Richard Hollerman

We may wonder about this but I may as well ask this anyway. Do doctors really? Do physicians care about their duties, their responsibilities, their activities, and their relationships? Are they really interested in what God says about what they do?

We need to ask, “Is your doctor a professing Christian?” We, of course, do not mean a true follower of Christ, but does he (or she) claim to follow Jesus? Years ago, of course, there were no female or woman physicians, but today there are many. And in the past, we know that most came from Europe  or America, but today we find many different nations, especially Asians. When I was  a child, I was brought into this world by an American, then came a long period of time in which two Jews were our personal doctors. I have no idea now that I have moved away from that area in Pennsylvania.

In Texas, where I now reside, first there was a period of time in which I had an Adventist doctor (there is an Adventist hospital nearby, an Adventist University, and many people of this religious group). Then came a time that I had a series of doctors—including an overweight one from America, another from America, for several years another one (a Presbyterian), and during the past 11 or so years, there is a local one from a Megachurch in town.

Regardless of this background, let us deal with the subject of physicians from a Biblical perspective. The term “physician” comes from the Greek iarpos, meaning “a physician” who is “a person skilled in the art of healing” (The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Volume 4, pp. 788-789). Although the first known practitioner came from Egypt and the early doctors were priests who thought that “evil spirits” caused the given condition, we do find a few references to medical treatments in Scripture. There were the Hebrew midwives (Exodus 1:15), and others. Back in Greece, we have Aesculapius (AD 1200 BC), and then there was Hippocrates (460 BC). Aristotle (350 BC) also was a biologist.

In the Bible, perhaps Hezekiah’s “boil” was related to God’s intervention, although figs were involved also (2 Kings 20:1-7).  The Jewish Talmud (AD 500) mentions many physicians in Israel, but these were related to the priests. We also know of the laws of Moses and their possible relation to diseases. In the New Testament, we find also the so-called “good Samaritan” of Luke 10:34 and the condition of Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:23. We know that there must have been many sick, deformed, and injured persons in the New Testament, but the emphasis was the healing related to faith (James 5:14-15).

As we refer to our main emphasis in this article, we must remember the part that sickness and healing, doctors or physicians, had in this. What about Hippocrates (from Greece)? We know that this Greek doctor, well-known in literature and in history, had something to say about this subject.

We do remember the “Hippocratic oath” when someone becomes a physician. We read: “In the oath, the physician pledges to prescribe only beneficial treatments, according to his abilities and judgment; to refrain from causing harm or hurt; and to live an exemplary personal and professional life.” (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hippocratic-oath).

According to what we have discovered, “Hippocratic oath, ethical code attributed to the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, adopted as a guide to conduct by the medical profession throughout the ages and still used in the graduation ceremonies of many medical schools.” (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hippocratic-oath)

It is of interest that this “oath” that has been sworn by would-be physicians for centuries, seems to prescribe to the doctor only that which is good and beneficial to the patient. In other words, the physician is only to prescribe “beneficial treatments” and is to “refrain from causing harm or hurt” which he goes againt his (or her) professional work.

But then we wonder, how is the present-day doctor who has agreed to this oath, to do something that is harm to the patient? Or to others? How does the oath allow the physician to do such things as

Kill a newborn infant?

Allow the mother to agree to this killing?

Allow the physician to agree to drugs?

How is this doctor able to carry on this killing, murder, and such things at the time of his seeing a patient or prescribing a patent’s treatment?

Obviously, the Christian has something more important than a pagan philosopher’s direction. We have God’s own inspired instructions. We follow Jesus and He is our Guide and Leader and Savior!

We must admit that, as Christians, we wonder how a physician can do certain things, prescribe certain poisons, and advise in a certain way. Yet, we also know that the consistent follower of Christ Jesus would not think of dong certain matters as followers of who seeks a consistent walk with Him.

How could a “Christian” doctor (if there is such a thing!) prescribe certain medications that he (or she) knows will do damage to both the patient as well as her offspring? How could a consistent “doctor” view and have constant with the opposite sex, in light of such passages as      1 Corinthians 6:15-20 and Ephesians 5:1-7?

How could the consistent “Christian” physician do anything that would do or advise anything that would terminate or kill a child? By the way, we are using “physician” as the equivalent to a “physician” here.

Further (and we know that this would cause some of our readers to question our findings), we wonder how a woman can be a doctor when she is not to have “authority” over the opposite sex. Further, we wonder how such a woman could have higher education when a woman is not to be away from the house (1 Timothy 5:14; Titus 2:3-5). These are things that not only raise questions but we must conclude that vast numbers of people who aspire to become doctors or physicians are being inconsistent or have no regard for the authority of Scripture.

These are questions that we wonder and they have often come to mind as we go through life. Of the 1,077,115 physicians in America (as of May 2023), what do they do and how do they practice? How many are professing Christians?  We have discovered the following (particularly from the University of Chicago study):

76% do say that they believe in God while only 70% of Americans in general do. (See A University of Chicago study that concluded that “a whopping 76% of doctors stated that they believe in God, compared with only 39% of scientists, and about 70% of Americans overall.” (https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/surprising-results-about-physicians-belief-in-god).

Further, we find the following:

Another interesting issue in the physician’s work environment is that physicians often witness terrible events that most people would consider unfair. Nice people get sick, children lose parents and innocent people suffer. Many would question whether such distressing events would push doctors away from belief in a God. Yet, it appears that even while physicians are exposed to seemingly unjust patient distress, most continue to believe in God.

