Thank GOD I'm alive!

Our ultimate purpose as medical providers is to care for the patient. Part of caring for a patient is offering comfort. If I felt it would make a patient truly feel better to hold their hand and go through the motions of praying with them then I would. I would feel awkward and uncomfortable but I also feel awkward and uncomfortable when I'm wiping poop off a patient or trying to get some vomit covered drunk into the stretcher. It doesn't harm me in any way to accept someones prayers or pretend to pray with them. It doesn't matter that I don't believe in it what matters is that they feel better.
 
I am a christian, and when I am faced with a non Christian patient, I am as quietly respectful as ever. The message of christianity is love and acceptance, and I figure that starts with me.

If they want me to pray with them, I pray silently. If they want to pray for me (this happened once in a Jehovah's witness service) I let them, unless it's disruptive to the work at hand.

It is only awkward when there are signs of open hostility between me and the family or patient, and those instances, they just assumed I was whatever hostile Christian they imagined. I am just not like that. Happy to tell you what I believe if you ask, happy to be nice to you the rest of the time.

I will say that the area I live and work in is not very culturally diverse at all, most of the people are nominally Christian. I haven't run into a situation like this in years. Racial situations or women insults are way more common.
 
Veneficus said:
I thought dispatch was god,

You are just sitting there minding your own business when a disembodied voice tells you where to go and without question or thought, you stop whatever you are doing and follow the instructions.
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lol so true
 
I think house said it best: "I better not see you praying, I'm not sharing credit for this."

On a serious note, believe what you want, but respect the pts beliefs.
 
I dont see things as when its your time, its your time.

I like to think people have control over their destiny and we are put in place to make a difference. Sometime we can, sometimes we cant.
 
I do not look into this as much as the OP apparently does, I just go to work and do my job. I am Christian so If I am off on sundays I go to church. End of story, I do not give weird looks or commence biting of the tounge every time someone says something "un-christian" I just let people be, I smile and treat them with respect, this life is to short to argue about whether or not it was God or the AED, just go to work do your thing and do it well and then go home(all the while remaining neutral like your supposed to)
 
Sasha said:
Where is your evidence that God does NOT exist? You have evidence of evolution, yes, and disprove the bible but where is your evidence that there isn't a superpowerful omnipresent being in the sky who is guiding evolution or coordinating everything?

So you throwing scientific evidence in their face only proves evolution but does not disprove the existence of God. So again, how do you know it wasn't God? You don't. You take a chance, you believe one thing, and you are either right or wrong when you die.

I'm an atheist. I will reiterate that. But I am not going to be so smug to think that there is no chance I'm wrong, because again, no one has disproven the existence of a God. Therefore I will be happy to let others believe as they will without calling them flawed or insinuating they're stupid.

And homeopathic methods exist because some have gotten results. Not my cup of tea, honestly. But if someone doesn't believe in chemotherapy and radiation, its not going to be as effective. The human mind is a beautiful thing. If you believe something won't work, it probably won't.
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Why yes, just the other day dropped a bunch of acid and since I truely believed it wasn't going to do anything.....nothing happened!

Those people that got results.....I'm thinking a good portion would have gotten the same results if they had done nothing. The human mind is a beautiful thing, and the human body is pretty resiliant.

Looking at facts, thinking about things rationally and expecting people to do the same, isn't smug. Religion always gets a pass and it isn't fair. Yes, some things can't be explained. If that's the case, you say "this can't be explained, but we're trying to figure it out". You don't make up a fairy tale and call it truth.

I will be the first one apologising and admiting I was wrong when jesus or whoever comes flying down here.

Also, I apologize if ruffled (continuing to ruffle?) some feathers. It's easier to have verbal diahehha via text. I'm seriously not out on the world eviscerating the faithful. :)

* also......this probably doesn't need to be said but.....i really didn't drop a bunch of acid. Just what I need a potential employer to find on the interwebs.
 
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akflightmedic said:
Ahhh but what if my unicorn group grows and the passion for the horny one spreads? What if my group gets so large we start building phallic temples on every corner? What if our deity starts making requests that impact YOUR life...a non-horned one?

What if that group becomes so powerful and raises so much money and has so much influence that they are able to influence laws regulating your non horny life? Yet while doing all of this, they are respectful, they just want to regulate your life and activities-respectfully.
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:wub:

*didn't mean to derail. I hadn't read all the posts before I responded*
 
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Oh, God!

Cindigo said:
But, what I found irritating....after his long story about all the things that came together.....the luck of having a AED available, people at the gym that had just taken a CPR class to begin compressions and respirations immediately, the paramedics who arrived promptly and did everything they were trained to do, the doctors and hospital staff that went to school for years and years.....this guy at the end of his story says.....

"Thank God for his grace. It must not have been time for me to go"

Oh boy did I almost bite my tongue in half.
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What's to bite? Oh, I get it, God gets all the credit, is that it?

