Vaderecta
Active Member
Most people who believe things are reasonable everyday people. They believe in angels or saints, demons or satan or what have you. However when a doctor tries to vaccinate their children or recommends a medical procedure their religion is not what informs their decision. They trust the doctors or scientists or what have you.
The hidden danger is when a belief overcomes these decisions. The idea that you believe something therefore years of study are now invalid because of a belief. This could be mundane things no one cares about... caffiene is bad... I don't really see an issue with people refusing to drink coffee or even alcohol because of their belief. There are serious cases where kids die of diseases they could have been vaccinated against or even worse others catch the disease from kids that were not vaccinated. And its really the tip of the sword. People refuse blood transfusions doctors prescribed because they read an article and have a strong belief that blood transfusions are bad. Christians refusing medical treatmeant of any kind because they trust gods will. And not refusing treatment for themselves but for their kids.
Honestly some of these stories are heart breaking. A person who never studied medical science refuses medical treatment because they think a prayer will be a better treatment or perhaps homeopathic nonsese makes about as much sense to them as actual treatment because they can't understand the difference between the two.
This is not a question of intelligence. This is a core danger of belief. I am not some avatar of truth. I just acknowledge there are many things I have no idea how to fix but I know there are other humans out there that know more than me. This is true of all humans. We all know more about something than someone else and even if we don't we know someone probably knows more than us. Consider a 5 year old walking towards a cliff and chasing a ball... You know you need to stop them. And that 5 year old knows more than a 2 year old and so on and so forth. Reading an article doesn't make you an expert on all of life. You can't equate your belief and idea behind a scripture and a confirming artlicle you read in some biased nonsense with the effort it took someone to dedicate their lives to study the science behind saving others. The very idea that you know more than a doctor because you read an article once and feel differently is the embodiment of selfishness.
The hidden danger is when a belief overcomes these decisions. The idea that you believe something therefore years of study are now invalid because of a belief. This could be mundane things no one cares about... caffiene is bad... I don't really see an issue with people refusing to drink coffee or even alcohol because of their belief. There are serious cases where kids die of diseases they could have been vaccinated against or even worse others catch the disease from kids that were not vaccinated. And its really the tip of the sword. People refuse blood transfusions doctors prescribed because they read an article and have a strong belief that blood transfusions are bad. Christians refusing medical treatmeant of any kind because they trust gods will. And not refusing treatment for themselves but for their kids.
Honestly some of these stories are heart breaking. A person who never studied medical science refuses medical treatment because they think a prayer will be a better treatment or perhaps homeopathic nonsese makes about as much sense to them as actual treatment because they can't understand the difference between the two.
This is not a question of intelligence. This is a core danger of belief. I am not some avatar of truth. I just acknowledge there are many things I have no idea how to fix but I know there are other humans out there that know more than me. This is true of all humans. We all know more about something than someone else and even if we don't we know someone probably knows more than us. Consider a 5 year old walking towards a cliff and chasing a ball... You know you need to stop them. And that 5 year old knows more than a 2 year old and so on and so forth. Reading an article doesn't make you an expert on all of life. You can't equate your belief and idea behind a scripture and a confirming artlicle you read in some biased nonsense with the effort it took someone to dedicate their lives to study the science behind saving others. The very idea that you know more than a doctor because you read an article once and feel differently is the embodiment of selfishness.
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