Christian Science & children -Reply

[Mark R Woodall]

On Tue, 4 Feb 1997, Emily Hartigan wrote:

> I find Mark Woodall's commentary extremely valuable on the doctrines of
> CS and how they appear to a former believer.  The problem is that he
> proposes something extrinsic to the very world he so vividly depicts: the
> studies he suggests rest on social science assumptions that are not of
> the realm of reality CS adherents are professing.  How does the
> scientific or scientistic world converse with one of spirit -- many eastern
> religions, of course, and some readings of Plato, adhere to the belief that
> this "mortal coil" is all illusion.  How could one possibly PROVE that
> anything is illusion, except from outside the very worldview at issue?
> Religion is about faith, and as Wittgenstein said, "Hope is a phenomenon
> of human life." So is faith.                                            ---Emily Hartigan

I agree that social scientific studies are extrinsic to spiritual
realm of faith in Christian Science.  But monetary Medicare disbursements
can me measured and quantified.  I recently saw a "Dateline NBC" spot on
the "fleecing of America" that exposed financial abuses of government
funded medicine by doctors.

If taxpayer funded medical disbursements are being provided to Christian
Scientists, then the realm of scientific, measurable world is conversing
with the realm of the spiritual.  I have a problem with a system of
justice that would permit financial abuses comparable to those detailed
in the "Dateline" spot, abuses of the same healthcare system, on the
ground that the abuses are made in the name of a spiritual belief system.

Mark Woodall