Medicine and Faith

Every now and then, the newspapers report a child with some dire disease―leukemia or diabetes perhaps―whose parents refuse medical treatment, saying they will depend on God alone to heal the child.

If these same parents were caught with their child in the middle of a raging flood, or some other natural disaster, I think that in most cases they would not hesitate to accept rescue by boat or helicopter, acknowledging that God sometimes sends help by way of such things in this world. It puzzles me why they might think that medicine is less a part of God's created world than a helicopter is. Maybe it's the way they perceive the offer, perhaps with a requirement for cash in advance, or offered with arrogance; or because someone they heard of died anyway. Be that as it may, there is a need for both faith and medicine in medical crises.

To take diabetes as an example, one feature of this disease is a lack of insulin, a natural body product, which the body needs to regulate the way it uses food for energy. Damage to the insulin-producing cells in the body results in diabetes, and if not treated can cause death. Giving daily doses of insulin allows the person to continue to live. It’s not wise to treat a child’s diabetes with prayer alone, when she urgently needs insulin to survive.

Many cases of diabetes in adults, however, are caused by an unhealthy life style which “wears out” the insulin-producing cells. In early cases, simply modifying one's food intake and life style can restore health. But the person may find it very difficult to change life-long habits. Even though he understands what he must do, he finds he hasn’t enough willpower to maintain the change. I have seen prayer and faith make that change possible in some cases.

Faith in what or whom? Some advise self-reliance— “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” Others depend upon another person, a spouse perhaps, or a work partner, or a doctor or counselor. Some trust in following the rules set down by their particular religious group. Some others hope to be lucky.

This is a touchy subject. In matters of faith, those who claim to have all the answers often feel threatened and insecure if anyone argues against their particular interpretation. Many other people, more secure in their own faith, may suspect the person with “all the answers” has not yet addressed all the questions.

As Benjamin Franklin put it: “[Most suppose themselves] in possession of all truth, and those who differ are so far in the wrong. Like a man traveling in foggy weather, those at some distance before him on the road he sees wrapped up in the fog, as well as those behind him, and the people in the fields on each side. But near him all appears clear, tho’ in truth he is as much in the fog as any of them.”

I freely admit being a follower of Jesus, even though an imperfect one. I believe in a Creator God who takes benevolent interest in each of us and who has a plan for our lives if we, in our freedom of choice, choose to trust God. That’s my basic life view.

Some people reject this, blaming God for making the world the way it is and causing so much suffering. But before we cast blame, it makes sense to do everything possible to correct the wrongs we ourselves (or others) have caused or could have prevented. Among these causes that might be remedied I see infection, injury, ignorance, greed, demand for vengeance, and misguided desires or life-styles, to name a few.

There are some events, such as volcanic eruption, or earthquakes, over which we have little control. Perhaps God allows such misfortunes as a test of our faith, or to teach us how to help each other, or to teach nations how to get their priorities straight. That’s only a perhaps. I don't claim to know the answer.

Whether dealing with disease or disaster, it makes sense to use the facts of science as far as they can be applied. But there is a point beyond which intellect alone is not enough to fight mass murder or indifference, once we cease to acknowledge God.

If God exists and created the world, as Christians suppose, God is not a genie in a bottle. We do not bargain with God, or order God around. If this world is God’s creation, we can choose to accept it and seek to learn how best to live in it, or we can choose to be angry about it and raise our blood pressure to unhealthy levels. Rather than complain or panic when confronted with crisis, I often find it useful to ask for God’s help.

Some quite intelligent people believe that what I call answers to prayer are no more than coincidence. Perhaps so. My father used to remark that when people pray, coincidences happen more often. I tend to agree with him. I have seen many separate instances where something was accomplished by several people happening to be in “the right place at the right time.” To always ascribe such results to blind chance appears unlikely, considering the odds. There is a lot we don’t comprehend about God and the universe. But to state that the world depends on random chance is merely another way of saying that we don’t yet completely understand how order comes out of chaos.

How then is faith relevant? To me, it's the infrastructure of life. It is the fiber, the substance of what we call integrity, dependability, honesty, character. Without it, life and direction begin to wobble, become indecisive, or even collapse.

It is not faith’s function to abolish all trouble, but to deal with it effectively, whether by prayer or the scientific methods God provides through his servants.

“There is no narrowing so deadly as the narrowing of a man’s hunger for spiritual things. No worse evil could befall him in his course on earth than to lose sight of Heaven. And it is not civilization that can prevent this; it is not civilization that can compensate for it. No widening of science, no possession of abstract truths can indemnify for an enfeebled hold on the highest and central truths of humanity.

“What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

(Inscribed at Stanford University Chapel, Palo Alto, California)