Are medical sciences and religion capable of functioning cohesively?

“Religion is for the hesitant the guilt-ridden, the excessively timid, those lacking clear convictions”

History has shown religion to be the cause of much contention; today it continues to be a serious matter of debate. This dissertation focuses solely on the relationship between Christian religion and medical science and asks if the two factions are capable of functioning cohesively. This research concludes that Religion is too easily used for manipulation and spiritual coercion and as such religious discussion should not be attempted by physicians or any medical personal. Patients wishing for their spiritual needs to be addressed should direct their focus to priests, Chaplains and any other relevant and qualified individual. As a preventative method, religious involvement was found to be an excellent deterrent of risky behaviors, which proved to be particularly helpful to medical science. However in treatment religion had the potential to become an insurmountable deterrent that often hindered the work of medical science. Are medical sciences and religion capable of functioning cohesively? The simple answer would be no but nothing about religion is ever simple.

Are medical Sciences and Religion capable of functioning cohesively in modern day society? Dissertation Outline

Are medical Sciences and Religion capable of functioning cohesively in modern day society?
Dissertation Outline

Introduction (800 words)
Consider what is deemed as a “religion” and what religion exactly will my dissertation be addressing. What is meant by “medical science”? Outline the basic area’s which the research hopes to address in order to answer the question.
These may include but not be limited to:
The dangers of Faith healing
The conflict between Christian morality and medical practices
Current research on the power and limitations of prayer

Briefly consider the historical context surrounding the relationship between the two focusing more on religious aversion to medical advancements such as autopsies and the study of human biology rather than the atypical well know history of witch trials and general intolerance.

Outline the denominations of Christianity that are to be considered, these being:
Catholic
Pentecostals (with the inclusion of Anglicans)
Sect groups (Christians science and the Jehovah’s witness are to be considered as such)
Offer a definition and explanation of the difference between the three chosen denominations outlining what a sect group is considered to be and why the two groups have been defined as such.
Research review (1800 words)
Outline relevant sources from which most of my idea’s stem
Critique the sources based on
Purpose (what was the intention behind the source, could there be any ulterior motivation?)
Origin ( Where did the source come from, are they someone who should be relied upon or should the source be viewed as opinion rather than fact)
Nature (Is the source primary or secondary? Has it been para-phrased by anyone?)
Explain the interview process used in obtaining 1st hand research, explaining why it was necessary to collect this information. (Include portions of transcripts or offer transcripts within the bibliography )
Analyse the interview questions used :
What did I hope to find out
Did the question achieve this
How could the questions be further improved

Discussion/Development/Analysis (2700 words)
Religious opinion regarding modern day medical science
Abortion
Contraception
Euthanasia
Religion: Hindrance or Beneficial to treatment?
Are there medical benefits of prayer to treatment?
Meditative effect
Placebo effect
Christian science church
Faith healing
Christian beliefs and the law regarding parents decision to choose alternative medical treatment for their children
Jehovah’s witness and blood transfusions
Christian science church
Can a doctors religion affect the treatment they give to patients

Conclusion (500 words)
What does the future hold for the two fields of study?
Reflect on all source material, pondering how each of the two sub points (Religious opinion regarding modern day medical science and Religion: Hindrance or Beneficial to treatment?) are useful in helping to produce an acceptable conclusion. Consider what extent anyone can ever fully attempt to answer this controversial topic and the lack of factual evidence surrounding the issue. How has my conclusion to this question altered during investigations (Evidence of this is to be found in my weekly journal)

The Biological importance of water with reference to structure and bonding

Water (H2O) is one of the most abundant molecules on earth, and it forms the basis of the fluids within living organisms; it is therefore essential to their survival. Due to its physical and chemical properties, water can also be a habitat for some organisms.

Structurally water contains one oxygen that is covalently bonded to two hydrogens. This means there is a shared pair of electrons between each hydrogen atom and the lone oxygen.  However, electrons in the covalent bond are not shared equally, this is because the oxygen atom has a greater electronegativity, meaning that it has a greater pull on the electrons. Due to this, each water molecule has slightly negative and slightly positive regions. The two hydrogen atoms are positively charged whilst the oxygen atom is negatively charged therefore the bonded molecule ( H2O), is a polar molecule because the charges do not cancel. This means hydrogen atoms remain slightly positive and oxygen atoms slightly negative. As a result, there is an attraction between the oppositely charged atoms and this attraction is referred to as a hydrogen bond. This is because it is stronger than normal other electrostatic attractions.The chemical structure (hydrogen bonding mainly) of water means that it has many physical properties that make it incredibly diverse.
Water has a very high boiling point and specific heat capacity, many compounds with molecules similar to the size of water are usually gases. Since each water molecule can form hydrogen bonds with up to 4 other water molecules, water is a liquid at room temperature.

