There is a growing segment of the population that questions the usefulness of vaccinations/immunizations. (A frighteningly large number flat-out deny it and, furthermore, claim vaccinations to be the hidden cause of innumerable modern maladies.) I first encountered this movement a few years back and, because the Mrs. and I were very near the conception of our first child, conducted a fair amount of web-research on the matter.
The anti-vaccination organizations (e.g. National Vaccine Information Center and Vaccine Liberation) are ubiquitous on the world-wide-web. It is actually a very impressive on-line network. Unfortunately, they make statements like, “It is unclear what impact, if any, that vaccines had on 19th and 20th century infectious disease declines.” And, “Vaccines Kill and Maim Regularly…” Or, even more shockingly stupid, “Many infants who suffer the so-called ’shaken baby syndrome’ may be victims of undiagnosed vaccine damage.“
My aim here is not to debate the usefulness of vaccinations. This seems to me about as worthwhile a debate as this one. I don’t have the time or patience to persuade all the General Jack D. Rippers out there that fluoridation (or, in this instance, vaccination) is not a Commie plot to mess with their precious bodily fluids.
(An example of how bizarre and irrational some of the “thinking” on this subject is, see this site. The authors claim that vaccination is the “Vatican’s Medical Inquisition”. They also believe the universe is geocentric.)
While seeping myself in the nonsense of this movement, I noticed many of its adherents were professing believers. Since then, I have met a number of seemingly reasonable, decent, godly Christians who, to varying degrees, accept this hokum. My question for this post is: Why? We are all prone to believing certain silly things. But what causes 21st Century Christians to be particularly susceptible to these kinds of anti-scientific, anti-intellectual, sillinesses?
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A few years ago, I read Os Guinness’ Fit Bodies, Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to Do About It. He confirmed and put to words what I had sensed for some time: many Christians seem to have abdicated all responsibility (and desire) to think deeply and rationally about… everything.
I believe the seeming prevalence of anti-vaccinationism among Christians is related to this broader anti-intellectualism. Many of us have become accustomed to viewing science as the modern enemy of Christian faith. We tend to prejudice ourselves in favor of any claim that appears to contradict the scientific/medical establishment. To an extent, I understand and sympathize with this bias - this is the same establishment that has given us evolution and global warming.
However, in the case of vaccinations, these matters are entirely provable. While scientists will never be able to reproduce the Big Bang, or definitively demonstrate that your Excursion is warming the planet, they can and have tested the effectiveness of vaccinations. Modern immunization programs are truly a medical miracle - I thank God for the undeserved mercies that have been brought to us by diligent scientists and medical professionals all around the world. To refuse to see this is, in my opinion, a stupendous ingratitude.
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Interestingly, some Christians seem to view vaccination as a Sovereignty of God issue. If God holds every molecule of the universe together, then I shouldn’t fret about measles or polio. Within this view, there seems also to be the notion that pain avoidance is bad, or at least immature. God uses suffering to mold and shape us; therefore suffering should not be avoided. As a Reformed Baptist, I agree that God is sovereign and that He allows suffering into our lives for good purposes. However, I don’t follow the logic here regarding vaccination. Sanitation and modern hygienic practices alleviate untold sufferings. Though, I don’t see anyone forgoing toilets or hand-washing.
There is nothing ungodly in allowing oneself to benefit from technology. God, in His omnipotent sovereignty, will not be hindered in bringing hardship to us by running water and vaccinations.
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I know this post will likely peeve a lot of folks out there. Honestly, my intention is not to offend or injure. I mean to ask a sincere question and challenge believers to think critically and rationally about these matters. I believe the name and fame of Christ are blemished when professing Christians uncritically embrace irrationality with a near religious zeal.
- Jim B.
http://www.slate.com/id/2169459/
This is a good article on the mythical vaccine/autism link.
HiI Jim B.
Recently a murcury thermometer I had fell out of my medicine cabinet and broke on the bathroom counter. I followed the recommended clean up advice on the internet and took the bag of contaminated rags, rug, etc. to the fire department to ask how to dispose of it. This became quite a long and lengthy process which I won’t go into, but they
the hazmat people told me we have murcurcy all around us… in the old plumbing of our houses etc. So we a re deluding ourselves if we think a vacine is going to push us over the edge.
