Why do Christians go to doctors?

[VaNonbeliever]

I have wondered lately why Christians go to doctors.  If their faith is strong, they know they are going to heaven.  The whole point of Christianity is to get into heaven.  To get there, one must die first.  Why aren't they excited to die?  Humans cannot delay gratification in anything else, except when it comes to everlasting happiness.  It does not make sense.  Also, going to a doctor, a man of science, seems to subvert God's will.  If you want to get better, pray for it.  If God wants you to live, he'll make you better.  If not, he'll kill you.  I think that deep down, they all know that there is no life but this life.

[Sidbob]

I agree with that last part, they are not 100% sure that heaven exists so they take no chances and thus get a check-up for their illnesses.

Well it could just be that since most common illnesses are non-fatal anyway, its better to get cured than to live in pain for a few days.

[tacoma_kyle]

Yeah.

There are few things stronger than than will to survive as long as possible.

Most would say some bullshit like 'if it is my time, I will die, the doc couldnt help me.'

[bitter_sweet_symphony]

I was told by a Christian friend that there was a Christian sect who didn't go to doctors when they're ill, cause 'God will save them' or something like that. I am not sure though.

[Mister Joy]

I think the vast majority of them are secretly doubtful. It would explain a lot for me... for instance, they never do what the Bible tells them if it means going to prison (ie. stoning disobedient adolescents to death) or putting their cushy jobs at risk (ie. not being able to shave), in spite of the fact that disobeying 'God's word' supposedly means going to Hell. They just pretend stuff like that isn't there. In fact, I think a lot of them only want to believe much of the bible because it's a handy crutch to justify their own personal prejudices: anti-homosexuality, anti-intellectualism and even racism at times. It's also reassuring for some people to think that anyone who disagrees with them on even the most trivial of things is going to burn forever in the lake of fire because of it.

[moosegoose]

There were famous evangelist in Finland in 70's. They say that he cured thousands of people. Secratary of Health got interested and they made research to find out that most of those who were cured, have later died for the diseases they were cured from.
Ironic. Maybe they just picked up the wrong god.

[User192021]

It is true that there are certain sects of fundamentalist Christians in American who refuse to see doctors and more troubling, refuse to allow their children to see doctors.  While I view this as child abuse/neglect, plain and simple, at least they stand by what they believe.

[Kona]

Jehovah's Witness (J-Dubs) are the ones who do not like going to doctors for illness.  Most classic cases involve pediatric cancer.  God will heal them.  To me it was like putting your child on death row.  What kinda parent does that?

[MommaSquid]

I don't know which flavor of believers do this, but some say it's okay to get glasses or have a broken bone set, but it's not okay to take medicine, get vaccinated or have surgery.  How did they come up with a list of god-approved, acceptable medical treatments? :roll:

[Gibson]

Jehovah's Witnesses are notorious for denying blood transfusions, but they generally use every other form of health care.  There are around twenty sects that I know of that have let children die since 1980 because they refused to use common medical treatments.

The big baddies are the Christian Science church followers.  I heard one story recently on a Freethought Radio podcast.  A Christian Science couple had a 16-month-old baby who contracted Spinal Meningitis.  He suffered horribly with seizures, etc, and was only prayed for.  Finally, a compassionate "practitioner" (think of medicine men without the herbs) pretended that the boy had a broken bone so that he could be taken to the hospital.  The illness was quickly diagnosed, but they weren't allowed to give the antibiotic that would save him.  He died after three weeks.  The parents then left the church and founded an organization called Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, or CHILD, inc.  If you're interested, the website is: http://www.childrenshealthcare.org/  (Amusingly, the leader and founder of Christian Science is an old hag named Mary Baker Eddy.  After breaking a bone, she said that God allows bones to be treated.  After her teeth started to decay, she said dentists were okay, too.  Pathetically sad how people justify away the absurd.)

[SteveS]

They're not big on birthday parties either, which seems particularly pointless....although not as dangerous as denying medical treatment.  :roll:

[Valerie]

I love that saying "if my time is up than I am meant to die." Imagine that all of us are given at birth a certain amount of days to live.  Now imagine that when a plane crashes with 300 people on board with no survivors that  all of these people who were given the same day to die on all found each other boarding the very same airplane!  What about when someone is murdered?  Is the murderer just fulfilling God's plan for that person to die on that day? Why, when one person out of 300 survives a plane crash is it called a miracle? A miracle is something seemingly impossible that happens anyway.  But, if it happens then it obviously isn't outside of the realm of possibility or it COULDN'T happen in the first place. I could go on and on...........

[tacoma_kyle]

Your right, you can.

It's gods plan.



....bible humpers are dumb...

[Martian]

"Why do Christians go to doctors?"

I think that the best reason a Christian would give is, "God wants me to take care of myself."

[Kona]

Let me add something else to this topic.  Many Christians I have come in contact with and subscribe to modern medicine do so out of the belief that God imparts knowledge to doctors in order to affect healing.  Therefore, they go usually go to a doctor that actually prays with them and then writes them a prescription to address their particular ailment.  I guess they defer to the gospel of Luke?