Olivier Clerc’s book, Modern Medicine: The New World Religion, suggests at least ten ways medicine has taken the place of religion in the Western world, including:
- Physicians have taken the role of priests (and, I might add, lab coats have replaced robes).
- Vaccination plays the same initiatory role as baptism (accompanied by threats and fears).
- Eradication of viruses has taken the place of exorcising demons.
- The hope of physical immortality (cloning, genetic engineering, cybernetics) has substituted faith in spiritual immortality.
- Pills have replaced the Christian sacraments of bread and wine.
- Donations to medical research (e.g. cancer, AIDS, Parkinson’s) have replaced tithing to churches.
- Medical institutions help the government justify all sorts of nonsense, as the Catholic Church did in the past.
- “Charlatans” are persecuted today as “heretics” were yesterday.
- Medical dogmatism rules out alternative health approaches.
- The same absence of individual responsibility is now found in patient care, as previously in many religious practictioners.
Any of that sound familiar, these days? I might add that the WHO has replaced the Vatican; and COVID-19 has become the demon that needs exorcising at all costs. (For more on new normal rituals check out my previous post about appeasing the god of COVID.)
About the Author: John C. A. Manley is the author of the full-length novel, Much Ado About Corona: Dystopian Love Story. He is currently working on the sequel, Brave New Normal, while living in Stratford Ontario, with his wife Nicole and son Jonah. You can 