Indeed. Unfortunately, some prefer delusion to reality. It is helpful to think of these things as a matter of dosage. You can die of water poisoning if you consume enough. We come into contact with trace amounts of arsenic, mercury, etc. every day without injury, because the dosage is not nearly high enough. I’ve heard people argue against water flouridation because, “That stuff is transported in boxes labeled with skulls & crossbones!” Yeah, you probably wouldn’t want to eat a flouride cake, but the trace amounts placed in our water cause zero harm.
And our teeth wouldn’t be rotting if we didn’t drink so much bottled water -or for me it’s well water that doesn’t have flouride.
I began the research on vaccines in 1986 when my only child was forced to submit to her first and only vaccination at the age of 5 which nearly killed her. The infection it caused almost immediately (symptoms before we got home home that day) was a flesh-eating bacteria with antibiotic resistant staph, and it was so virulent her father and I became infected all over with it too, in every open area of skin. There is nothing like facing death to motivate one to dig deep, and I did, back to the very beginning with famous epidemiologists, statistitians, doctors and scientists who had no vested interested in this enormous cash cow and much to lose for speaking out. “The History and Pathology of Vaccination” by Dr. Edgar Crookshank alone was a good beginning. The truth is, every epidemic for which a vaccine was developed was at the tail end before vaccines were introduced, proven by government statistics if you look at the ones for the whole of the 20th century and not the faked-out ones for a short period that delude the public. The epidemics involved “filth diseases” which ended with the advent of improved sanitation –cleaner water, food supplies and waste disposal. Ask any surveyor. It’s part of their history. With that, epidemics ended in unvaccinated countries soon than those that did. If you have the courage, Google SV40 and HeLa Cells. That’s just the tip of the iceburg. Or…you can continue to embrace the myths. GOD only knows, that’s what we’ve all been embraced to do. Sorry, but I’m sticking with the science. Not the fairy tales.
As for Shaken Baby Syndrome, an unproven theory based on junk science and assumption, again I went back to the beginning and the science, or lack thereof. It’s kind of interesting about the explosion of cases since the early 1970’s. Apparently human nature made a radical change 35 years ago. Of course that had nothing to do with the “explosion” in the vaccine schedule and the horrendous practice of injecting rotting proteins, heavy metals, chemicals, aborted fetal tissue, foreign DNA and the rest of the witch’s brew into newborns with poorly developed immune systems, blood-brain barrier problems and a lack of protective myelin shealth on brain nerves, as well as shocking the system and using up it’s vitamin C stores, particularly in formula-fed infants, raising blood histamine levels and releasing endotoxins…each one of which can create “capillary fragility”–a hemorrhagic condition which also affects bone development. And yes, there’s a name for this: accelerated Moeller-Barlow’s disease variant. Infantile scurvy-endotoxema, which just “coincidentally” can create every symptom ever seen in a supposed “shaken baby”. My SBS site, after 18 months of work on research day and night, is still under construction but I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU to go there and read the journal articles and science by individuals who have put their careers and livelihoods at risk to speak out. But of course you won’t. People like you shun information that fails to support their assumptions and belief systems. However, the following quotes are not quite so easy to dismiss. You can try…if you’re a fool.
“Getting a vaccination does not guarantee immunity.” (~CDC, January 28, 1994.)
“Neutralizing antibodies are reported to reflect levels of protection, although this has not been validated in the field.” (~Journal of the American Medical Association, June 9, 1999, Vol. 281. No. 22)
“Vaccines made from animal substrate contain animal viruses that are impossible to filter out. By 1961, scientists discovered that animal viruses in vaccines, including smallpox, could act as a carcinogen when given to mice in combination with cancer-causing chemicals, even in amounts too small to induce tumors alone. They concluded that vaccine viruses function as a catalyst for tumor production. (~Science, December 15, 1961.)
Encyclopedia Americana Vol.27, P.852 (1986) Vaccination Article: The smallpox vaccine was discontinued in 1972 because the vaccine was found to be more dangerous than the disease. (which has been renamed “Monkeypox” to hide it–djt)
THE WASHINGTON POST, Feb.2, 1986 “Vaccines can be a risk for infected persons–virus in vaccines, like natural virus infection…MAY ACTIVATE LATENT VIRAL INFECTIONS.”–Dr. Robert Gallo, National Institute of Health
By the 1920s, several British medical researchers documented that smallpox was not only more common among the VACCINATED, but that the DEATH RATE from smallpox was actually higher among those who had been vaccinated. This indicates that the vaccine was ineffective and predisposed vaccinated persons to more lethal disease. (~Vaccination, Dr. Viera Schreibner, 1993 pp. 205-220.)
