efficacy of modern medicine

[Pat Black]

Hello Paul and all in this thread,
	I have just a couple of bits to add to the soup.  I don't disagree with your basic premises that we are here to use resources, our brain being one of them but I do disagree with some of your assumptions Paul.  Death and disease as you relate them are not consistent throughout time.  Your description of death and disease seems to correlate historically with nation states, cities building and poor hygiene and fouled water and poor nutrition due to inadequate and uneven access to resources. There world has not experienced a steady rising trajectory in relation to health care.  There are times in the history of humans when diseases we are currently plagued with were cured.  I remember being taught as a child, and I am in my 50's now, that the Eygptians had a cure for cancer.  I always thought that was just myth taught as fact until recently when I heard a NPR report that lead me to examine my own assumptions.  Apparently they did have medical knowledge superior in some areas to what we have today and much of the information was destroyed in libraries burned like in Alexandria and Mali.  The North American continent had populations exceeding those in Europe at the time of initial contact.  People were wiped out by disease particularly small pox at contact wiping out upwards to 80% of the population.  It is not that indigenous populations did not have medical information.  They had very informed and rich medical knowledge.  The density and health of the pre contact populations prove that.  They were struck suddenly with something they had no familiarity with and was not only virulent but quick.  

I am sure that for every happy story of survival you have I can come up with one that is a tragedy.  I myself am the victim of medical greed and tunnel vision.  Of all the teenage girls I knew who were DES daughters and diagnosed with some form of a gynocological cancer in the 70's I am the only one still standing. When a report on the outcome of lawsuits against drug companies is broadcast I never miss it.  Given my experience I have a predisposition, a sensitivity to pick up that information even though I am not looking for it.  My belief is that everyone has a predisposition to pick up and record sensory information that correlates with their own experience, weighting their opinions and assumptions to that data.

I for one reacted very strongly to your posts along this thread.  My reaction is not to the words or ideas that you espouse but to your tone.  There feels like little room in the tone for other opinions or experiences.  I have never met you or had the luxury of hearing your voice and the intonations that carry your passion.  Email passions do not read nor are they experienced the same way as voices are felt and interpreted in a direct sensory experience.
Pat Black


Date:    Sun, 21 Aug 2005 16:08:09 EDT
From:    EVERETT813 at aol.com
Subject: efficacy of modern medicine

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In a message dated 8/21/05 8:11:37 AM, therese.fitzpatrick at gmail.com writes:



>>=20
>> About medicine:=A0 allopathic medicine, which seems to be the medicine
>> Paul gives the most power, is just one approach.=A0 Just as there is no
>> one 'right' spiritual path for all humans, there is no one right
>> medical system for all humans.
>>=20
>  
>
That is true, there is no one right medical system for all humans.   I also=20
subscribe to naturopathic medicine but am still doubtful of homeopathic=20
medicine.   I think we need the two, for sure.  =20

The proof of the efficacy of a path is "what is the surety of the outcome"?=20=
 =20
Prior to the rise of allopathic medicine and modern understandings about=20
germs, etc., and public health, more people died, many more.   I regard that=
 as a=20
preventable tragedy.   We were not put on this earth, I believe, to not use=20
our brains but just to leave everything to 'God's will', which is the great=20=
cop=20
out of many civilizations and cultures.   Not to mention the virulent stream=
=20
of anti-intellectualism (and thus, anti-science, which is an endeavor of the=
=20
informed mind) that infects American thought, even today.   Even a=20
Harvard-trained physician (Frist) can come out and say we should be teaching=
 "Intelligent=20
design" in our schools.   His colleagues must be wondering what happened to=20=
his=20
mind.   Politics clearly kills brain cells.=20

Sincerely,

Paul Everett

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