Is Modern Medicine a Quasi-Religion?

[Emergent, RN]

I've long thought that many aspects of the Modern Medical system have taken the place of Religion in many respects. This is not to say that medicine is bad, but I think the system, as a whole, has many characteristics of the Catholic Church, actually. I'm still ruminating over the heated debate on the vaccination thread, and some of the opinions expressed reminded me of a religious debate, with the pro-vaccination camp representing the established faith, and the anti-vaxers seeming to be belonging to lesser cults or sects, with less accepted beliefs, and different avenues toward achieving salvation.

So, I found an interesting article further exploring this idea. Below is a link, plus I'll include some excerpts.

Modern Medicine

Almost imperceptibly medicine has taken on a saving or messianic role, the characteristics of which we must examine. Looking back through history, there is a sense in which medicine can be said to have displayed characteristics that have at various times characterized the Roman Catholic Church:

Autocracy

Centralization

The control and manipulation of people

Censorship

Propaganda

Total obedience

Infallibility

The destruction of heretics

The stamping out of individuality

All this, of course, has been done in the name of public health and the general good, just as the church acted for mankind's salvation.

Physicians have taken the place of priests.

Vaccination plays the same initiatory role as baptism and is accompanied by the same threats and fears.

The search for health has replaced the quest for salvation.

The fight against disease has replaced the fight against sin.

Eradication of viruses has taken the place of exorcising demons.

The hope of physical immortality (cloning, genetic engineering) has been substituted for the hope of eternal life.

Pills have replaced the sacrament of bread and wine.

Donations to cancer research take precedence over donations to the church.

A hypothetical universal vaccine could save humanity from all its illnesses, as the Savior has saved the world from all its sins.

The medical power has become the government's ally, as was the Catholic Church in the past.

Charlatans” are persecuted today as heretics” were yesterday.

Dogmatism rules out promising alternative medical theories.

The same absence of individual responsibility is now found in medicine, as previously in the Christian religion.

Patients are alienated from their bodies, as sinners used to be from their souls.

I'd love to see an interesting, philosophical discussion about this idea. Has Medicine replaced Christianity in the West as the path to salvation?

[Gooselady, BSN, RN]

That is fascinating and I see what you are saying!

I however don't see the 'source' or 'cause' of this projection of 'divinity' as coming FROM the modern medicine. It's coming from US, the individuals who regard it and use it. We humans have an instinctive tendency to project collective 'symbols' onto authority figures or institutions. I don't know if that's what YOU were implying, it's just one of my thoughts in reflecting on this. WE are responsible, or just as, for the medical establishment to have taken on a 'religious' tone.

I'm not religious at all, but I can 'relate' to the concept of 'faith' and 'belief' as it pertains to religious thought AND as you are saying, the medical establishment.

And this would be why a thread about anti-vaxxers would grow to twelve or so pages, with people on both sides and a few in the middle getting NOWHERE together? Even though we all speak the same language and have similar values and cultural influences, when logic is replaced by emotionalism and fear, we really CAN'T hear each other.

[Emergent, RN]

That is fascinating and I see what you are saying!

And this would be why a thread about anti-vaxxers would grow to twelve or so pages, with people on both sides and a few in the middle getting NOWHERE together? Even though we all speak the same language and have similar values and cultural influences, when logic is replaced by emotionalism and fear, we really CAN'T hear each other.

I agree, especially with this excerpt from your post. I tried to start a spin off topic about possible causes of Autism, there wasn't much interest in current research. Sometimes I get frustrated with the lack of intellectual discussion here at all nurses, and elsewhere on the internet, for that matter.

Yet they'll go back and forth for pages and pages about certain core subjects, with people even wanting to excommunicate those who disagree with them. I see an almost religious fervor in it.