It would seem Something would have had to put all that stuff together for the guy's life to be saved because that's how we think; cause and effect. When we run out of explanations we call on this person called "God" and as best as I can tell, most everyone's talking about the same entity: That which you turn to when nothing else makes sense or is too long to think about! It's got all sorts of names and "stuff" behind it.

Maybe God is just shorthand and Atheists just prefer to take their time exploring!

As far as I'm concerned, God is self-titrating medicine; a lot of people call upon it when they need it, and if I can support their choices in handling the trauma through it I will.

What if God were just one more key on our key rings? It doesn't matter what WE beleive, if the patient can get help from ANYTHING to mobilize their own healing systems, why shouldn't we use it?

Personally, I think we are so far away - in evolution - from being able to grasp the Mystery, we're all self-deluded fools on the same boat.
 
But.

I can see how your upset but....at the end of the day if your religious you know God decides if you make it or not.

Anyway you don't into EMS expecting thank yous
 
firetender said:
Personally, I think we are so far away - in evolution - from being able to grasp the Mystery, we're all self-deluded fools on the same boat.
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S'true.

I do want to explain one thing though. There's been alot of comments about thinking that I, or science or medicine deserved the credit and that's where I got upset.

I don't think I made it clear in my original post, and probably by re-explaining it, it's just going to make me sound more arrogant and judgmental but, what the hell.

It's the logic part that bothers me. Stick with me, I've been told my analogies are horrible, but, I do love them so. Hearing him (the guy in starbucks) was like someone saying, red, red or green, red, green or blue, red, green or blue. Ahhhh, I get it POTATO!

Sometimes when I encounter people it's just hard for me to understand where "potato" came from. But, most likely, the people who came up with "potato" are looking at me like, "how did you not get "potato?".

Really, I know that everyone has their thing, and I'm not going to be a **** to a patient. When my dad was dying, I stood over his body and read the two sides of the prayer card over and over that he carried in his wallet crying my eyes out until he took his last breath. That's what he wanted. That's what made him comfortable. I'm going to do it.

There are times to speak up, and there are times to not. I'm going to be biting my tongue if you're healthy, sitting in a starbucks and in my thinking are "misguided" (just my opinion....I'm sure alot of you think I'm the "misguided" one). I'm quiet, respectful and will do whatever it takes if you're in crisis.
 
If you believe in the Big Bang. What triggered it and what exploded?

If you believe in God. Where did he/she/it come from?

Does it really matter?
 
cruiseforever said:
If you believe in the Big Bang. What triggered it and what exploded?

If you believe in God. Where did he/she/it come from?

Does it really matter?
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I believe FFEMT8978 said it best with...

ffemt8978 said:
I don't think EMTLife.com is the appropriate place to discuss the existence or non-existence of a Supreme Entity.

Instead, why don't we get back to the original topic of this thread...EMS providers interactions with patients religious beliefs.
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It's all business.

Be quiet and respectful, the client/patient's beliefs aren't the issue.

Many of them will have other thought-sets you must trust me that you will never want to hear about if thanking their god for deliverance is enough to bother you. Just do the medical thing, thanks folks for their concern, and give them a fake address to send their canvassers to.

(OP, were you wearing that name tag that said "GOD" again?).;)


hello-my-name-is-god.jpg


Before I visited Afghanistan recently I read up on many cultural aspects of the general area, and started trying to practice them stateside (not obviously on EMTLIFE). Most were not religious, but the point is that, unless I pointed it out, no one noticed. And it can be really eye-opening to see how many little things* are culturally upsetting; folks from other cultures are BOMBARDED by our mannerisms (not to mention check-out line tabloid covers) and keep it together, we can too.

*such as: pointing with your finger, the "OK thumb-to-index finger sign, the "thumbs-up" ok sign, making too much eye contact upon meeting, shaking hands too hard, getting to the point too fast when first meeting (again), interrupting your elders, asking about their wife's health (as in "How's the wife?"), etc etc.
 
Bottom line...I think the OP was just trying to express some irritation with the Pt's perception of who was doing the "saving"....Narcissistic...I don't think so. We all work hard to give our Pt's the best possible care and outcome regardless of their beliefs. But I get irritated when people credit/thank "God". Believe what you want to. That's your right. But give credit where credit is due.
 
Thriceknight said:
Bottom line...I think the OP was just trying to express some irritation with the Pt's perception of who was doing the "saving"....Narcissistic...I don't think so. We all work hard to give our Pt's the best possible care and outcome regardless of their beliefs. But I get irritated when people credit/thank "God". Believe what you want to. That's your right. But give credit where credit is due.
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Getting a bit metaphysical here, but who's to say that it's not God or chance or fate that you happened to be there?

Admittedly, I do get irked when people thank God for their healing and disregard the medical personnel. But its a thought. Something brought you to EMS, and really, no one can say with surety whether or not its the fickle hand of fate.
 
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