No 94: Christmas Quiz. What links: Christmas, Jesus, Kuhn and EBM?
Its almost Christmas. Mince pies, Christmas parties and a few days away from clinic (if you are lucky).
A time for rest, recuperation and reflection.
So, here is my attempt at a quick Christmas quiz.
(Feel free to ignore the images, I was just playing with OpenArt trying to make a picture for the quiz. The prompts were not quite right).
Its Christmas time, so that’s why we are starting with that. And the link with Jesus Christ is obvious right?
Its his Birthday. Well done. Or is it?
britannica why-is-christmas-in-december (A little bit of “mis-information” for the masses to encourage them to join the new religion?)
The Church tells us that Jesus “died for our sins”.
https://www.openbible.info/topics/jesus_died_on_the_cross_for_our_sins
I prefer to think that he was arrested, tortured and killed for speaking what he thought to be “the truth”. He thought he was sharing the truth about God and that he was helping people. The state decided that his message was dangerous and that he needed to be silenced. They hoped to make an example of him and stop the spread of the idea. [Merry thoughts for Christmas right? This is more of an Easter message]
What links Jesus and Thomas Kuhn?
An idea…
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
Progress or change in society (science or medicine) is not based on a rational, linear, collection of data, analysis and logical argument. “The Truth” does not always win because of its inherent logical rightness. Despite what we are taught in school and what we like to think. We like to believe we are rational creatures.
In fact, progress and the change in practice often only occurs when people retire or die. Science is a method, but it is also a career. If a man builds his career on an idea, is he likely to agree to discard his life’s work and salary and admit he was wrong?
Not very often.
Those who propose new ideas, with new evidence and with logical, are often persecuted, ridiculed and silenced. Sometimes, the “paradigm shift” can be delayed for years or decades.
And the final link to Evidence Based Medicine (EBM)?
Prior to EBM was “Eminence based medicine”. You practiced medicine in a particular fashion because your very prestigious professor taught you to do it in a particular way. The paradigm of practice only changed when the professor changed his mind, or you got a new professor.
EBM is supposed to instil in all of us the discipline and humbleness to ignore our egos and to re-analyse the data and the logic.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, was Jesus advising us to be humble?
EBM requires free speech and free thought. EBM should involve many people looking at good data from good trials and good observational studies and arguing about what that data means.
In the last few years, we have been told many times to “follow the science”. We have been told to “trust the experts”. We have been told that you can’t question certain ideas.
Recently, we have had doctors referred to the GMC for questioning some “scientific hypotheses” and we have had Steven Bartlett attacked by the BBC for spreading “dangerous misinformation”.
We live in a time where “free speech” and argument are not necessarily as popular as they once were. For EBM to continue to improve the lives of our patients, then we need to hear dissenting opinions. We need to hear unpalatable opinions. We need people to question the data.
We might not always like what they say. We might think they are wrong and dangerous. But dissenting voices allow for course correction, and that is the true miracle of the scientific method and the paradigm shift.
I hope you enjoyed this Christmas ramble through Jesus the “free-speech martyr”, “Kuhn the heretic” and the Christmas miracle of the EBM method.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope you all get some time to recover and reflect.
Love this!
https://youtube.com/shorts/umWBEC5aWo4?si=qBWBOjulABihCeiv