Religious medical nonsense I: God gets credit for Ebola survivors

August 21, 2014 • 8:06 am

As the New York Times reports, Dr. Kent Brantly, one of the two American aid workers who were infected with the Ebola virus in Africa, and then flown to Emory University Hospital, will be discharged today. That’s good news, and much credit to the doctors, both in Africa and the U.S., who took care of him. And I’ve gotten a bulletin, that the second patient,Nancy Writebol, has just been released.

The group for  which Brantly worked was Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical aid group whose motto is “Helping in Jesus’ name.” One of their spokespeople commented:

Meanwhile, Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, said in a statement that Brantly has recovered.

“Today I join all of our Samaritan’s Purse team around the world in giving thanks to God as we celebrate Dr. Kent Brantly’s recovery from Ebola and release from the hospital,” Graham’s statement said.

But NO thanks to the  God who now has killed over 1000 Ebola patients in Africa. As the reader who sent me this link commented:

If they really think goddidit, why bother to fly them to Atlanta? An omnipresent being could have worked in West Africa.

When will people realize the fatuity of giving God credit for those who survive illnesses or airplane crashes, but remaining silent about those who died? And isn’t anybody going to thank the doctors, the nurses, and the pilots?

UPDATE: CNN just reported this:

U.S. Ebola patient Dr. Kent Brantly was discharged from Emory University Hospital today.

“Today is a miraculous day,” Brantly said at a news conference in Atlanta with staff of Emory University Hospital. “I am thrilled to be alive, to be well and to be reunited with my family.”

Brantly thanked all those who treated him and hugged hospital staff members attending the briefing.

“Miraculous”? Really, what was the miracle? Did it involve God? At least the man had the decency to thank those who really helped him survive.

Now is the time to read Dan Dennett’s wonderful essay, “Thank goodness!” his response to those who attributed his survival after an arterial tear to God.

 

88 thoughts on “Religious medical nonsense I: God gets credit for Ebola survivors”

  1. “When will people realise the fatuity of giving God credit for those who survive illnesses or airplane crashes, but remaining silent about those who died?”

    Never. Their faith is “unbreakable”.

    /@

    3. My cousin wrote something lame on FB to the effect of a car avoided crashing into her’s but hit another and god was looking out for her (also the ghost spirit of her deceased grandfather).

      My response: god must’ve really been ticked with those people who ended up getting in the accident. I don’t think I mentioned the ghost grandfather.

          1. There can’t be a total lack of consequences. Maybe make it so that anyone who died had to run back to nearest graveyard (as a spirit) in order to respawn?

          3. Now you’re talking about design optimization and redundancies. Maybe God simply couldn’t get funding from the House Budget Committee and that’s why the Universe’s infrastructure is crumbling?

          4. But if you were all powerful, the notion of design optimization would be irrelevant, since you’re already able to produce the best on demand.

            I’m not averse to the notion that whoever designed the universe was a complete bungler, but then I’m not averse to the notion that the universe wasn’t designed to begin with, so it ain’t my problem to solve.

          1. You’re right. I should work on that. Next time I have a performance review at work, I’ll just deflect any criticism as my mysterious plan that my employer simply doesn’t yet comprehend. One day I’ll be able to find my way into the Pantheon.

  3. I just read a report that a “traditional healer” in Sierra Leone is responsible for the deaths of 300 Ebola victims. She lured them over the border from Guinea, promising them that she could cure them.
    Traditional healers are very popular with black South Africans. It’s tied up with African traditional religions. I just hope that Ebola can be kept out of South Africa, because the same thing could happen here.

    1. Other anecdotal descriptions that I had heard were that the spread of Ebola was helped in the region by deeply held traditions that family members insist on carefully washing bodies by hand, and they will also kiss the departed on the lips. Adding to this the widely favored practice of traditional healing, and the further spread of Ebola is inevitable.

  6. I recall a preacher ending a long prayer consisting mostly of asking for things with a sonorous phrase, “and we’ll give you the praise.” I think the god hypothesis has evolved from its original form of bribing a god with various sacrifices to rewarding a god with thanks and praise, both with the aim of gaining some control and advantage. I consider it a primitive form of science, looking for patterns in random events, but without the use of statistical analysis and double-blind experiments to eliminate false positives.

    Anyway, I think they do it to encourage more “miracles”, like giving a dog treats to teach it tricks.

    2. Yes. The way I usually heard it was, “Do this (or these things),” before “and we’ll give you the praise.”

      On the other hand, isn’t praise expected regardless? Re: Job. “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

  7. The sooner the better.
    This is an example of the propaganda that keeps the religious absurdity, in all its guises, alive and well. Alive and well enough to continue to be the base of a pyramid that has things like ISIS, or Witch burning in Africa at its pointy end.

  8. I’m sick and tired of hearing people in the US, in particular, do this. It’s deeply ingrained into common speech, and since I moved to Canada, I began to notice it more and more (when watching Americans interviewed on the evening news, in particular).

    When an American is ‘lucky’, they say they are ‘blessed’. When they survive a crash, they say ‘a guardian angel was looking over me’. When they get better for an illness, they say ‘God saved me’. Although I’ve heard Canadians say some of these phrases, it occurs with far less frequency.

