The Godly Doctor
Kansas City's paper reports on a study about to come out in the Journal of General Internal Medicine that demonstrates that religious physicians are in the majority these days. In fact,In the survey of 1,044 doctors nationwide, 76 percent said they believe in God, 59 percent said they believe in some sort of afterlife, and 55 percent said their religious beliefs influence how they practice medicine.The study's lead researcher notes that 83% of the U.S. population as a whole believes in God, so this figure isn't out of accord with the more general population. But the fact that 55% believe that their religion impacts their practice is certainly worthy of further study.
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*Is* it really worthy of further study? I would guess most docs who say their religious beliefs influence their practice will focus on things like their desire to relieve human suffering. Practicing medicine seems like a profession that fits quite neatly with the whole idea of service to others and to God, which is common to an awful lot of religions and belief systems. I'm not so sure further "research" into this area would be a good use of our ever-dwindling funds for science. Unless, of course, you already know the answer you're looking for--in which case, is that really research?
- by Sue on Jun 28, 2005 at 3:25 PM | link
All this survey demonstrates is that 21% of the docs who think they believe in God don't believe what he says, and that 45% of the docs don't understand that everyone worships someone and that that worship underlies all our decisions.
- by Rob on Jun 29, 2005 at 10:50 AM | link