Please don't label me....

I was sent an interesting article today from a friend from the Daily Telegraph regarding the British Humanist Association's latest advertising ploy. This time they are going after the kids with the following adverts on billboards and busses.

Ed West makes several points about the weakness of this attempt - you can read the whole article here.

One of the points he raises;

T

he Richard Dawkins-led anti-religious movement in many way rese

mbles the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, on both Left and Right, which hated religion as rival sources of loyalties, and sought to drive it out. It’s a basic premise of liberalism, and of anti-authoritarian regimes generally, that people do not attempt to interfere with other people’s children, and the way their parents try to raise them. Whether people wanted to b

ring up their kids as Christians or Muslims, vegetarians, Marxists or Latin speakers, conservatives or liberals was up to them, so long as they did not abuse them, and society had a pretty agreed notion of what abuse was. So when Dawkins suggested that raising children as religious was a form of child abuse in itself he showed his true Stalinist colo

urs.

Interesting. He then goes onto suggest that one of the problems of athiest belief is that it stops people having chldren as this other telegraph article highligts. Tha

t in fact it is the Christian worldview that underpins most of British and European society, that allows freedom of expression, basic human rights, liberty

and opportunity etc etc. In fact the athiest philosopher Jurgen Habermas says;

“Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democrac

y, the benchmarks of Western civilisation. To this day, we have no other options. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern chatter.”

Again interesting. I need to do some mo

re thinking on all of this and try and respond sensibly. Again though, I feel like I want to thank Mr Dawkins

and the humanist association for at least engaging in religious belief and bringing it to people's attention. There is nothing worse than apathy and relativis

m on such an important issue.

Finaly, Jesus and Mo for a bit of fun!

Students doing what they do best.

Recieved an email yesterday from a colleague at med school with a link to this letter that was sent into the Guardian. For current students and parents hoping to send thier children to University this is important stuff. I am leaving Uni with a huge amount of debt that has been totally unavoidable - the further increae in tuition fees will only make this worse on future students. Obviously this is a complicated issue but I do agree with the majority of points made below and especially regarding the exclusion of applicants from lower income back grounds if the current increase in tuition fees continue.

As student leaders we are appalled by Labour and Conservative attempts to duck difficult questions on student fees and finance at the next general election (Report, 10 November). We are in no doubt that a review panel dominated by business and university leaders is designed to stitch up students with yet another inflation-busting hike in tuition fees. Students will not stand for this. Opinion polls conducted for the National Union of Students and lecturers' union UCU consistently show that the overwhelming majority of the public are opposed to higher fees. Only 12% believe this review should even consider raising our fees; when students entering university this autumn are set to graduate with debts in excess of £23,500, it's not hard to see why.

Labour and Conservative leaders seem to believe they can maintain their cosy consensus of silence until the election and beyond. Today we are descending on parliament to demand that MPs come clean on their stance. Any parliamentary candidate that does not sign the NUS pledge to vote against an increase in fees and support our calls for a fairer funding system will be named and shamed. In 2005, the student vote made a significant difference in towns and cities across the UK. Our message is clear: candidates must vote with us, or students won't vote for them.

You rightly point out the problems all students will face if tuition fees are increased, but we should also remember the devastating impact this will have specifically on lower-income students attempting to enter professions like medicine. Medical degrees are more expensive than other courses owing to their length – five to six years instead of three – and high contact time in hospital which restricts the time available for part-time employment. Medical students are already leaving university with estimated graduation debts of between £37,000 amd £67,000 for those studying in London. There is no doubt this contributes to the fact just one-in-10 medical students come from low-income groups. Lifting the cost of degree to new heights will further cripple the government's already failing efforts to widen access – and end the aspirations of talented students across the country.

Compassion

Video from the Compassion blog.

Informative video on infant mortality, a subject that I have been thinking more and more about recently. Compassion is a Christian charity that seeks to bring children out of poverty through a variety of means.

Link

Go and have a read.

Breakthroughs

I was in a paediatric clinic last week where a child came in with a strawberry naevus that was growing close to the eye and starting to affect the child's vision. The doctor explained that a new treatment had been found under a year ago by mistake by a bunch of French doctors. They can give a beta blocker and this for some unknown reason shrinks the growth and enables the vision to develop unhindered. Before this they used steroids with hit and miss effectiveness. Incredible that little discoveries like this are made that make a significant difference to patient care.

