While taking a breath of fresh air and the first morning coffee, I just met Drayton Parslow. Every Monday he's full of inspiration from Sunday's worship, and goes for a prayer walk round the village - which mostly means round my Community.
Just to get the week off with a bang, I asked him why he's prepared to accept all the benefits that the modern scientific method brings us - poly-cotton shirts, smart phones, the Internal Combustion Engine - but dithers over medical science (he'll only go to a doctor if it's really serious, and prayer hasn't worked - or not in a "healed the ailment" kind of way) and rejects the Theory of Evolution - based on the same scientific method.
He tells me I'm not really wise enough to understand. Smart phones and artificial fibres are part of the scientific world. Whereas healing and Creation are where God works more directly.
He's right. I don't understand. Maybe I'm not wise enough.
Surely God is working in science, including smartphones, artificial fibres and a whole host of other things - because, creation is God's business and inspiration for creation stems from him.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Drayton, like many primitive Baptists, is that he doesn't really subscribe to Genesis (he is a secret Liberal).
He probably thinks that the 'Big Bang' theory has something to do with sex.
I think I'm going to go primitive Baptist.
ReplyDeleteHaving allowed myself to be persuaded to spend much of Sunday escorting someone to the local ER for something that turned out to be utterly trivial, as I should have known, the idea of not going to a doctor unless you are actually losing a lot of blood or haven't managed spontaneous healing in a week or so sounds very good.
I hate ERs.
ER...
ReplyDeleteIt took me a few moments to remember what ER stands for - Elizabeth Regina didn't see to make a lot of sense! Then I worked out that it's what we would call A&E.
The hospital where I work has a large poster telling you where to go with your minor ailments - and making it very clear that A&E is NOT an option. In fact, it makes me feel that I ought to self-treat anything that I'm not absolutely sure is life-threatening, or at most take it to a community pharmacist for advice. This worries me, because at the same time we are comapigning hard to make sure that people dial 999 immediately if they think they, or someone else, might be having a stroke.
I can't help feeling that whether you live or die when faced by an emergency medical condition depends mainly on your psychology and whether you would be more embarrassed by being told that you had put your life at risk unnecessarily by ignoring serious symptoms or at being told off for creating a queue in casualty!
We have many readers from Across the Pond, Judy. It's best not to confuse Canadians with Americans, however, as they get shirty. Basically, Canadians have better hats.
DeleteI think the Americans call it an ER too...
ReplyDeleteAnd we're not supposed to go to one except in a real emergency either, but we have very few drop-in clinics that are open on a Sunday - I'd be hard put to think of one - and the regular doctor/ GP/ Family Doctor of the person who almost convinced me she really did have an emergency couldn't see her until Tuesday. I can't even remember the current family doctor's name. First, there was Doctor 1, but she was on maternity leave, so Doctor 2 was filling in until Doctor 1 decided she wasn't coming back from mat leave just yet. Doctor 2 couldn't or wouldnt stay on, and so was replaced by Doctor 3, who promptly went on her summer vacation and was replaced by Doctor 4!
Next time, I'm sticking to my guns and insisting she wait for her family doctor (whichever one it is), and that'll be the time it really is something serious. Life just works that way sometimes.