How is it possible to believe in god when nearly every disease can now be accounted for by medical sciences?

Question

Please only answer this question if you truly have learned the pathology behind diseases such as heart attacks, cancer, strokes, etc. If you're not familiar with the cell cycle, oncogenes, DNA repair, etc then don't try to answer this question. I'm not looking for a religious fanatic to quote the bible. I'm looking for someone with medical knowledge to explain how it's still possible to believe in religion and god given their underlying understanding of the mechanisms behind disease.

I've enjoyed the responses thus far - and as most of you have pointed out I narrowed the discussion perhaps too much by focusing purely on medical sciences. I'm sure you're all familiar with the theory of evolution. And you've probably been exposed to examples of experiments where given the right elements and energy it's possible to generate proteins which could possibly develop into cellular organisms.

I think my original question can be generalized more as - given our increasing ability to explain what was previously unexplainable does this undermine religion? For example if someone got leprosy thousands of years ago, or if a plague killed millions of people - it may have been giving a more mythical explanation than it would be today... If someone had a stroke and spoke in slurs it may have been seen as a punishment from god? Any thoughts?

Answer 1

hmmmm i think this is a case of 'you hear what you want to hear and see what you want to see'.

when i read my anatomy and physiology textbook i am amazed - as you are. we both think 'wow' when we look at the complex nature and balance of health and life. the difference is when i read about the near infinite parallel processing power of the brain or the continuously dynamic blood and air flow mechanisms in the lungs - this is where the difference arrises. i attribute the complexity of life to God's creativity and therefore i believe the human body to be designed or crafted.

i would imagine that you attribute this 'wow' factor to the process of evolution. that over the many years weak or faulty organisms died leaving only the strongest and most advanced to rule the earth as they see fit. the complex life with live is a result of the integration and adaption to the many stressors and challenges an accomplistment of nature.

there are a great many ppl on either side of this debate who believe what they have been taught. they take the easy road out and simply point their fingers and laugh at the opposition. an unchallenged belief isn't worth much. if you never let your fundamental beliefs be challenged, by deflecting criticisms or failing to consider the possibility of being wrong... that kinda seems arrogant to me. only God is never wrong.

i thank you for raising this question and challenging ppl's world view.

but i now raise this challenge, if you actually accepted the possibility that what you currently believed was wrong and then reconsidered the available evidence. would you go in the direction the evidence pointed or return and ignore what you had found.

really we believe what we have been taught by someone else that we respect. so really the question is. who do you trust?

i am educated and Christian. i believe in a literal seven day creation. along with Jesus Christ being my saviour.

Answer 2

I'm not religous, but the hard fact is that all of the diseases and medical condtions had to start SOMEWHERE.
Something like AIDS took how long to track as a primate disease that might have been to spread to a human while eating an infected primate?
Cancers, varying birth defects, etc, each genetic mutation of when and how it was initially caused came from something. And even with 5-10000 years of recorded history, medical anthropology, and more it can still be difficult to track and and find a set of bones that had the initial defect that started the obesity gene or which set of mates created Alzhermer's

Answer 3

Because belief in God can mean so much more. When you believe in God (whatever God you choose)...and this is my opinion only...it's not just a "magic miracle" thing. Faith in a higher power can give emotional support. Faith also inspires you to support others, which is just as important a part of the healing process as any medication or procedure.

I'm not a religious fanatic, nor am I someone who knows about medicine. I'm just a person. My father was given 18 months to live when he was diagnosed with cancer in 1998. He lived until 2005, which is a little more than 18 months. He had the support and love of his friends, family, and health care professionals to see him through.

Healing is not just about cellular structure. It's the whole package - spiritual support as well as physical.

Delete if you must, but maybe this will give you additional perspective

Answer 4

Prophet Muhammad said :" God sends a cure to every disease." There are still many diseases without proper cures at the moment but sooner or later men through the will of God will discover them.There are still many mysteries in medical science and no one is saying it's all plain and simple.There is this thing called FAITH that actually helps a believer to be healed sooner than a non-believer.....

