Earlier, I posted about my unsettling experience with prayer before my eye surgery. I returned yesterday for my three week follow up appointment and was waiting for the doctor when some scrapbooks on the table caught my eyes. (Eyes that now are 20/15, btw)
I thought the scrapbooks might be pictures of people with glasses on and then off-you know, before and after. Instead they were all thank you notes. Most of them were handwritten and it was kinda neat to see how happy people were with their surgery. (As am I.) However, as I was reading through them, a theme started cropping up at a frightening rate.
That's right, you probably guessed it: People were thanking the doctor for his pre-surgery prayer. Things like, "I wanted to thank you for praying over me before the surgery. I knew then everything was going to be ok." or "I'm so glad you prayed before the surgery. It was so nice to know I was in the hands of a fellow Christian."
I find this unsettling and a little laughable. First of all, the person who said everything was going to be ok probably would not have blamed their Gawd if everything hadn't been great. No, of course not. "He" only gets the credit when things go right, of course. For the person who was happy to know they were in the "hands of a fellow Christian" that's BS. Honestly, he might be an atheist who just finds that people feel better about their surgery (by and large) if he prays over them. Or, he may be praying to a different Gawd than the one you pray to. Just because he said a prayer, doesn't make him a Christian. (Yes, I know him being an atheist or a theist of a non-Christian nature is probably unlikely...) My point being: the pre-surgery prayer did absolutely NOTHING to effect the outcome of the surgery for myself or any one of the other tens of thousands of patients this doctor has.
Most unsettling of all is the fact that not one of the thank you notes I read said anything about the science and technology that makes the "miracle" (yes, many called it a miracle or miraculous) of Lasik possible. It's so frustrating to me that people will completely dismiss science when it comes to health and just praise their imaginary friend instead. It almost makes me want to write a thank you note to them thanking them for the professional manner in which they conducted themselves and praising the science, technology and skill of the doctors and nurses who employ it. Praise be unto Science!
4 comments:
I have a friend that is mormon, who has had three kids by C-section. After each one she says thank god for the miracle of C-sections. I always ask her, if it is such a miracle, how come it leaves a scar? Why not design the whole process better in the first place? You know, put the vagina on the belly so it doesn't have to squeeze through the hips? And how come this "miracle" barely happened before a hundred years ago and if it did happen was usually because or resulted in the mothers death?
Praise be to science!
Eric,
If she's mormon, I'm surprised she doesn't have 10 or more kids. Yes, it's frustrating to hear believers dismiss modern science and technology as "miracles." It's really not a miracle at all. You can trace the scientific history of everything, as long as you can understand it. I suppose that's the problem, though; most people don't bother to comprehend science and therefore take the easier way out which is to say, "Praise be unto Him for giving us these miracles."
I still haven't been brave enough to watch the DVD of my surgery to see if the prayer was caught on it or not.
The Lasik place that I got my surgery from is now advertising on the radio. There slogan says something or other "the miracle of lasik." Blah, I prefer to thank goodness instead of god.
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