S
Scanner
Guest
Okay, I don’t know if this should be a conversation between myself and my parish priest but I sometimes feel some anonimity of the internet helps, especially because what I do is community based. So, I hope that you will give your opinions.
I can’t decide if something is a violation of the commandment of “not having false gods before me”/“idol worship.”
It’s a bit of long story so bear with me and I’ll try to be as impartial as I can. I am a chiropractor. Probably many of you have been - it is fairly mainstreamed at this point. I think I am good at it; well, many of my patients think so anyway . However, deeply rooted in our history is some beleifs I have found troubling, because there are a certain number, bigger than you might imagine that adhere to these beleifs even today, in modern 2004.
Some of my colleagues beleive in 2 concepts they call - “universal intelligence” and “innate intelligence.” The former is kind of the politically correct acronym for God, which I can understand so if one is Buddhist, they can relate. Innate intelligence is the entity inside our body that causes us heal. Doctor’s have recognized this for centuries so this is nothing new. For instance, you get a cut on your arm, your body will know how to heal it without any direction from anyone. It just does it. Innate intelligence is kind of that wonderous force that you see when you look in a microscope and see a cell dividing, with all it’s chromosomes knowing exactly what to do and where. To me, when I have seen that, it’s like seeing God in action. It deepens my faith it is so wonderous.
Now, this is where it gets sticky in my opinion - some chiropractors beleive they have the power, by aligning the spine, to increase innate intelligence or maybe more accurately it’s expression in a person’s body. They believe that when a spine is misaligned, that the bone on the nerves are somehow interfering with this magical/metaphysical innate intelligence. And by adjusting it, you are increasing its expression. Almost “vivifying” the body or increase it’s “vitalism.”
To me, I find this unsettling; it is almost akin to saying you are able to “breath life” or maybe more accurately “increase life” in an individual. I mean, I feel like any other doctor - I look on at innate intelligence/the body with reverence and awe but I don’t claim to have any indirect control of ti. It seems in direct violation with Commandment 1.
I never much thought about it before because I thought the group small in size but lately I have been more disturbed by it. I have been practicing for 7years and of course, have never preached it, never beleived it, kind of just passed it off as history, yet, I do see my colleagues preach this doctrine and proclaim this more than I care to admit.
Another thing I suppose that disturbs me is that many of these chiropractic meetings are eeriely similiar to a “Revival” with handholding, hugging, and preaching about “the power that made the body, heals the body.”
Many of this group accept donations in a box at the front of the office making it eeriely similar to a ministry or church.
Of course, I have never suscribed to any of it or go to these meetings. Well, actually not true, I was at one and was just shocked. It’s where I found about it.
My question is open ended - what do you think? Am I making a mountain out of molehill? Can I just do my own thing and yet be a part of a group that at least allows this preaching to continue? Or am I turning my back on God by indirectly empowering it? I have confronted them about it but they just claim, “You are mischaracterizing us, you can be Catholic/Protestant/Hindu and still be a straight (straight describes this philosophy) chiropractor.” Maybe I am but my heart tells me no, because when I confront them, they backtrack/retreat.
It may seem trivial to you but because this is my career, I have actually been more and more preoccupied with this as of lately. Sometimes, it seems to be growing, not diminishing, especially as people embrace alternative health care more and managed care becomes problematic in reimbursement and the more “areligious/impartial” doctors are falling by the wayside.
Thanks in advance for you (name removed by moderator)ut.
I can’t decide if something is a violation of the commandment of “not having false gods before me”/“idol worship.”
It’s a bit of long story so bear with me and I’ll try to be as impartial as I can. I am a chiropractor. Probably many of you have been - it is fairly mainstreamed at this point. I think I am good at it; well, many of my patients think so anyway . However, deeply rooted in our history is some beleifs I have found troubling, because there are a certain number, bigger than you might imagine that adhere to these beleifs even today, in modern 2004.
Some of my colleagues beleive in 2 concepts they call - “universal intelligence” and “innate intelligence.” The former is kind of the politically correct acronym for God, which I can understand so if one is Buddhist, they can relate. Innate intelligence is the entity inside our body that causes us heal. Doctor’s have recognized this for centuries so this is nothing new. For instance, you get a cut on your arm, your body will know how to heal it without any direction from anyone. It just does it. Innate intelligence is kind of that wonderous force that you see when you look in a microscope and see a cell dividing, with all it’s chromosomes knowing exactly what to do and where. To me, when I have seen that, it’s like seeing God in action. It deepens my faith it is so wonderous.
Now, this is where it gets sticky in my opinion - some chiropractors beleive they have the power, by aligning the spine, to increase innate intelligence or maybe more accurately it’s expression in a person’s body. They believe that when a spine is misaligned, that the bone on the nerves are somehow interfering with this magical/metaphysical innate intelligence. And by adjusting it, you are increasing its expression. Almost “vivifying” the body or increase it’s “vitalism.”
To me, I find this unsettling; it is almost akin to saying you are able to “breath life” or maybe more accurately “increase life” in an individual. I mean, I feel like any other doctor - I look on at innate intelligence/the body with reverence and awe but I don’t claim to have any indirect control of ti. It seems in direct violation with Commandment 1.
I never much thought about it before because I thought the group small in size but lately I have been more disturbed by it. I have been practicing for 7years and of course, have never preached it, never beleived it, kind of just passed it off as history, yet, I do see my colleagues preach this doctrine and proclaim this more than I care to admit.
Another thing I suppose that disturbs me is that many of these chiropractic meetings are eeriely similiar to a “Revival” with handholding, hugging, and preaching about “the power that made the body, heals the body.”
Many of this group accept donations in a box at the front of the office making it eeriely similar to a ministry or church.
Of course, I have never suscribed to any of it or go to these meetings. Well, actually not true, I was at one and was just shocked. It’s where I found about it.
My question is open ended - what do you think? Am I making a mountain out of molehill? Can I just do my own thing and yet be a part of a group that at least allows this preaching to continue? Or am I turning my back on God by indirectly empowering it? I have confronted them about it but they just claim, “You are mischaracterizing us, you can be Catholic/Protestant/Hindu and still be a straight (straight describes this philosophy) chiropractor.” Maybe I am but my heart tells me no, because when I confront them, they backtrack/retreat.
It may seem trivial to you but because this is my career, I have actually been more and more preoccupied with this as of lately. Sometimes, it seems to be growing, not diminishing, especially as people embrace alternative health care more and managed care becomes problematic in reimbursement and the more “areligious/impartial” doctors are falling by the wayside.
Thanks in advance for you (name removed by moderator)ut.