    At best, it’s pathetic, but yes, it also ignores those who do the real work of saving lives, keeping everybody safe, and making ‘good luck’ more likely to occur.

    1. You need to meet my Canadian family. You’ll feel like you’re right at home in the States. 😉

      I suspect Canadians just don’t say it so much because they feel religion is a private matter. It’s why I probably come off as rude for speaking out against religion.

  9. ‘Thank god’ is an euphemism for a favorable outcome in a probabilistic universe. Which somehow makes long odds feel normal.

      1. You mean he’s a prima donna who only performs when his ass is kissed in exactly the right way?

        …still trying to figure out why people profess love and loyalty to this guy. Battered spouse / Stockholm syndrome? As a cover for their own sociopathic tendencies? Simple naïve ignorance and / or idiocy?

        b&

          1. You’d think, what with a couple millennia of practice, they’d have figured it out by now. Just how often does one have to fuck up before admitting you’re not exactly on the right path?

            b&

          2. I think I’ve got it… Some of these guys are saved, so they don’t need to worry about doing it right. The rest of them are sinners who are doomed anyway (because they can’t seem to do it right).

            Or something.

          3. That may be part of it, but I think a lot of it is just, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Why waste time taking this real cherry to a mechanic to check it over — don’t you trust me that it’s the deal of a lifetime?

            b&

          4. I suspect because they just never thought of pointing a wand at the sick and yelling “expecto patronum!” I mean it worked insofar as we can tell from the works of the historical Harry Potter.

          5. I think that only works on chest congestion…and only when coupled with that famous magic potion, guaifenesin.

            b&

            P.S. Seemed a bit odd that Harry, despite chanting fake Latin that said to expect the father protector figure, was surprised when his father protector figure seemingly appeared…. b&

        3. I think that’s it. Jesus doesn’t work in mysterious ways, he’s just a Diva. He is the Diana Ross of deities. . . which I guess makes god Berry Gordy – YIKES!!!

          1. Unfortunately, he’s also the Stalin of deities. Do anything he doesn’t like, and you are going to be taken to the gulag of fire and eternity.

  12. Welcome to my Facebook feed. It’s pretty much nonstop God-bootlicking of this sort.

          3. I’m shocked there are no cowboy boot emojis and that one is labelled “womens boots”.

    2. Was just about to say the same. Everything from recovery from illness, to kid getting into a college, to finding the perfect rental house, to selling a house in a bad market, avoiding injury in car wreck, on and on – is followed by “God is good.” I’m starting to feel like such a crusty old grump.

        1. Yep. And like the men and little boys with their fingers pointing to the sky in all those Islamic State videos.

      2. Their propaganda, which says that you have to be “angry” or “mean spirited” to not play along with their fantasy life, is so pervasive that I find myself slipping into a bit of self criticism along the lines of “I must be a curmudgeon because I hate seeing them have their fun so much”. And when I realize that they’ve managed to make me feel slightly bad about wanting to rain on their parade (which I almost never actually do as a result), that really does make me grumpy and curmudgeonly. All the feeling bad should be on the part of those who say patently stupid and quite hurtful things, not those who would point out that it’s stupid and hurtful.

        2. Well-stated. I’m not inclined to rain on their parade either, but if commenting, I tend to offer a tidbit of reality (“so glad for modern medicine!” “Yay for airbags!).

      3. At a high school class reunion, a classmate reflected words to-the-effect how the Lord worked it out that his daughter got a full scholarship in science education. (“She didn’t get that [science/math ability] from me,” he said. As if it’s something inherent and not resulting from intellectual self-discipline and hard work, neither of which he himself exhibited as I sat by or near him in algebra.)

        Of course, it helped that she was interested in science, and that science teachers are highly sought, in getting that scholarship, eh?

        So I thought at that moment, but didn’t say, all for the sake of comity/(accommodationism?).

        1. Interesting how the last person credited with the scholarship is the daughter!

  13. “If they really think goddidit, why bother to fly them to Atlanta? An omnipresent being could have worked in West Africa.”

    The theological justification is that to not do everything you can do in human terms, but just nakedly expecting God to intervene on your behalf is sinfully challenging God to work your will instead of His own. This is one of the themes of the Temptation of Jesus story in the Gospels. So believers still have to plant crops, tend the sick, etc. not because God couldn’t dispense with all that, but because it’s sinfully uppity to expect Him to. But He’s still the one secretly making sure the crops grow, the sick recover, etc. so you better say thank You.

    Of course, the real reason is that “if a human doesn’t do the work, it don’t get done” but the theologians had a relatively (compared to some of their other baloney) strong counterargument to this point worked out 2000 years ago.

    1. Yes, another argument for God’s lack of involvement that is simply a convenient argument that can never be tested…only accepted.

    2. True to form, the theologians have only created further inconsistency and contradiction:

      He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

      Matthew, 17:20

  15. Dan Dennett’s essay (Thank Goodness) is a great read. He gives good reasons for how to think of others who think prayer is useful. Namely, they are like:

    “tenacious scientists who resist the evidence for theories they don’t like long after a graceful concession would have been the appropriate response. I applaud you for your loyalty to your own position—but remember: loyalty to tradition is not enough.”