If there really was a God here...

I gave a few thoughts on Suffering last Sunday at church (ChristChurch Endcliffe). Thought I would share them on here. Someone also pointed me in the direction of the latest Editor's song which contains the lyric; 'if there really was a God here, he'd have raised a hand by now'. Not entirely sure what the whole song is talking about but this line represents a common view that either God is disproved by the existence of tremendous suffering or he does exist but is impotent to stop it.

Qu: People cannot believe in God because of suffering in the world. What therefore would God have to do with suffering in order for you to believe in him?

Ans: Take it away.

Ok, so lets get rid of natural disasters, that’s easy. I suppose war is next – so he’d have to get rid of tyrants and dictators. Let’s think closer to home – murderers, they would have to go, rapists, probably thieves, they cause suffering, probably people that cheat on their partners, maybe even liars – wait a minute. If I want God to get rid of suffering, he will have to get rid of me because I cause unendless amounts of suffering to people around me throughout my life.

Maybe, God getting rid of suffering wasn’t as easy as I thought! Before I critisize God for all the terrible things in the world and rule him out – I may need to look at my own heart first.

Another question is does getting rid of God in the face of suffering help? Ultimately, the Christian hope is that the presence of God in suffering is of great comfort and sustenance, it transforms suffering from an objective meaningless action to one that has a reason, however difficult it may be to understand – God does all things for the good of those who love him.

And ultimately, over and above all these answers is the great gospel message. A message of a God who is not distant or malicious, but a personal loving God, who cares for the world that he has made, cares so much in fact that he was prepared to enter human history and suffer more than any human being has suffered before or will in the future in order that we, can be brought into relationship with him forever, in a place where suffering will end, where he – this great God has promised to wipe every tear from our eye.

Does suffering mean we have to get rid of God – by no means, in fact, it has been said, God whispers to us in the good times, but shouts in the bad – suffering is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

The Nick Griffin fall out

The whole of the country is talking about one thing this morning - question time If you missed it, you can watch it here). The blogosphere is buzzing with it, twitter is going crazy and facebook is full of it. It seems that in one sense the BNP has achieved one of its aims; by gaining a larger platform to air its views, the only problem is that almost universally people are united in their total contempt for what was undeniably a racist MEP trying desperately to come across as a bit more moderate - and failing marvellously! There are many things that could be said about yesterdays discussion from holocaust denial, to a bizarre few minutes spent discussing the KKK, to the discussion on Islam within our society. Rather than spend yet more words talking about it, I'd like to link you to here. Very interesting and thought through response by some bible translators no less!

The best of medicine and Britain.

The New Scientist is currently running 20 of the best photographs from the world of medicine. Interestingly the funding body for the project are the same that sponsored me to do some work on malnutrition on my elective. Go and check out all 20 here.

Then I saw on the bbc news website the Landscape of the Year competition.

You need to click here to see the photos properly

the one of Hebden Bridge is particularly good!

Inspired

This is going to be a bit of a personal post I felt like writing. (and I have a bunch of other stuff I should do but don't really want to!)

Since elective which was over 2 months ago now I have really been getting into medicine so much more. For people that know me I was never over the moon about my degree but just got on with it. I think this is slightly strange for medics, as most people have wanted to do this for their whole lives and talk about little else.

On elective, I spent time with great doctors and got to do some hands on stuff that was really incredible. I fully realised the link maybe for the first time between what I learn in lectures and placements and being a good doctor. Since coming back from Zambia, I have had the two best placements of med school - I spent 4 weeks in a and e and then 4 weeks on anaesthetics. Again, these were very hands on and I got to do some pretty cool stuff with big needles and breathing tubes!! I also started to really enjoy physiology (make sure I talk to you about the action potential of a heart cell and what potassium does to it next time I see you - its incredible!). I wish we had these placements 3 years ago.

Today, I just sorted out an optional module for January. I will be spending 4 weeks with the paediatric infectious disease team at Sheffield Children's Hospital and doing some work in pandemic flu which I am very excited about.

This is all coming just at the right time really as I am currently putting together my application form for junior doctor training in England. Never before have I sweated so much over 5 questions. In August 2010 god willing I will be on a foundation programme and hopefully enjoying it as much as Ruth is.

Another thing I have realised since coming back from Africa are the amazing resources we have here in England. I know the NHS is not ideal and it has taken some pretty big hits lately from home and our friends in the US but having a national health service, where health care is available to all, and world class health care at that - is exceptional. I really feel like I should be more thankful for the blessings that being part of our society provides.