People like you seem to live by the credo, “I know what I know–don’t confuse me with facts.”
More flies with honey, djt.
So, how do you explain this grand conspiracy? Is my pediatrician injecting these poisons into my children to make an extra buck for the evil pharmaceutical companies? Why? Why does 100% of the legitimate, respected, peer-reviewed medical and scientific community disagree with you? What are they ALL hiding, and why? This nonsense reminds me of those who believed OJ Simpson was framed by the LAPD - do you realize how many
thousandsmillions of individuals would have to be involved in this conspiracy?Folks, for evidence of exactly the thing I was talking about in my post above, visit djt’s sites:
http://www.truthquest2.com/
http://www.legaljustice4john.com/
I am tempted to return djt’s incivility when I read that he believes Shaken Baby Syndrome is actually caused by vaccines. As one who works in a field that deals with baby shakers, I find this particularly disgusting.
Jim, “he” is a 60-year-old grandmother/teacher/independent investigative researcher in the health field and a published writer. I’ve been researching health issues since 1979, and vaccines since 1986. I’m an academic, not a myth master buying into the kind of brainwashing we have all been subjected too since birth, but only by the terrifying “luck” of having been confronted by medical disasters that gave me a wake-up call and made be go searching for “the light” of truth to understand what, how, and why.
“So, how do you explain this grand conspiracy? Is my pediatrician injecting these poisons into my children to make an extra buck for the evil pharmaceutical companies?”
First of all, your pediatrition is trained in a conventional medical facility under the control of Big Pharma by way of funding, and he believes what he learned in school. Like most, he accepts the “party line” without question and without independent research. Besides which, if he didn’t vaccinate, he would be out of business since this is the bulk of income for all conventional (allopathic) pediatricians. They don’t do their homework. And since 1986 they, along with vaccine manufacturers, have been freed from any liability for vaccine injuries. Those are paid by the taxpayers through a government “vaccine injury” program. By the admission of the government, only from 1-10% of all immediately known vaccine injuries are ever reported, and if they even report 1%, I would be amazed, because to do so brings the wrath of the medical profession down upon them. And then, out of that tiny percent of reported cases, the governement fights tooth and nail to dismiss them, ending up paying out out on only 25% of the cases, which is over the $1 billion mark now, according to government sources. If you want a real eye-opener, go to VAERS gov’t site and look at the list of symptoms, conditions and diseases listed as “vaccine injuries”.
“Why? Why does 100% of the legitimate, respected, peer-reviewed medical and scientific community disagree with you?”
Where do you think my information comes from? Of course legitimate, respected, peer-reviewed medical and scientific “community” (journals and scientific publications) You have to dig for the information, but it’s all there. Most of my information is cited, as demonstrated above. All journals are peer-reviewed, but only a few are not Pharma-controlled, such as the Journal of Physicians and Surgeons, and alternative journals, but they go through the same process of peer-review, demanding full documentation, and accepting challenge. But I get information, as do many others, from the best-known journals in the world–JAMA, NEJM, LANCET–and they have a wealth of information an the dangers and ineffectiveness of vaccines, although they also contain a mountain of doctored studies, misrepresented research, and fraud. Luckily, there are professionals who can look at the raw data and expose them in detail.
“What are they ALL hiding, and why?”
“ALL”? A thinking person doesn’t resort to this kind of exaggeration. There is no “all” in these issues. First of all, the business of vaccination is a multi-billion dollar industry for those who put profit first. Second, it could be a multi-billion dollar liability if all of those in the know spoke out. The ones who do are mostly retired doctors and scientists. If not, their professional reputations and livelihoods would be destroyed, as can be seen by the “whistle-blower” who published his studies on the link between vaccines and autism–Dr. Wakefield. Just a few weeks ago a study was published involving baby monkeys put on the same vaccine schedule as human infants…resulting in autism-like and other neurological symptoms. The government already knew–there are published documents from committee reports that prove this. And it’s not just the mercury in vaccines, it’s the whole package.
As an example, the recent POLLING case was an admission that a vaccination caused autism in a young girl, but the government jumped to claim it was due to a prior “mitochondrial disorder” making her more susceptible to harm. But all you have to do is Google, or better yet http://scholar.google.com (my usual search engine) using the key words mercury + mitachondrial disease, or “mitachondria” or thimerosal + mitachondria (mitachondrial disease, disorder) to find the truth–that mercury products CAUSE this condition.