    It is not as if atheism requires that doubt be some permanent fixture in one’s life. It’s just that one should always consider that if there is no evidence for something then doubt and action are better than internalized wishful thinking.

    1. Stunningly succinct Dr Dennett’s disquisition.

      One excerpt I particularly found profoundly cogent, “ If you insist on keeping the myth of the effectiveness of prayer alive, you owe the rest of us a justification in the face of the evidence. Pending such a justification, I will excuse you for indulging in your tradition; I know how comforting tradition can be. But I want you to recognize that what you are doing is morally problematic at best. If you would even consider filing a malpractice suit against a doctor who made a mistake in treating you, or suing a pharmaceutical company that didn’t conduct all the proper control tests before selling you a drug that harmed you, you must acknowledge your tacit appreciation of the high standards of rational inquiry to which the medical world holds itself, and yet you continue to indulge in a practice for which there is no known rational justification at all, and take yourself to be actually making a contribution. (Try to imagine your outrage if a pharmaceutical company responded to your suit by blithely replying ” But we prayed good and hard for the success of the drug! What more do you want? ’ ) ”

      Blue

  16. A miracle would be if all of those infected with Ebola in Africa – without access to an air ambulance, first world medical intervention, experimental drugs, etc. – were cured.

    2. Ah, brings tears of joy. Prayer is one of the most embarrassing things humans have ever done.

  18. I think this every time I watch some athlete thank god for helping to win a basketball game or something. If they’re right, and god really does pick a team to help, then he must also pick a team to hinder. Just once I’d like to see a point-guard get all indignant during a press conference and curse god for committing five turnovers in the fourth quarter, just one damn time.

  19. If my neighbor deliberately and premeditatedly, shoots me then saves my life by taking me to the hospital, should I only thank him for saving my life and let it go that he tried to kill me?

    If Dr. Kent Brantly’s life was saved by a god, then his deadly infection was caused or allowed to occur by the same god (assuming monotheism).

    When an Oklahoman says God saved him from death as a tornado ripped away the roof of his house lethally sending it crashing on his neighbors, the ineluctable question is where was God when the storm approached the house? And if God is responsible for saving the one life, he also accountable for the deaths of the neighbors. Point that out and the inevitable response is either “ours is not to reason why” or “farther along, we’ll understand why”.

    1. If Dr. Kent Brantly’s life was saved by a god, then his deadly infection was caused or allowed to occur by the same god

      No no no, this is a Fallen World, so all the bad stuff that happens is ultimately our fault. God only does the good stuff.

      1. Not always our fault…especially if you’re a “good Christian”. They also easily and shamelessly blame The Horned One.

          1. All those would have antlers not horns. Maybe instead a narwal (also not horns but funny).

        1. Indeed. In the Book of Job Satan (The Accuser) has to explicitly ask permission in order to torment Job. In that book Job is tormented basically for a cheap dare between himself and God.

          Of course, the book of Job was, I think, written by a skeptic who is showing the folly of the very kind of piety we’re discussing here. It is an irony that this skeptical tract made it into the Bible canon, like reading the Bible and finding a chapter from “God is Not Great” inserted in-between Esther and Psalms. Job’s “friends” in the book are normal religious folks giving their normal callous answers to tragedy: God is just so you must have deserved it, etc. Job rejects this interpretation of his torment and, because the book shows us behind the scenes, we know he’s right. Job is tormented on a dare, there is nothing more to it than that. The beauty of the book of Job is that the story not only makes it completely clear that Job is blameless by showing us behind the scenes but also because the book has God saying to the friends in the end that *they* didn’t speak the truth about God (i.e. God is just, wouldn’t torment Job for no good reason, etc.), that it was Job, rather, who spoke the truth. Despite some later efforts to make the story more pious, notably by the addition of a fourth and very tedious young friend, the skeptical point of the book still shines through.

      3. I think the book of Job makes it very clear why: God is an asshole who will torment us on a dare.

        1. Indeed, I don’t know what I find more disturbing about that story: that apologists who praise such a god are lying out of paranoid fear of such an imaginary despot’s wrath, or that they’re genuinely so sociopathic as to see it as a good thing.

          1. It is a change in interpretation, in some circles, as far as I can tell. Job used to be read “God works in mysterious ways, so just go ahead and live your life anyway.” The other interpreation is “God is a sociopathic bastard. Go and do likewise.”

  20. I think one reason the belief in the efficacy of prayer persists is the “remember the hits; forget the misses” phenomenon: prayers are like lottery tickets; people only remember the ones that win. I read a book once about spirituality in soldiers in combat- one story concerned a soldier who always prayed, publicly, at the same time each day no matter whether he was out in the trenches or not (he was the object of some respect and admiration from the other troops for his devotion). One day he was in his foxhole and just beginning his prayers when a mortar shell landed directly on top of his head. The Xtian’s answer for this, of course, would be, “God must have had a need for him in Heaven.”

  21. I bet his patients would be pissed if he told them that God would save them, so he’s going to just stay out of it.

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