Article May 18, 1992 Issue

How should nontechnological solutions be judged?

Most members of the National Association for Science, Technology, and Society are teachers of engineering and science in the United States. But their annual Technology Literacy Conference brings them together with individuals from many backgrounds and many countries who are concerned with giving students and the public a realistic view of the advantages and disadvantages of modern technology. We thought our readers might be interested in some excerpts from a paper presented at this conference by Dr. David K. Nartonis, a member of the Committee on Publication staff of The First Church of Christ, Scientist.

Christian Science is not an antitechnology culture. Christian Scientists say that they normally forgo medical therapies much as an environmentalist might reject a particular technology such as chlorofluorocarbon aerosol sprays. Christian Scientists do not find medical therapies to be the best solution to the problem of maintaining health, given their particular values. They feel they are choosing the approach to health care that is most likely to keep them alive and healthy and believe they have a good enough overall record to deserve to practice this approach.

Many Christian Scientists who were raised in the medical tradition and came later in life to this denomination will tell you that they believe Christian Science works better for them than the medical tradition they left behind. Members of this denomination would not, however, be comfortable with a simplistic comparison of their holistic approach with the very different approach to health offered by modern medicine.

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