Medicine and the Divine: How Medicine is Inherently Based on Religious Belief
Lester Liao, MD, MTS, Affiliate, John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre, Resident Lead, Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine Program, University of Alberta, Pediatric Resident, University of Alberta
Mark Tsai, MD, Pediatrice Resident, University of British Columbia
Steve Tsai, MD, Pediatric Resident, University of British Columbia
Every person interacts with the world based on a fundamental set of presuppositions creating a worldview. Each worldview is at its core religious in the sense that it is taken on belief in something divine. Here we refer to the definition of divinity by philosopher Roy Clouser, which is the status of any entity that does not depend on anything else. While conventionally associated with supernaturalism, this definition takes into account the god-like quality attributed to the foundational authority of any worldview, such as reason or a deity. This means that medicine does not interact with religion as an equal discipline but is actually in itself an inherently religious discipline based on an ideological worldview. It is not possible to practice medicine without an appeal to some form of religious belief.
Medicine is concerned with making good decisions in clinical care. Good decisions require an evaluative framework by which they can be deemed good or bad. Currently, the goodness of a decision is often considered according to whether or not it is consistent with available evidence. This standard, while important, is incomplete because it fails to recognize the inherent amorality of data and the inherent morality of employing data. Certainly it is morally desirable to make a decision with greater empirical support than one without, but the use of the data still requires an additional moral layer. Empirical facts in themselves are amoral (e.g. drug A cures disease X), and only a moral agent with a particular ethical mindset can determine whether these data are morally good or bad (e.g. it is good to cure disease X because the patient’s life is of value). Medicine, which involves people and choices, is thus inherently moral, and morality revolves around what is ultimately good and valuable. The determination of what holds these esteemed qualities stems from a conception of reality that is rooted in a worldview.
How one will ultimately come to justify this worldview is where religious belief exists. Any answer to the question about why a system is true requires a divine appeal. Rationalists uphold reason as the ultimate standard, and they justify this belief on reason. Empiricists must use sense experience to justify the legitimacy of their empiricism. Monotheists appeal to God as an ultimate authority through His given revelation. It is necessary to presuppose some knowledge in any given area to justify it. Religious belief is in this way inescapable. While beyond the scope of this paper, knowing which particular epistemological system is most coherent then requires evaluation of the plausibility or impossibility of each being untrue.
Medicine is inherently religious and unavoidably so. All medical decisions are founded on some form of religious belief. As such, religious perspectives, whether associated with conventional organized religions (e.g. Christianity, Judaism) or not (e.g. secular humanism, pantheism), should be initially entertained and subsequently debated in the field of medicine. Self-aware and informed clinical practice must recognize the role of religious belief in forming the foundations for medicine.
Mark Tsai, MD, Pediatrice Resident, University of British Columbia
Steve Tsai, MD, Pediatric Resident, University of British Columbia
Every person interacts with the world based on a fundamental set of presuppositions creating a worldview. Each worldview is at its core religious in the sense that it is taken on belief in something divine. Here we refer to the definition of divinity by philosopher Roy Clouser, which is the status of any entity that does not depend on anything else. While conventionally associated with supernaturalism, this definition takes into account the god-like quality attributed to the foundational authority of any worldview, such as reason or a deity. This means that medicine does not interact with religion as an equal discipline but is actually in itself an inherently religious discipline based on an ideological worldview. It is not possible to practice medicine without an appeal to some form of religious belief.
Medicine is concerned with making good decisions in clinical care. Good decisions require an evaluative framework by which they can be deemed good or bad. Currently, the goodness of a decision is often considered according to whether or not it is consistent with available evidence. This standard, while important, is incomplete because it fails to recognize the inherent amorality of data and the inherent morality of employing data. Certainly it is morally desirable to make a decision with greater empirical support than one without, but the use of the data still requires an additional moral layer. Empirical facts in themselves are amoral (e.g. drug A cures disease X), and only a moral agent with a particular ethical mindset can determine whether these data are morally good or bad (e.g. it is good to cure disease X because the patient’s life is of value). Medicine, which involves people and choices, is thus inherently moral, and morality revolves around what is ultimately good and valuable. The determination of what holds these esteemed qualities stems from a conception of reality that is rooted in a worldview.
How one will ultimately come to justify this worldview is where religious belief exists. Any answer to the question about why a system is true requires a divine appeal. Rationalists uphold reason as the ultimate standard, and they justify this belief on reason. Empiricists must use sense experience to justify the legitimacy of their empiricism. Monotheists appeal to God as an ultimate authority through His given revelation. It is necessary to presuppose some knowledge in any given area to justify it. Religious belief is in this way inescapable. While beyond the scope of this paper, knowing which particular epistemological system is most coherent then requires evaluation of the plausibility or impossibility of each being untrue.
Medicine is inherently religious and unavoidably so. All medical decisions are founded on some form of religious belief. As such, religious perspectives, whether associated with conventional organized religions (e.g. Christianity, Judaism) or not (e.g. secular humanism, pantheism), should be initially entertained and subsequently debated in the field of medicine. Self-aware and informed clinical practice must recognize the role of religious belief in forming the foundations for medicine.