This is hard to explain, but perhaps it is due to the unexpected peace that many dying patients exhibit or to the observation that many events that appear ‘bad’ are often not as straightforward as a simple ‘good and bad,’ But, whatever the reason, human suffering itself, which doctors frequently see close up, does not seem to preclude faith in a greater power as might be expected.

According to the University of Chicago study, [a] physician’s  religion is characterized not only by the high percentage of doctors that believe in a deity, but also by a wide diversity in physician religions. Many physicians in the US are international medical graduates, and thus there is a substantially higher representation of physicians who adhere to religions that are more prevalent outside the US, but that are in the minority in the US (such as Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist.)

Interestingly, exposure to other religions has been found to contribute to a lower overall belief in the existence of a divinity, but in the case of medical doctors, the interactions with respected peers of other faiths does not seem to diminish belief in religious faith. Perhaps this is because the exposure to other faiths of medical colleagues occurs at an older and less impressionable age than would be expected to cause a person to doubt his or her faith.

It is very difficult to understand why physicians have a stronger predisposition to faith, religion and religious adherence than peers of equivalent educational and economic levels. It could be that religious faith itself plays a role in a person’s choice to become a physician. Interestingly, physicians were less likely to make their faith part of their day-to-day work than most people in the general population. So, even though doctors are likely to believe in a higher power, they are also heavily inclined to let the patient take the lead when it comes to bringing faith and religion into patient care.

We have also found the following (we are sorry for the long quotation, but this is needed for the general presentation):

The first study of physician religious beliefs has found that 76 percent of doctors believe in God and 59 percent believe in some sort of afterlife. The survey, performed by researchers at the University of Chicago and published (early online) in the July 2005 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, found that 90 percent of doctors in the United States attend religious services at least occasionally, compared to 81 percent of all adults. Fifty-five percent of doctors say their religious beliefs influence how they practice medicine.

These results were not anticipated. Religious belief tends to decrease as education and income levels increase, yet doctors are highly educated and, on average, well compensated. The finding also differs radically from 90 years of studies showing that only a minority of scientists (excluding physicians) believes in God or an afterlife.

“We did not think physicians were nearly this religious,” said study author Farr Curlin, MD, instructor in the department of medicine and a member of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. “We suspect that people who combine an aptitude for science with an interest in religion and an affinity for public service are particularly attracted to medicine. The responsibility to care for those who are suffering, and the rewards of helping those in need, resonate throughout most religious traditions.”

Although physicians are nearly as religious as the general population, their specific beliefs often differ from those of their patients. While more than 80 percent of patients describe themselves at Protestant or Catholic, only 60 percent of physicians come from either group.

Physicians are 26 times more likely to be Hindu than the overall U.S. population (5.3 percent of doctors vs. 0.2 percent of non-physicians). Doctors are seven times more likely to be Jewish (14.1 percent vs. 1.9 percent), six times more likely to be Buddhist (1.2 percent vs. 0.2 percent), and five times more likely to be Muslim (2.7 percent vs. 0.5 percent).

Although doctors are more likely than the general population to attend religious services, they are less willing to “apply their religious beliefs to other areas of life,” the researchers found. Sixty-one percent of doctors say they “try to make sense” of a difficult situation and “decide what to do without relying on God,” versus only 29 percent of the general population.

“We have paid a good deal of attention to the religious beliefs of patients and how their faith influences medical decisions,” Curlin said, “but until now no one has looked in the same way at physicians, the other half of every doctor-patient relationship. These findings lead us to further wonder how doctors’ faiths shape their clinical encounters.”

Inquiries into the religious beliefs, or the lack of them, among U.S. scientists date back to a landmark 1916 survey by psychologist James Leuba that documented widespread disbelief. Leuba found that only 40 percent of scientists believed in a personal God, 15 percent were uncertain and 45 percent disbelieved.

Surveys published in Nature in 1997 and 1998, showed little change since 1916, with only 39 percent of all scientists declaring a personal belief in God. Belief among “leading” scientists, however–defined in this case as members of the National Academy of Sciences–was far lower: only seven percent in 1998. Curiously, among scientists, mathematicians were the most likely to believe in God and biologists the least likely.

Although physicians have extensive training in biology, the study by Curlin and colleagues paints a very different picture, showing high levels of belief.

The survey revealed considerable variation between different medical specialties. Doctors in family practice and pediatrics were far more likely to carry their religious belief into “all my other dealings” and to look to God for “support and guidance.” Psychiatrists and radiologists were the least likely.

Christian, Mormon, and Buddhist doctors were the most likely to say “my religious beliefs influence my practice of medicine.” Jewish and Hindu physicians were the least likely. Physicians from the South and Midwest were slightly more religious than those from the East and West.

The survey used a 12-page questionnaire mailed to a random sample of 2,000 U.S. practicing physicians; 63 percent responded to one of three mailings. The researchers did not find evidence that religious physicians were more likely to respond that those who are not religious. Results from this survey were compared with the 1998 General Social Survey, which examines demographic and opinion variables in a sampling of U.S. households.

The next step, said Curlin, who describes himself as an “orthodox Christian in the Protestant tradition,” is to begin to look at how a doctors’ religious (or secular) beliefs and values might influence the way they care for patients.

https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/news/survey-shows-that-physicians-are-more-religious-than-expected.