Church of Christ, Scientist: Peer Review? What's That?

Review of the Christian Scientists

Hello my Dear Readers,

Science is my baby, it is what gets me up in the morning and gets me excited about life. It is what I live for and one of the few things I would die for. The pursuit of knowledge, I view it as the greatest power and intellectual honesty as one of the greatest virtues. This is a bit of a lengthy one today guys, as well as an impending rant, be warned.

This week Chad and I are teaming up in our blog to look at our latest visit and provide different perspectives on this church using our own respective disciplines. Chad has been studying religion and international politics academically and as an intensive hobby for over a decade and has himself been immersed in and actively practicing several religions on differing ends of the spectrum. He also studied RCIA (Right of Christian Initiation for Adults), an intensive 9 month course as part of his conversion from the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) to Catholicism. Years later he has given up all religions and is now an Atheist.  I always recommend reading his blog, as it is always just a wealth of information about the history and practices of the churches as well as an account of our visits there. For this entry in particular, seeing as it is a multifaceted approach to this week’s review I strongly recommend a visit to his blog at http://52weeks52churches.blogspot.com/!

Here is a little bit about my own background:

I grew up Mormon in Utah, studied in Mormon seminary in high school for two years, infrequently attended a Southern Baptist church with my father for a number of years on alternate weekends as my experience with religion. I had had many doubts and questions for several years before my deconversion but like any good member of the church I had learned to pray my doubts away until they became too obvious and irreconcilable with my own beliefs. From there I took a more deist position with respect to the Christian god, it was a short time thereafter that I was finally able to become comfortable with my doubts and recognize my self as an Atheist, this was at the age of 19.

I received a Bachelors of Science in Zoology and Chemistry in 2012 and a Bachelors of Arts in Foreign Language German and Japanese. I studied abroad in both Germany and Japan studying both language and culture, including world religions classes as part of the criteria for the BA.

My studies in the life sciences were largely responsible for me leaving religion, as it was the only means thus far by which I was able to find convincing enough answers to questions I was wrestling with in my life. Seeing some of the so called "great mysteries" of life so easily explained away as early as in my Intro to Biology course in my freshman year of college, was a pivotal catalyst in my life. Because of the consistently reliable nature of the scientific method and plausible explanations to phenomena it offers through rigorous testing, empirical data, and a built-in self-checking mechanism known as "peer review" (but more on that later), I was able to reject appeals to faith and decided that I would no longer have need for it myself. With that, I now adhere to the tentative Atheist position until some irrefutable evidence comes along to convince me otherwise.

Should there come a day where I am presented with new information that checks out and is presented with reliable data and replicable experimentation that yields consistent results to support the existence of any deity, then I would gladly change my views in accordance to the new evidence presented to me. That’s all it would take, one convincing piece of evidence and I would change my stance. However; such a day has not yet come, therefore I remain aligned with the null hypothesis of there not being any extant deity. With that said, and knowing what I come from here is the breakdown of our visit to the Christian Science Church...

ATMOSPHERE: 5/10 candles

Pretty basic. Simple and charming, the inside of the chapel was pretty and had quotes from the founder and short bible verses painted on the walls. The pews were rounded rather than straight giving the appearance of a theater of sorts.

SERVICE: 4/10 candles

The service wasn't too bad, honestly. The service was very rigid and structured. Short and to the point (whatever their point was, see message section), only an hour or so. I would say that was my favorite thing about the service was how short and orderly it was. Chad thought it was boring, but I was too busy taking meticulous note to notice. There was no deviation from the quarterly publication that they passed out, everything was streamlined and done according to what was written in the program. there were a total of 3 hymns throughout the service. No speaker commentary or individual thought, input, or analysis. The closest thing to science these people got, was the experience of sitting in on that type of lecture that every student would eventually have to endure. That's it, there was no legitimate science to speak of in the service, they just "taught" in the archetypical format commonly assumed to be characteristic of science  lectures or seminars. It felt like being in class but without any actual information being presented, it was more like story time than a lecture, really (or nap time for some).

There were 2 speakers, one (a man) read passages listed in the program from the Bible, the other (a woman) read corresponding commentary from their "textbook" titled "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" written by their church founder, Mary Baker Eddy, in the mid 1800's. For more on the service, please see Chad's post on his blog in the service section http://52weeks52churches.blogspot.com/

 

MESSAGE: 1/10 candles

The only reality is god. Life, death, all human sensory, master are all an illusion. The only thing that exists is god.

Really, they were lucky to get even a single candle out of me on this one. The only reason they get it is because they actually had a message that came out to play. Their definition of science the the EXACT OPPOSITE of what it actually is! This pissed me off almost more than anything.

COMMUNITY: 1/10 candles

It was a mixed lot. There were good interactions and not so good interactions. When we first arrived we met a very nice lady who was more than happy to give us a brief history of the church and its founder, Mary Baker Eddy. She told us what to expect in the sermon and when to stand, etc. she gave us each a quarterly handout that outlined the service for the day. All Christian Science services, world wide were claimed to be exactly the same, getting their lesson plan from the "mother church". 

