Bad Faith is a book that is written in a loving and compassionate manner about Faith and how it gets in the way of Modern Medicine. The major issues in this book are frustrating because as many of these parents say, they trusted God to be their Doctor. Even though life-saving antibiotics or medical treatments were available, they denied them to their children because of their faith. The other upsetting thing is that the Government allows a lot of this stuff thanks to the First Amendment of the Constitution. Now it is true that a lot of states protect children against such abuse, but there are some that don't.

My take on the whole God being a doctor is that one quote that goes something like this: "Don't expect God to aid you in your path if you are not willing to move your feet." It's all well and good to have faith in a higher power, but when that brings tragedy to someone's life it is just heartbreaking.

All in all, the book was fantastic and entered into the psychology of people that don't understand medicine and others that do but feel that miracles happen for some reason. ( )

The cases discussed in this book are unbelievable. People are capable of believing the most unbelievable things. If Jesus were alive today I think he would have a few words for Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses and other faith healing cults about common sense. If medicine has a treatment for something, use it, when there is no treatment then prayer may be your only option, but making prayer the only option, period, is presumption.

Ultimately, Offit's main concern is for children. Parents in these cults are essentially martyring their own children for their religious beliefs, and such should not be allowed. Amazingly, many states have religious exemptions to protect parents who adhere to these religious beliefs from prosecution for medical neglect of their children. This is wrong and we need to change it. ( )

First posted at Booking in Heels.

I'm not going to discuss the content of this book. Anybody who knows me even vaguely will know what side of the fence I fall on and hundreds of people (Dr Offit included) have explained their views far more eloquently than I ever could.

This book contains a variety of topics from a close examination of Christian Science (which believes that illness is an illusion caused by ignorance of God - therefore, as illness is not actually real, the only way to treat it is prayer), televangelists, child abuse, abortion, etc. It's a well-balanced book with case studies, excerpts from the Bible and also scientific studies, which results in a discussion, not a rant.

What impressed me the most was the balanced nature of Bad Faith. Dr Offit is a Pediatrician specialising in infectious diseases and is the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine. It's fairly safe to say that his sympathies are going to lie with science and medicine, and so I was more or less expecting a diatribe on the dangers of religion and how their beliefs are ineffectual and redundant. As it turns out, I completely misjudged both Dr Offit and his work. Several chapters discuss how much good religion has brought about with regard to healing and how their efforts can be misintepreted by the more cynical. It's only the (usually) well-intentioned few who are the cause of the controversy.

What I loved about this book is that I still can't tell if Dr Offit believes in God or not. He never once suggests that God does not exist and, to an extent, I don't suppose it really matters in this context. It's more about the ways in which the fervent, zealous beliefs of a few (not of religion as a whole) have affected the treatment of many.

Several case studies are discussed in depth (including the Texas measles outbreak and the case of Matthew Swan that led to the large-scale investigation of faith healing) and Dr Offit references a huge amount of papers and studies to back up his opinions. Whilst this is definitely a popular-interest book, its based on thorough research and investigation.

I think I would have preferred a little more discussion on abortion, euthanasia, vaccination (although I understand he has a whole book dedicated to vaccination, so perhaps he didn't wish to repeat himself), etc, instead of the slight repetition with regard to faith healing, on which Bad Faith mainly dwells. My favourite section was (unsurprisingly) the part about the statutes which make it so difficult to prosecute faith healing parents.

Bad Faith is heart-breaking and shocking. I finished this book whilst getting a train to York to see a show, and I couldn't get it out of my head during the train ride or the show itself. Some aspects hurt me, some angered me and others just caused bewilderment at how anybody could think that was acceptable.

This is a compassionate yet logical discussion of how a misunderstanding of certain religious tenets can lead to severe harm, despite the multitude of scientific advances. Dr Offit has written several other books which I'm looking forward to reading, including Killing Us Softly: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine, which I've totally already bought. ( )

This book will shock you, and not in a good way. The primary topic of this book is that religious beliefs are used as justification for the serious injury or death of children. This is truly horrifying, and the author gives many examples of this happening in a modern United States. While the religious abuse of children is abhorrent, I wish more could have been told about how women are abused by archaic and misguided bans on abortion. Women die, because of this. I think the book could have been longer, delving deeper into the cases discussed. As it is, the book is an important read for anyone who is concerned about the modern impact of religious freedom. ( )

Since I already knew a lot about this topic, I found it hard to get through all the stories of needless suffering. However, if you're not familiar with the crazy things people can do in the name of religion, this would be a good place to start. ( )