 8:13 pm
In response to REI, I am a type 1 diabetic and I was involved with a Christian science family and they prayed for me and nothing happened. I am sorry to say that you were not a “Hard science” type as you put it , because you were taken in by the Christian Science bull crap. I repeat YOU WERE NOT SCIENTIST, THE DEFAULT POSITION OF SCIENCE IS ONE OF SKEPTICISM OR IT IS NOT SCIENCE! IDIOT! Oh and by the way the “Family” ended up disowning one of their own that decided Christian Science wasn’t for them, on top of this to them diabetes is considered to be the person who has diabetes sinning or “Lying to themselves about the disease” which is just idiotic victim shaming. I am different from both of you, I don’t just believe, I know for a fact that both christian science and religion in general are frauds. I don’t believe that lies of that type, regardless of what good intention or ethical system is at it’s heart, outweighs the fact that it is an ideology based on lies. I don’t believe that superstitions especially of the level of the dysfunctional nature of christian science, have a place in the 21st century world. Fortunately it is clear to me that natural selection does work and is a law of nature and will operate accordingly on christian science, which is not a survival trait. The small minded way of thinking of a “good little christian scientist” to basically hide your head in the sand when a disease or bad thing comes about in your life or immediate surroundings , and try to pretend it doesn’t exist or is some symptom of a mental disease, could be viewed as a “How to manual” on the subject about how to get your ass kicked un-nescescarially by that thing! It is no surprise that there are no Type 1 Diabetics (except of course in the anecdotes of christian scientists , of course) who are christian scientists, for obvious reasons. Like narcotic drugs, christian scientists are people who cannot handle reality and therefore retreat into their own fantasy land and anything that does not fit that fantasy or their imaginary “Methodology” cannot solve, they pretend does not exist. I am not here to argue though because of course , in their mind as a type 1 diabetic.. I of course am only a challenge to their faith, not a person so I probably don’t exist.. but I can assure you all, imaginary constructs cannot type scathing criticisms of christian science on the internet. That myth has been busted several times.
May 23, 2015 at 8:37 pm
doit2000,
I am not speaking out against anything but the absurdity of all the christian scientists that go along and try to comment on these forums like they are “just about to criticize” and then turn around at the end and reveal that they used to be a “Hard scientist ” and “Rationalist” and then turned to christian science because they saw some miracle.. which if they were truly scientists before (Which they obviously weren’t because they would know about burdens of proof and the fact that if an argument is unfalsifiable it is probably BS) They would not have been taken in by a bunch of crap parlor magic tricks and a lot of talk..
You want to convince me? Show me a completely insulin dependent type 1 diabetic that I can confirm with blood tests showing no insulin production and high autoimmunity that is just prayed over and then is tested and has no autoimmunity and full natural insulin production restored. Oh right, thats right you can’t do it, not because christian scientists consider medical examinations a violation, because it would totally show the “Man behind the curtain” in their little fraud.
No surprise. To the rest of you,, religion is not about god but is a story that has been told over and over and over in different ways to the end of one man or group of men staying in power over another group. It really is that pathetically simplistic. The quicker humanity as a whole, rids itself of that form of fraud, the better off we all are.
June 13, 2016 at 4:21 pm
From its inception, Christian Science was a fraud. Mary Baker Eddy stole the concept from a guy named Quimby. She was not intelligent enough to conceive such a thing, being a very poor student and by all credible accounts, a complete nut job. Her story that a doctor told her she would die soon after she suffered a fall, and then, after someone gave her a Bible, she “rose in 3 days” (sound familiar) is also complete bullshit. The sworn affidavit of the doctor treating her denied this claim in its entirety. So, for starters, MBE was a complete fraud and a crackpot. That being said, the idea that Christianity can have anything to do with Science is beyond stupid. First of all, none of the Bible stories are even remotely verifiable. Not a single eye-witness verifies any of Jesus’s miracles. Greeks wrote the New Testament starting about 45 years after Jesus died in another country, after the stories were passed around like Chinese telephone by people trying to spread the religion. To say that this information can be the foundation of a Science may be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. But I offer this challenge to any Christian Scientist: Show me the lab tests for even one case where this nonsense healed a cancer patient, both before and after the administration of Mrs. Eddy’s teachings. If your nonsense was real, don’t you think health care professionals from around the world would be sending their patients to church rather than to chemo? What this religion does is hurts families. The practitioners won’t admit it, but they shun and cruelly disapprove of anyone who is ill. If your child is ill, they blame the parents for “not thinking right”. This religion tears families apart, causes the unnecessary deaths of innocent children, and results in a lifetime of suffering and misery for its brainwashed followers.
June 13, 2016 at 4:25 pm
From its inception, Christian Science was a fraud. Mary Baker Eddy stole the concept from a guy named Quimby. She was not intelligent enough to conceive such a thing, being a very poor student and by all credible accounts, a complete nut job. Her story that a doctor told her she would die soon after she suffered a fall, and then, after someone gave her a Bible, she “rose in 3 days” (sound familiar) is also complete bullshit. The sworn affidavit of the doctor treating her denied this claim in its entirety. So, for starters, MBE was a complete fraud and a crackpot. That being said, the idea that Christianity can have anything to do with Science is beyond stupid. First of all, none of the Bible stories are even remotely verifiable–something Science requires. Not a single eye-witness verifies any of Jesus’s miracles. Greeks wrote the New Testament starting about 45 years after Jesus died in another country, after the stories were passed around like Chinese telephone by people trying to spread the religion. To say that this information can be the foundation of a Science may be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. But I offer this challenge to any Christian Scientist: Show me the lab tests for even one case where this nonsense healed a cancer patient, both before and after the administration of Mrs. Eddy’s teachings. If your nonsense was real, don’t you think health care professionals from around the world would be sending their patients to church rather than to chemo? What this religion does is hurts families. The practitioners won’t admit it, but they shun and cruelly disapprove of anyone who is ill. If your child is ill, they blame the parents for “not thinking right”. This religion tears families apart, causes the unnecessary deaths of innocent children, and results in a lifetime of suffering and misery for its brainwashed followers.
November 13, 2016 at 6:53 am
You say that god must have sent us doctors and medicine, But why would he wait so long to give to us. Why would he supply us with these things now but not 2000 years ago. And even what have now is unreliable. Certain “cures” for cancer have been proven to actually worsen the condition long term. So why wouldn’t God give us perfect medicine and have it available at all times?
November 13, 2016 at 10:16 am
Well, Pierce, maybe there is no God.
July 1, 2018 at 4:31 am
Religion is designed to hold back the genuine loving goodness and refinement of the human species,as well as to pit people against each other.The most brutal and evil things ever done to this human family has been by the church and state.The priest class and the royal families and their brainwashed order following zombies are the engineers and labor builders of hell on Earth.This hijacking of a simple process of turning within and cultivating morals,and virtues,and living a beautiful life from a higher mind and a pure heart.It is a tragedy designed by an alien race(from the heavens to Earth they came) who are psychopath war monger,slave driver control freaks who lost their ability to feel for others.If the people wake up in time they will eradicate this vampire who is expert in mind control techniques like organized (crime) religions.