Influenza, Nostalgia, Science, Ethics, and Me

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, used w/o permission)
"A Weekly Influenza Surveillance Report Prepared by the Influenza Division"
(Week ending January 5, 2013)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that we've now got a flu epidemic in America. I see that Canada has a similar problem:

• "Early cases of norovirus and influenza detected in Nanaimo"
  Niomi Pearson, Naniamo News Bulletin (British Columbia) (January 12, 2013)
• "Chicago, like the nation, in midst of 'very bad' flu season"
  Patrick Svitek, Chicago Tribune (January 12, 2013)
• "Flu reaches epidemic level in U.S., says CDC"
  Reuters (January 11, 2013)
• "Region sees increasing number of influenza cases"
  Marta Hepler Drahos, Traverse City Record-Eagle (January 11, 2013)

I posted a short list of resources from the CDC and NIH yesterday, plus why it's okay to stay healthy:

• "A Flu Epidemic, Common Sense, and Mathew 22:36-40"
  (January 12, 2013)

Believing that being healthy, and trying to stay that way, is okay may seem obvious. Folks get odd ideas now and then, and I'll get back to that.

Nostalgia and Current Events

My guess is that a hundred years or so from now, some folks will yearn for 'those wonderful decades of the early 21st century.'

Comparing their current events to the best of this era, it may seem that in the 'good old days' of 2013 people were good; and kind; and devout; and all was right with the world.

That's not what I'm experiencing right now, but I'm living in this period: not looking back on it through rose colored glasses.

Science, Technology, Religion, and the 'Good Old Days'

It seems easy to look back at 'simpler' times, and forget unpleasant details. Here's part of why I don't miss the 'good old days:'

• "Cholera Epidemics in the 19th Century"
  Open Collections Program, Harvard
• "Cholera in the 19th Century"
  The Lamb Collection (Scotland)
• "Cholera in Nineteenth Century New York"
  Epidemics, Virtual New York City
• "Diseases and epidemics"
  Science Museum (UK)
• "Public health and epidemics in the 19th century"
  The National Archives (UK)

Loathing technology was fashionable recently. Maybe it was an overreaction to the earlier notion that science and technology will solve all our problems. I think both ideas are silly, but I can see how someone could believe either.

Today, most Americans have become accustomed to clean water and comparatively good health. Many of us also have to deal with smog, traffic jams, and daytime television programming.

Folks living in the 19th and early 20th centuries were becoming accustomed to a fairly steady stream of inventions, including:

• 1801 to 1899
  • Anesthesia
  • Antiseptics
  • The Jacquard Loom
  • The McCormick reaper
  • Steam locomotives
  • The telegraph
  • A variety of electric lighting devices
    (about.com: 1800s)
• 1900 to 1950
  • Air conditioners
  • Kidney dialysis machines
  • Neon lights
  • Penicillin
  • Talking motion pictures
  • Radio transmitters and receivers
  • Zeppelins
    • Okay: so not all inventions caught on
    (about.com: 1900s)

While this was going on, a remarkable number of loudly-religious folks were insisting that Earth was about 6,000 years old, and that science was evil.

Small wonder that some folks who preferred health to disease, and didn't fear learning more about this astounding universe, started wondering whether "religion" made sense.

I decided that God makes sense, and that religion isn't necessarily a psychiatric condition. I also became a Catholic.

Using Our Brains

Getting back to staying healthy, and odd ideas: I think health and life are precious. I also think that God gave each of us a brain, and expects us to use it.

Being able to do something doesn't necessarily mean it's okay, though: which reminds me of Marlowe's Faust, movies like "The Man With the X-Ray Eyes," and that's another topic. (November 28, 2011)

Our intentions, what we want to accomplish, matter, but 'doing evil that good may follow' isn't allowed. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1759)

Health and Ethics

Some folks are famous for letting themselves get sick, like Saint Damien of Molokai. Not that he tried to get sick, and that's almost another topic. (May 11, 2010)

Although risking life and health for the sake of others can be a good idea, the Catholic Church says that staying alive and healthy is also a good idea:

"Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good."
(Catechism, 2288)

On the other hand, obsession with health and fitness is a very bad idea. (Catechism, 2289)

More good ideas:

• Scientific research
  • But ethics apply
    (Catechism, 2292-2295)
• Organ transplants
  (Catechism, 2296)

Organ transplants are fine, but not killing someone and breaking down the body for parts: not even if someone else really needs a transplant. It's those pesky 'ethics' again. (Catechism, 2296)

Ethics and an Infected Tooth

On a more personal note, one of my teeth needs to be removed. A premolar that's been rebuilt twice finally got an infection around the root. I'm quite sure that trying to fix that tooth earlier, and removing it now, is taking "reasonable care" of my health.

By noon tomorrow, I'll have one less tooth. After that, the question is whether it makes sense to try replacing it: and if so, which of several methods to use.

If it was just a matter of having an attractive smile, I wouldn't bother with any sort of replacement. That premolar served a function, though: and leaving a gap might affect other teeth. It's hardly a 'life or death' decision, happily.

The sort of "vanity" involved here is more of the Eccliastes 1:2 preoccupation with worldly things, than being overly concerned about appearance: and that's - you guessed it - yet another topic. (November 6, 2010)

Somewhat-related posts:

• Science
  • "News, Good and Otherwise: and Billions of Worlds"
    (January 11, 2013)
    Particularly
    • Planets Like Earth: Billions of Them
  • "An Ancient Brain, Politics, and Searching for Life on Mars"
    (October 12, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Simple Critter with a Complex Brain, a Half-Billion Years Ago
    • A Scoopful of Mars
  • " 'The World is On Fire' - Again: Saint Teresa of Avila and the New Evangelization"
    (July 22, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Accepting Creation 'As Is'
  • "Taking Life a Thousand Years at a Time"
    (June 10, 2012)
  • "Transhumanism, Bioethics, and Me"
    (April 8, 2012)
• Religion
  • "Freedom, Fear, Mayan 'Doomsday,' and a Solar Super-Flare (Maybe)"
    (November 30, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Science, Religion, and Getting a Grip
  • "America's Election, Religious Freedom, and Other Annoying Topics"
    (November 4, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Ethics and Other Threats to Government Leaders
    • Basically Simple
  • "Catholics aren't Calvinists"
    (May 7, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Too 'Sensible' to Believe in God
    • Be Like Me, or Be Damned?
  • "Beauty, Science, and a Crazy Idea"
    (March 14, 2012)
  • "Science isn't a Four-Letter Word"
    (January 29, 2012)
• Health (from yesterday's post)
  • "Prescriptions, Panic, and Points to Ponder"
    (September 14, 2011)
  • "Called to Holiness, Not Stupidity"
    (February 6, 2011)
  • "Faith With a Cold"
    (October 18, 2010)
  • "Prayer, Medicine and Trusting God"
    (March 4, 2010)
    Particularly
    • Prayer, Trusting God, and Using My Brain
  • "Swine Flu and 'Flurry of Alarmism' - or a Rational Response"
    (April 30, 2009)