Faith or science?

Stories like this one in the Knoxville News Sentinel today are popular tear jerker’s – kind of like any film with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts – but they make no sense.

The story I referenced is headlined “A family’s faith helps them find the best gift of all” and it’s replete with statements like “They’re thankful for friends and family, acquaintances and complete strangers, who all prayed ceaselessly for Kara’s recovery, and for their Lord, who they believe listened to their prayers and made Kara’s body strong enough to withstand a very aggressive cancer and equally aggressive treatment.”

And – “Every entry, be the news good or bad, called on Kara’s “prayer warriors” and praised God.”  along with “But prayer can put Kara in that good percentage, the Lees believe, and there’s no shortage of people praying for Kara. Even a decal on the Lees’ car urges, “Pray for Kara.”

Ok, I understand that many people are unable to cope with their problems, and that it’s helpful for them to pawn the responsibility off onto God – so they can then sit back and say “it was God’s will” no matter what happens.   But come on – does anyone really believe that God cured her cancer?

Don’t you think medical schools (where actual science must be taught if the doctors are to be able to do anything) had something to do with it?   How about the doctors’ willingness to fore go their 20’s while they were studying and working their butts off?   Do you know of any doctors who got their medical training during a theology course at a bible college?

Would you trust one of them to treat your appendicitis?  Thought so.

gk

A Crisis of Faith

Paul Krugman has a decent opinion piece in the NY Times today.  If you’ve read any of his stuff before, you know that he thinks government has all the answers – and that government can fix whatever is wrong with (pick your topic!).

Todays’ article basically blames everything economic on “A Crisis of Faith”.  He says that investors have lost faith in the security of the underlying investments, and their lack of faith is causing the Port Authority’s borrowing cost to go up.  Technically that’s true, but he doesn’t go deep enough into “why” investors don’t have faith.

It’s not that they distrust the Port Authority ability to raise taxes to pay them back – it’s that the insurers are technically bankrupt – IF the Port Authority doesn’t pay the money back, there’s no second layer of protection.  It’s the same as if you were thinking about putting your money into a bank that has a great reputation but isn’t FDIC insured.  If you can get the same return on your investment from an FDIC insured bank – why would you bother with the non-insured bank?

When Ambac and MBIA are technically bankrupt, why bother with anything they insure?  There are safer places to put your money.  Not necessarily big FDIC insured banks – sure you’ll get your money back if the bank fails, but it may take quite a while.  Local banks that didn’t resell the mortgages they wrote should be fine – they were conservative in writing the loans, so they won’t be hit as hard when a lot of people default over the next couple of years – but I think gold and/or silver will have better returns than most other common investment over the next 1 to 2 years.  This financial crisis is just getting started.

gk