“This nonsense reminds me of those who believed OJ Simpson was framed by the LAPD - do you realize how many thousands millions of individuals would have to be involved in this conspiracy?”
I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s people who refer to documented information as “nonsense” based on their personal opinions without doing any homework that puts an edge to my “voice”. I worked for years as a substitute teacher rather than take a full time teaching job, giving up benefits , retirement, and the joy of teaching in my field of expertise just to make the time to continue as an unpaid researcher, to try to educate people without renumeration because it was right.
As for the “thousands of millions” involved in a conspiracy, it isn’t that at all. I started out like everyone else, and even worked in the medical field to put myself through college–a full member of “The Church of Modern Medicine” until tragic circumstances compelled me to look deeper. Those numbers aren’t involved in a “conspiracy”, they are simply misinformed and unaware of the real story. Ignorance is quite different from participation in a conspiracy, and that is the fault of those who do participate in conspiracies for the reasons mentioned. Emmense profits and enormous liabilities are great motivators in their case.
As for the SBS controversy, did I say “vaccines cause SBS?” No–at the heading of my website I clearly state that poor maternal diet, excess coffee, sugar and smoking, coupled with formula feeding, natural infection with bacteria or virus, OR vaccines which have the same effect, the use of antibiotics and antihistamines, resulting endotoxin poisons, increased blood histamine levels and vitamin C deficiencies can cause accelerated Moeller-Barlow’s disease variant (infantile scurvy-endotoxemia) which produces EXACTLY the same symptoms found in babies assumed to be “shaken” while there has never been a single case of reliably witnessed case of “shaking” that did. Infantile scuvy was listed as a “differential diagnosis” (other causes) in the journal articles from which SBS theory arose, but Dr. John Caffey did improper scientific investigation by not testing for and excluding this and other causes as is required in proper scientific investigation. He knew that infantile scurvy matched all the symptoms he attributed to “shaking” but it was occurring in younger ages than expected. He didn’t factor in the causes which accelerated this process, and so dismissed it without properly using scientific method to do so.
Babies do get shaken in frustration, but it’s already been demonstrated that violent shaking would damage the delicate neck and spine structures before any brain damage occurred and this simply isn’t seen in these babies. The “frustration” almost always arises from the “inconsolable crying”of an infant, and this in itself is a symptom, particularly of vaccine-induced encephalitis, meaning the symptoms were there prior to shaking, not after. And in other cases where caretakers admit to shaking, but not violently, it almost always follows an infant that has vomited, gone into seisures and quit breathing or become comatose or died and the adult gently shakes the baby to “wake it up” or in the case of those trained in infant CPR, the “shake and shout” method is used to determine if there is any response before applying CPR, which must not be done on a breathing, conscious infant. Then the adult is blamed for gentle shaking done after the fact, and convicted for trying to save the baby’s life in response to the condition. They are blamed for causing the thing they responded to.
Child abuse happens and it needs to be avoided and stopped, but the wrongful conviction of the innocent destroys lives, families, and children and is tragic in its own right. There are tests that can separate the innocent from the guilty, but in spite of medical guidelines instructing this to be done (Differential Diagnosis), it never is in the one single instance known in modern medicine. In any other medical situation, if medical guidelines were ignored or otherwise intentionally by-passed, the offending doctor violating these guidelines could lose their license, be sued, and/or go to prison. SBS is unique in this respect. Avoiding the search for other causes to properly eliminate them has become standard procedure in complete violation of published convention medical guidelines.
Do you believe that eliminating other causes should be ignored? That’s all that we–an international cohort of researchers, writers, doctors, scientists and victims–ask for.
djt,
With all due respect - and as I mentioned in the post - I’m really not interested in debating the issue. That vaccination programs work; that they have saved countless lives and prevented untold human suffering is a scientific fact. Are vaccination programs perfect? No. Are there risks? Yes. Is there room for improvement? Of course.
And please don’t throw one-sentence excerpts from massive medical and scientific studies and then say, “See!” We all know studies can be cherry-picked to make them say whatever any quack wants to make them say. For example, Dr. Edgar Crookshank didn’t oppose vaccinations per se, but a particular kind of vaccine. Crookshank offered an alternative, many said a more dangerous, type of vaccine. You see, djt, many of the very individuals and organizations you’re citing SUPPORT VACCINATIONS!
Good luck with your crusade. Well, no… to be honest I wish you miserable failure; failure in your crusade against vaccinations, that is. I wish you and yours only the best otherwise!