Medicine.

Odale

Odale

Active Member
This seems like the kind of topic that would naturally cause dissension between people because medicines, in a way, "play God." They alter our mindsets, calm us, energize us, heal us and do many other things for us (I am thinking of medicines like Claritin, Vyvanse/Ritalin, and other prescribed drugs used to help people).

So, what does God say about medicine?
 
Here's an interesting article about Biblical "medicines".

Link.

I would take this away from the article: Back when science was very limited, God gave us strong foundations in natural medicines. We didn't know that alcohol was an anticeptic. We didn't know how to treat skin diseases. If you look at the Old Testament, God gave all sorts of commands on how to address various problems that scientists eventually discovered why in the 1800s. LINK

Now that science has progressed, is it okay to ingest a certain amount of methyltheobromine? How should we prepare our food? Do we need to keep someone who has been in contact with a corpse in isolation?

God gave the answers before man could understand what was good for us. He gave us the foundation for healthier living. Does that include medicine? I think so.

On the converse, maybe we should look and see if it's okay for us to eat fast food 4 nights a week, stay home and isolate ourselves in our basements instead of going out and socializing? Before you get defensive, I've seen several well-written opinions about why gaming is okay, and even lead a Bible study about it when I was playing Warhammer Online with Redeemed. Just a point to ponder.
 
I think there are two layers here and it's important to pull them apart.

One is a general question about the practice of medicine (I think) and specifically the use of drugs in that pursuit. To that, I'd agree with Durruck here that doctors and such answer a high calling and their work is a good one. After all, Luke was a doctor and Paul gives Timothy a prescription for his upset stomach. I know some folks will forego all medical care on the thought that faith should heal those God wants to heal, not doctors. But I think that approach is a little off balance and reminds me of your signature block quote from Galileo. God gave us the capacity to understand biology and anatomy so we could use to mankind's benefit. But the other end of the equation is this - I also think we ought to give God every opportunity to heal our ills in his way before we immediately turn to modern medicine. Basically I want to be very deliberate to ask for his healing in prayer before I reach for the Tylenol.

Going back to your question, I think there's another (and probably more interesting) question here about our current tendency to medicate every possible discomfort with some pill. In my mind, there is a huge overemphasis on drugs these days and we are paying a price for it. When somebody pops a pill there is a n expectation that problem X will simply go away and when those problems are more emotional or psychological I'm worried that we are teaching a whole generation of people that the best way to deal with stress is to mask it with drugs instead of dealing with the issues...
 
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