Divine retribution?

As one who teaches (promotes!) such things as (atheistic?) evolutionary biology and evens lectures occasionally on topics like the natural history of the soul, I suppose it was inevitable. In the past few weeks I have been told (first and third hand) that my lymphoma is variously 1) a manifestation of God's vengeance 2) a call to return to Christianity before it is too late, and 3) just what I deserve. Such voices are thankfully rare but they are interesting. One would have to think that if any of this were "TRUE" then we might observe lower cancer rates among Christians (we don't) or at least better prospects for recovery (again, no go). What we do often see is weak but significant relationship between faith (in it matters not what!) and healing. This has been shown across cultures and religious traditions from animistic to zoroastrian (a span which you will note includes unitarian!). It seems that people of faith (of which I count myself one) have generally more robust and effective immune systems. For example, clinical studies of 'believers' have shown such things as more rapid deployment of T-cells coupled with lower baseline levels of immune system compromising stress hormones. Bottom line seems to be that believing your life has meaning and purpose is good for your health (ie., from an evolutionary perspective for the chances that your genes will be represented in subsequent generations). But enough of that...just need to vent a bit I guess.

Also wanted to again encourage folks to stop by dannswiki and have a go at collaborative writing...perhaps even start a dialogue in Random Rants about the relationship between religion and health! So far only a couple of you have braved the new world and put some thoughts down. The neat thing about the wiki environment is that it is very difficult (impossible?) to make mistakes and it is exceedingly easy to fix them! Also the process (at least in the Sandbox and Random Rants) is completely anonymous (unless you choose to identify yourself in what you write) so there is no need to be self conscious. It is truly amazing to see your words picked up an transformed by someone else...to see new meanings emerge and new questions raised. Besides, your play would aid greatly in my preparation for research work that is just around the corner. Sapere audere! -- have the courage to trust your own wisdom!/dps [Note: I think the problem with accessing the blog archive is now history.]