Matthew Paris visits St Therese!

Matthew Paris is an athiest, and in today's Times I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with him. This is everything that is wrong with "Religion".

In the cathedral I saw a sign. God help us

The message I received from Saint Therese... and who it was about

Read the whole story here.

Rejecting the single story

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, author of Half a Yellow Sun which is absolutely superb, speaks at TED - I'm with her upto her very, very last sentence!

6year med:

Why is it that when we tell someone that they are stupid and unworthy, they believe it and carry it with them, but we cannot love someone into feeling lovely?

Why Indeed. Read whole blog post here.

A Child is Born

These breathtaking images of unborn children by photographer Lennart Nilsson, first published in the 1960s, transformed the way we see life before birth. They are taken from a newly published reprint of the book, A Child is Born.

Check out the whole gallery h

ere.

True Religion

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: s to visit t orphans and widows in their affliction, and u to keep oneself v unstained from the world.

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Final installment from Dr Friend...

Jerry was a bit of a character. He had taken alcohol and then operated a maize grinding mill. Whilst the story was not entirely clear, it seemed he had, for one reason or another, put his hand down the spout and badly crushed two fingers. The recipient of the maize will need to keep an eye out for some bits and pieces which shouldn’t be there. It was after 5pm and the day theatre team had gone home. Rather than call them back, I asked two student nurses on the ward if they could come along and translate and help out.

They were keen and soon Jerry, smelling strongly of alcohol, was on the table and his fingers nicely numbed with local anaesthetic. It may have been the slight clatter of the instruments as I put them on the trolley, but Jerry gave a roar and leapt off the table. One of the nurses tried to restrain him and was rewarded with a large bloody hand print on her white dress. Crashing out the theatre door, Jerry turned left instead of right and found himself trapped in a dead end corridor. He could be heard beating around a pile of storage boxes and plastic sheets drying on overhead lines. Checking the coast was clear, I turned right and hurriedly opened the three sets of doors to the outside, whilst calling to his brother who was sitting outside. We had no idea what this crazy man might do; it was a little frightening as he was powerfully built. We took cover as Jerry sped through the main door. His brother tackled him, hauling him onto a nearby bench and whilst pinning him down, suggested that we carry on fixing his hand.

I indicated that, “Tomorrow would be better”, we were still all shaking. Fetching dressings, I bandaged up the fingers and sent him back to the ward. After further disturbance, he was dishonourably discharged, but with an invitation to return in the morning if he still wanted treatment. He came back alright, brother in tow, who informed us, “He is sorry! It was because of the alcohol.” I took the opportunity to suggest that for the rest of his life, he shouldn’t touch even one drop of alcohol. A quick general anaesthetic put paid to further “leaping off the table activities” and I was surprised to find him still on the ward for the round the next morning. Some days later, he came back for a wound review, wearing a respectable suit and fortunately, the injury was doing fine.

An anaesthetic drug called Ketamine is the mainstay of anaesthesia in most of the developing world. Doubtless it has saved millions of lives and alleviated the suffering of many more. It is safe and easy to use and does not require a fancy anaesthetic machine. But one problem is that some folk have very bad dreams afterwards. If they are drinkers, the effects can be startling.

Joseph was fine whilst we fixed a leg wound, but abruptly woke up on the trolley in the theatre corridor and began thrashing around, threatening to crash off the side onto the concrete floor. Attempts at restraint degenerated into a wrestling match. Fortunately there was a student nurse present called Samson who lived up to his name. Student nurse Mary-Lou is a powerful lass and theatre nurse Siston also wiry and tough. We divvied up the thrashing limbs between us and got him sedated. I was in the mix too, kneeling on his head, I am sorry to say. Had he got loose, we would have been in a bit of cactus. Joseph remembered none of this in the morning. We took him aside, with the chaplain and had another little chat about alcohol.

Next was a teacher who thought he had been bewitched, but likely it was the demon alcohol wreaking havoc in his life. After his operation, he was fine until reaching the ward. Leaping off the bed, he threw it completely upside down, must have given the cockroaches quite a fright. Climbing up and standing on the next bed, he proceeded to leap off into outer space, fortunately into the waiting arms of a powerful male nurse who bravely stepped in to help. It was a funny week for these things.