Answer 5

Surely you realize the answer is very complex. You might be interested in reading Francis Collins' book, The Language of God. Collins led the team than deciphered the human genome. Another interesting book is Finding Darwin's God by Kenneth Miller. Miller debunks creationism and intelligent design, but still makes a good case for the existence of God.

If you went to almost any church, temple or mosque you would see physicians and surgeons praying.

Answer 6

You are probably referring to the experiments performed by Stanley Miller back in the 50s.

IMHO, big whoop. He created a simple amino acid by putting all the ingredients together and zapped it with electricity. What did he expect to happen?

Chemical reactions can happen spontaneously, but that does not mean life can appear spontaneously.

Given enough time a human could synthetically create a building block of life like Stanley Miller did. But to put it simply, that isn't enough.

A single building block is one thing, but life doesn't exist more than one generation without genes (making evolution in any way, shape or form impossible). The DNA molecule only exists to create amino acid chains that make up proteins and enzymes. Proteins and enzymes primarily exist to perform the functions necessary to replicate the DNA.

Which came first, DNA or enzymes? You can't have one without the other, and to create even the simplest form of either that come to being at the same time and function together flawlessly would take a designer supernaturally more intelligent than Stanley Miller.

As for how things go wrong... my guess is that you may know the medical aspects of it. Things go wrong in our bodies. We abuse them pretty bad. Mistakes happen in our bodies. As for the belief aspect of it, I believe these occur in exchange for free will.

You asked a question concerning medical and belief so you should read the response to both aspects as well. This is my interpretation, I'm not God and I don't know his will. I do believe that God allows challenges in response to current conditions in exchange for free will. Adam (as in Eve) had the only concern of obeying God and he screwed it up. He thought he could make decisions on what he could eat rather than listen to God. So god took away free food. Today people seem to think that we can manage everything without God. That is why we face challenges in everything. Again, just my opinion, you asked it of me so I gave it (:

Answer 7

because religion forces you to believe in it no matter what (hell is always a good reason why you'd be scared not to believe in it). but yes it doesn't make sense to put religion behind the reasoning of medical science...religion was the way to explain the unexplainable in the past when there was no science at all. today we know why and how people get disease and other medical problems.....we even know how to cure and prevent many of them now!! if you just happened to get a disease of other health problems its just due to genetics your irresponsibility, or your just really unlucky to get such a health problem. and if you just happen to get cured its not a miracle! we know why and how you got cured! and its not a god that helps cure you, its the doctors, nurses, and your immune system...if that was the case everyone who was believing in the "true" religion would never suffer from disease or when they do, all of them would be instantly cured! even it was incurable such as AIDS, being born blind. (dont say bible says jesus cured the blind...lets talk in terms of today when we have medical science!)

Answer 8

I just want to chime in with greydoc6 and recommend Francis Collins' book. My father worked with Dr. Collins on a precursor to the project mentioned above; Francis is an amazing, brilliant guy, who spent considerable time as a "casual agnostic" (his term), and now believes that God is present in the design of our world, including our biology. See the link on wikipedia for more discussion of his views on religion and science.

Answer 9

There is far more to this universe than medicine. You're familiar with the Big Bang, yes? The primordial atom that exploded, causing all matter, energy, space, and time to burst into existence?

So where'd the Primordial Atom come from? How'd it come into existence? That's how people can believe in God.

Answer 10

We had this discussion in my biology class when I was an undergrad. My professor Dr. Morrison explained that science really takes no stand on the existence of God. Yes, unlike the popular explanation that God does not exist because science explains everything (the creation, the diseases, the cures, etc), he states that science takes no stand on God because by definition science can take stand or comment only on those things that can be observed by our senses and their physical extensions. So science comments on things that can be touched, seen, smelled, etc and on things that can be seen under the microscope (physical extension of sight) or analyzed in the laboratory. Since God cannot be seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelled (i think that covers all senses), science cannot decide on the existence of the God. I think that this is an interesting argument.