There were two speakers during the sermon, only one  of which I  had the opportunity to meet. The meeting  wasn't as pleasant as you would expect from someone who had just at the very beginning of their service had extended a welcome and invitation to all newcomers and members of the public. After the service she came and introduced herself and asked if we had any questions. Indeed I did, I wanted to ask about the "textbook" they were using throughout the service in conjunction with the King James Bible. I had asked if it was like a contemporary science textbook seen in universities and other academic institutions where editions are updated with new findings and realigned with the new scientific consensus. I also asked if it was also written by the founder of the church herself. The woman was taken aback and snapped "What are you doing here?"

In the back of my mind I was thinking back to her open invitation and the sign outside that said "All are Welcome" 

So far she wasn't doing a very good job at answering questions nor making her guests feel welcome. I changed the subject to other publications put out by the church like their news magazine which is as far as I know, quite prestigious.  As I left the chapel area, speaking with the woman, I saw Chad and his friend Lisa, who had accompanied us today, chatting with another woman who was tall with red hair. We met up and I joined the conversation and asked her about other literature and publications. I was interested in checking out the textbook so they presented Chad and I with a free paper back copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, their textbook written by the founder and published in the 1870's. They still used the original book with, to my knowledge, no further editions nor revisions. They stick to the genuine article, this alarms me greatly because they not only present it as an addendum to their doctrine but also present it as sound medical advice... from the 1800's!!!! Do you know how far we have come in 200+ years in the medical field?! Not only 10 years ago did we have touch-screen phones! But I digress.

The posh older, red headed lady (who spoke as though she had taken elocution lessons) opened a closet and sorted through a bunch of magazines and articles, handing us some news mags. She mentioned that they even publish a scientific journal called Christian Science Sentinel. She read the title "The Body's Not the Boss", as I was reaching for it the lady I was speaking to earlier took it and threw it back in the closet and said "He's not ready for that one". Now I grew VERY intrigued. I asked again if I could see it, the tall lady handed it to me and I added it to the stack of literature. As I took the "Journal" I said "That is very interesting that you publish your own Journal, is it peer-reviewed?"

Upon hearing this they both said, almost in unison "What's that?". After a very brief explanation, and seeing that they weren't grasping what I was saying I said not to worry about it, and thanked them for the article. This was a huge red flag to me. You can't be a true professional  scientist and not know what a peer-reviewed journal is.

"evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field" 

(If you want to hear the full story I will post it in another entry very very soon. )

I will summarize that the community, at least the ones I was speaking with here, were pretentious, arrogant, and very very ignorant to what mainstream science really is and how it is defined by the people who actually study the field. They were clueless to the basic tenants of the subject and I chose not to waste anymore time talking to them that day as I was beginning to get flustered and I could see that the one woman was about ready snap. It must have been when  she had asked if I had questions and found out that I had some. Or it may have been when I told her about my science background and my college degrees, stating that her definition of science that she tried to explain to me was much different than what I had studied. Either way, she was pissed that I had the nerve to ask or question anything she tried to sell us. 

If it is illegal to impersonate a  doctor, police officer,  and other professions, what then do we call this?

OVERALL: 3/10

A very ignorant lot indeed, they weren't ready for the scientist's most important tool, SKEPTICISM. Please forgive me if I don't believe right away that Cancer can be cured by simply denying that it exists. 

Honestly my dear readers, I ask you, is this unfair of me NOT to believe this? To  take it at face value from a woman who wears the self-proclaimed title of "scientist" yet has never heard of a peer-review? Who derives all medical advice from a book written in the mid-19th century? Think what you will, but such a notion is ludicrous and outright DANGEROUS!! Really, to be honest with you, many religious beliefs are pretty harmless in and of themselves, but this is NOT! This line of thinking is lethal. This sect does not believe in modern medicine and members will not resort to medical treatments for terminal illness or injury until it is the last resort, by then it is too late. Look no further than the news stories of faith healers who let their children die, not seeking medical help because their prayers are all they need... is this justice? Is it fair to a sick or dying 2,3,4, or 6 year old child to deny them health care because you don't believe in disease? A child can't make that decision, it is the responsibility of the care giver to make the choice and it is because of nonsense like this that children die even of easily preventable or treatable diseases even in the 21st century, the golden age of information! I am sorry, I will respect their right to believe this garbage, but I will not and cannot respect the belief itself. I can't respect what they believe or what they do, because it is ignorant and harmful.

******COMING  SOON!!!!************

I will include my full rant soon. Look forward to it as I will not pull  my punches. This service disturbed me and its message shook me to my very core. Stick around for the full story I was not able to include here. Also be looking for a joint video with both Chad and I weighing  in on the Christian "Scientists"