The God Delusion and its Negative Impact on Medical Research.

This is not another post about the benefits of stem cell research. It is about something even more fundamentally flawed in the belief systems of religious people that keeps me up at night. It is the myth of the afterlife and its unintentional consequences.

The myth of the afterlife is how people can fly planes into buildings.

The myth of the afterlife is how people can strap bombs to their bodies and kill other human beings.

The myth of the afterlife is also the reason we fail to acknowledge our own mortality and take a lackadaisical approach as a society to medical research.

If we truly accepted our reality for what it is. That this life is all that we have. If we cherished it for what it is there should be no end to the amount of research and development we would devote to the curing of diseases and extending the quality of life.

I don’t want to die.

I don’t want people I love to die.

I believe that we have the capacity for the intellectual and technical skill required for curing cancer or Alzheimer’s.

I just think most people lack the focus or the willingness to accept the reality. This has devastating impacts not only to ourselves but to the people who we love.

Don’t pray for sick, don’t go to the church to light a candle, don’t make a donation to the diocese. These are sure fire ways to do nothing.

Do something real.

Put money in the right coffers.

Get off your knees and do.

Can you imagine the power we could have to change our future if everyone awoke from the myth of god and realized how precious, beautiful and fleeting this life is and how much of a difference a small amount of action by a large number of people can make?

Until we challenge the myth of the afterlife people will continue to blow each other up and millions of us will die while you pray for a miracle and fantasize about puffy clouds and harps.

Remember we are our own miracle.