Rapid Response British Medical Journal 11 May 2001: Only fruitcakes believe in GOD?
Re:Re: Luc Montagnier … and Andrew Wakefield: living parallel lives
Felix ID Konotey-Ahulu, Dr Kwegyir Aggrey Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Consultant Physician Genetic Counsellor in Sickle Cell & Other Haemoglobinopathies 10 Harley St London W1G 9PF
Only fruitcakes believe in GOD? http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d2642/reply#bmj_el_260425
Dr Mark Struthers (9 May) has a huge, huge problem. He said this: “I understand there are medical scientists – admittedly at the fruitcake end of the spectrum – who believe in God despite there being not a shred of scientific evidence, medical or otherwise of His existence” [1] Can Dr Struthers provide us with “a shred of evidence” that his brain is sharper than Blaise Pascal’s ever was?
THE GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT OF REASON
Pascal said “There are two excesses: to exclude reason, to admit nothing but reason. The supreme achievement of reason is to realize that there is a limit to reason. Reason’s last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it. It is merely feeble if it does not go as far as to realize that” [2]. And Blaise Pascal believed in God. He was no fruitcake.
DAVID MARTYN LLOYD-JONES
Or take Dr David Martyn Lloyd-Jones MB BS(Honours) MD MRCP who died the year Mark Struthers qualified from the University of Sheffield. Lloyd- Jones whom I knew personally, had a great brain, certainly not a fruitcake. His MD Thesis was on Sub-acute Bacterial Endocarditis after qualifying with Honours and Distinction from St Bartholomew’s Teaching Hospital. Lord Horder, Physician of King George and the Royal Household, and Consultant Physician at Bart’s picked Lloyd-Jones to be his Assistant, and they attended Royalty together. Dr Lloyd-Jones believed in God, and has more than 30 books in print – all of them on God. He was an amazing logician, orator, debater, with an unusual, analytical mind. He was no fruitcake.
KING DAVID
But I rather also admire that remarkably brilliant Hebrew King who reigned in Jerusalem. King David was brilliant, having clearly inherited what I have come to call “solomonic genius” from his father, the legendary King Solomon whose wisdom was proverbial, attracting people from the far corners of the earth to see and sample. King David has left us a treasure trove of wisdom in his Psalms, one of which (Psalm 119) contains 176 (one hundred and seventy six) verses. But the reason I name King David among those I am convinced are not fruitcakes, and yet believe in God, is this: King David is an amazing diagnostician. I sincerely advise Dr Mark Struthers to visit his local library and ask them to show him King David’s Psalms. The diagnosis the King makes in Chapter 14 verse 1 is spot on! (Even better than comparable diagnoses Sir Stanford Cade FRCS, Sir Richard Bayliss FRCP, Sir Arthur Bell FRCOG, and Sir Clement Price-Thomas FRCS, taught me to make when I was a medical student at Westminster Hospital School of Medicine in Horseferry Road, London SW1). Now, if after reading Psalm 14 verse 1, Dr Struthers wants a second opinion from King David, I suggest Psalm 53 verse 1.
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE
Dr Mark Struthers mentions “scientific evidence” [1] as if it was the pinnacle of all truth. My favourite Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine/Physiology is Professor Sir Peter Medawar. His book, “The Limits of Science” [3] is one that I suggest should be compulsory reading for those like Dr Mark Struthers approaching retirement from active Medical Practice and who think they “know it all” [4]
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
By the way, does Dr Mark Struthers think President Barack Obama is a fruitcake? Cerebrally the man is head and shoulders above most people, quite apart from being a Nobel Laureate. And he believes in God.
Felix ID Konotey-Ahulu MD FRCP DTMH Kwegyir Aggrey Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana and Consultant Physician Genetic Counsellor in Sickle Cell and Other Haemoglobinopathies, 10 Harley Street, London W1G 9PF
Conflict of interest: Nothing to declare
1. Struthers Mark. Re: Luc Montagnier … and Andrew Wakefield: living parallel lives BMJ Rapid Response 9 May 2011 http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d2642/reply#bmj_el_260294
2. Pascal B. Pensees (1657). London: Penguin Books, 1966 (Translated by A Krailsheimer)
3. Medawar P. The Limits of Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
4. Konotey-Ahulu FID. The supra-scientific in clinical medicine: a challenge for Professor Know-All. BMJ 2001; 323: 1452-1453 22-29 December. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1121901
Competing interests: None declared [See next article with Correction]
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Published 11 May 2011