Liquid	Molecular formula	Bpt / oC	Mpt / oC	Specific heat capacity / kJ kg-1 oC -1
Water	H2O	100	0	4.18
Ethanol	C2H5OH	79	-117	2.46
Benzene	C6H6	80	6	1.05
Tetrachloromethane	CCl4	77	-23	0.86

The table shows water in comparison to other compounds containing molecules of a similar size. The high specific heat capacity is an advantage to cells particularly because many of the reactions occurring within them are catalysed by enzymes. Enzyme activity is sensitive to temperature and reactions only occur in a narrow range of temperatures. It also has a large enthalpy of vaporisation (heat energy required to convert a liquid to a gas) and this results in a high boiling point. When it evaporates, water draws thermal energy out of the surface it’s on, which can be observed in sweating. In many living organisms, including humans, the evaporation of sweat, which is 90 percent water, allows the organism to cool so that homeostasis of body temperature can be maintained.  In a similar pattern water also happens to have a low melting point as can be seen above, Water’s exceptionally high melting point helps protect Earth’s glaciers from melting. It also keeps oceans and most lakes from freezing completely. Both features are critical for aquatic life. As water cools, its temperature decreases until it reaches its freezing point (0°C). Further cooling, however, will not lower the temperature until all of the water freezes. Because oceans and large lakes are too big to freeze completely solid, their temperatures will never drop below water’s melting point which results in the preservation of aquatic life.

  Hydrogen bonding in water accounts for more than just its thermal properties, because of it, frozen water (ice) is less dense than liquid water. For most other substance the reverse is true however when water freezes it forms a giant structure with every oxygen atom at the centre of a tetrahedral arrangement of hydrogen atoms (two are covalently bonded and two are hydrogen-bonded). This makes a Giant lattice that has many gaps and therefore a lower density (mass per unit volume) than that of the liquid version. This means that lakes freeze from the top down to the bottom which is important for animals that live on ice, as their habitats would be greatly reduced or not exist at all if ice sank. E.G- Seals or Polar bears.

  Although previous properties have been unique and of importance, perhaps the most important features of water is that it is:

     a)      A liquid at room temperature

     b)      the “universal solvent

Water being a liquid at room temperature provides a marine environment for organisms to live in, but also provides a liquid environment inside cells, which holds significant importance, because metabolic reactions that are key to life, take place in solution. It is described as the ‘universal solvent’, because it dissolves much more substances than most common solvents. This is due to H2O being dipolar, which means that the charged areas of the hydrogen and oxygen atoms will attract polar and ionic substances that are dissolved in it, this allows the water molecules to form a layer around each charged ion, keeping the substance in solution. Water being such a successful solvent enables the transport of nutrients and the removal of waste products within living organisms.

Another property caused by water molecules being dipolar is that water has both cohesion and adhesion properties. Cohesion refers to the fact that water sticks to itself very easily, and adhesion means that water also sticks very well to other things. Both of these properties can be observed in transpiration but are also beneficial in other situations. Water cohesion results in a high surface tension of water which is essential for the transfer of energy from wind to the water surface to create waves. Waves are necessary for rapid oxygen diffusion in lakes and seas. The cohesion of water also directly affects us in our daily lives because it results in Capillary action. This is the ability of a liquid to flow in narrow spaces without the assistance of, and in opposition to, external forces like gravity. This assists the pumping action of your heart to help keep the blood moving in your blood vessels.

In conclusion, water is of great biological importance mainly because of its chemical structure. This results in unique thermal and structural properties. It is the most diverse substance and as yet no living organism has been found to successfully function without it. 

There is nothing better than good customer service

A few weeks ago (being the bargain shopper I am), I bought myself some train tickets to London via thetrainline.com. I had never actually used this website before but my mother had recommended it as a cheap way to get the tickets I wanted for the same journey and so rather dubiously i must admit, I purchased my tickets.
Normally on a journey to London I have to pay around £40 and yet on the train line I only ended up paying £12 in total. 10 points to Gryffindor! But I was convinced there was a catch somewhere. My tickets were meant to have arrived by now, in fact I was told that it would only take 5 days, but it has been 17 days now and there has been no sign of them. At this point I felt pretty disheartened and I was convinced my money was gone and I had been classically fleeced but in a last ditch effort at salvaging something if anything, I called their customer service team.
Within two minutes of calling I was speaking to someone and within five minutes of calling they had understood my problem and compensated me with new tickets, which this time will be delivered to a station and I can collect them. I am so impressed with their customer service I know I will definitely be using them in the near future once more.