“Pseudoscience is a claim, belief or practice which is falsely presented as scientific, but does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting scientific evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status.1
I’ve recently had a dialogue with a reader regarding a recent post. My friend is a Christian Scientist, while I, obviously, am not. The discussion centred somewhat around end-of-life issues, and it’s prompted me to think about this rather uncomfortable subject. Continue reading
It’s official: I’m a sensitive guy. I received that diagnosis recently during a visit to the emergency room at the local hospital. This visit was occasioned by a sudden, unpleasant, and quite alarming rash that broke out all over my body; and given that it was late in the evening on a Sunday, going to a walk-in clinic or my own doctor were not going to be options, so I went to the ER. The rash had arisen the day before in a much milder form, and had somewhat subsided overnight, but now it had reared its ugly head in a much more alarming form, worse than I had ever experienced such a rash in the past. Continue reading
“Somewhere over the rainbow way up high
There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.”
~From the movie “The Wizard of Oz” (music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E. Y. Harburg)
Praying for a healing in Christian Science is sort of like chasing a rainbow. You feel like you can almost touch it, get close to it, but it remains ever elusive. Continue reading
In conjunction with my friend Kat, a fellow former Christian Scientist who blogs at Kindism, I’ll be posting a series of posts we’ll be writing that deal with how Christian Science has, and continues to masquerade as something it’s not. These posts will appear simultaneously on Kindism and here on Emerging Gently. Today, Kat writes about Christian Science nursing. You can find this series of posts under the category “Christian Science Masquerade Ball”.
I was going to write a post comparing and contrasting Christian Science Nursing with modern medical nursing until I came to the Church’s own page about the topic and read what Christian Science Nursing actually entails, and my desire to write a polite analysis went out the window and I had an overwhelming desire to smash my head repeatedly into a wall.
Image credit: Imgarcade (www.imgarcade.com).
This is another in an occasional series of posts dealing with contradictions within the practice and/or culture of Christian Science. For other posts, check out the topic ‘Contradictions‘.
Among my ex-Christian Scientist friends, I’ve seen discussion of the “No True Scotsman” informal fallacy as it relates to Christian Science, Christian Scientists, and of interest to me–ex-Christian Scientists. This discussion also applies to former Christians (of any other Christian denomination) as well, and you can read an excellent discussion of that here. Continue reading
I’ve had a few posts now of former Christian Scientists sharing on various subjects in their own words. Continuing on this idea, and happily letting others write some blog posts for me, I present more former Christian Scientists in their own words. I only edit the comments for context; clarification of terms, clarification of references, or clarification of lingo that’s used; and to remove any identifying details. I only share comments here with permission of the commenters.
Question: How long have you been free from Christian Science? Continue reading
Morality can be a shifting line, and there are definitely some gray areas. For some, living in a sexual relationship outside of marriage is absolutely immoral, for many others, it’s not. It’s not illegal to have sex outside of marriage, or for couples in relationships to live together outside of marriage, but just because it’s not illegal, is it right to do this? Many will argue that it’s not ok. I don’t care either way. But, I have a different issue in mind here outside of sexual morality (a very weird subject in connection to Christian Science, by the way). My issue relates to the raising and protecting of children. Continue reading
I have previously posted some comments shared on-line by former Christian Scientists on a different topic. Click here for my previous post.
Once again, my ex-Christian Scientist friends on Facebook have proven to be a great source of material for me here on this blog. In parlance that will be very familiar to any of us who’ve sat through a Wednesday Testimony Meeting, I’d like to thank the previous testifiers for their inspiring comments. Continue reading
In the United States, it’s the Thanksgiving Day holiday, and all the good little American Christian Scientists will be dutifully heading to church for the annual Thanksgiving Day church service. Here in Canada, where I live and work, it’s just another day at the office. Our Thanksgiving Day was just over a month ago, and the one or two hundred or so Christian Scientists out of our population of over 30 million have already effusively thanked Mary Baker Eddy for her accursed “discovery” of Christian Science. However, a post from my friend over at Kindism has inspired me to throw down a few words of gratitude as I reflect on another year free of the massive mind-fuck that is Christian Science. Continue reading
Emerging Gently 