My doula training made much of Evidence. I learned to offer clients evidence relating to the decisions they would make, I heard about Evidence based Medicine or Evidence based Practice and I learned where to go for "evidence based information" ie.scientific studies.
Of course, my relationship with evidence started way back, humans start interpreting evidence from our youngest moments. In those early days we do it without the benefit of training and we might make poor conclusions but we do it anyway, exploring the world through trial, error and observation.
In my school days I did well at science, which of course is the whole formal process of collecting and interpreting evidence to make conclusions about the world we live in. I also learned to look for evidence in less scientific areas, analysing the message of say, a novelist, based on the evidence found in the text.
As our scientific understanding grows we seem to value evidence more and more, no longer interpreting the world through superstition, legend and religion but making serious, organised, scientific enquiry into all that concerns us. I think the rise of evidence based thinking is partly behind the decline in Christian religion in the western world. What rational, educated person believes in a God who has no proof? What could we possibly measure to prove or disprove the idea of God?
As a Christian, some areas of my life can't be governed by proof, I have to turn away from the idea of evidence and live in the realm of belief. (or confirmation bias) Many times I have thought that my scientific training and mostly logical approach to life don't match with my religious belief, I have wondered why I live with the dichotomy and I have wondered what it says about me.
As I meet more clients and attend more births, as I explore evidence related to childbirth and watch the process unfold, I notice that no client, no midwife and no doctor makes evidence based decisions all of the time. We decide through belief. If evidence is strong and we interpret it correctly and have no emotional baggage to muddy the process, evidence and belief will become the same thing. At this point we tell ourselves that we will make our decisions based on evidence but what I see more often is that belief creates reality. If a woman believes she can birth without intervention, she has a good chance. If she believes she was made with the capacity to make and birth a baby, she will. If a woman believes she might never have a spontaneous labour, she probably won't. If she believes she will need a caesarean section due to "large baby", "small pelvis" or "obstructed labour" she probably will have the caesarean. The Chinese woman who was told that Asian women can't breastfeed never did successfully breastfeed.
Evidence. It is at once, everything and nothing.
True.
ReplyDeleteAnd most of us live our lives in the evidence/belief dichotomy - we just aren't as clear about it as you are.
yes, i think so too
DeleteI'm not sure that we're valuing evidence more and more. There are still many people (no doubt including myself) who prefer their personal beliefs to solid evidence. You only have to look at the obsession with Brexit, despite all sorts of dire economic predictions, and the election of Trump, despite all the warnings that he would be an inept President.
ReplyDeleteyes, those are examples of belief winning over evidence. I might not have been clear but i think in some areas we talk more about evidence but then we still rely on belief most of the time.
DeleteThe existence of Trump makes it quite clear that people are able to turn away from evidence and believe black is white
I did not necessary have any evidence, but I knew all I wanted was a doctor, not my mother or husband. Plus, my mother had to have an emergency Caesarean for placenta previa (SP?). If she had not, I would have been orphaned at one year. However, I refused a Caesarean with third child coming breech, toes first, because I lacked the knowledge that it was dangerous. I put up with 30 hours of pain to avoid it. The doctor never told me how dangerous it was for my baby, just told me the pain could be stopped.
ReplyDeletenecessarily
DeletePrevia is correct in the US, praevia for UK/ Australia.
DeleteA 30 hour breech labour is some achievement!
I'm making no judgement on how people birth, it's not for me to choose, just that I see that it is highly influenced by suggestion
We can't have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves.
ReplyDelete~ Thomas Aquinas
Ramana,
DeleteThat is a wonderful quote and i have experienced the truth of it.
I'm not trying to be argumentative. This is a question arising out of genuine curiosity. Why must we start by believing? Having put the question I shall continue to the end of the comments and then try and focus my thoughts into a comment on this exceptionally interesting and mind-focussing post.
Deletehmm, i think that a total lack of belief in anything prevents us from seeing any evidence. If we don't believe a train is coming we won't even go to the station.
DeleteA tiny shred of belief or even openness to belief allows the possibility that we can have new experiences and those then build on each other.
You are asking me to think about this in a new way so i could be way off but thats my answer for now
I need evidence to believe. I don't believe in God in the same way I don't believe in unicorns.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if others have faith and that faith gives them strength to get through life, then all power to them.
Don't rainbows come from unicorn butts?
DeleteThey say there's a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, so logically that must mean unicorns shit pots of gold and the rainbow is the path of the trajectory.
DeleteSo if you find a pot of gold, follow the rainbow and you should find a unicorn!
There is a great deal of evidence that Jesus actually lived. So that means he either was the son of God or a complete nutcase. I believe the former based on evidence.
ReplyDeleteBtw my brother is a Doctor of Chemistry and a committed Christian.
Joey, I have never got my head around the evidence for Jesus although I am sure it exists.
Deletemaybe an intimate understanding of chemistry is helpful to faith? my biology training certainly makes me think there is intelligent design
I have a cousin who is a surgeon who declares he could train a monkey to do surgery, but it would do a rotten job because the art of surgery is not just the evidence that something needs fixing but also the belief that sometimes you might need to toss that book learning out the door and go by intuition and feel.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment, Anne! I wonder what he thinks of robotic surgery.
DeleteI think intuition is undervalued, it has a lot to teach us but we are not always great at learning :)
I don't think intuition and faith or belief are necessarily related. I would suggest for most of us intuition is based upon our experience rather than necessarily on faith or science.
DeleteYou are right, Graham. The best science on intuition suggests that it comes from experiences that we don't necessarily remember but they stay in the subconscious to inform our future.
DeleteIn the context of this conversation faith and intuition are similar because they are both quite abstract
Kylie, I think this is one of the most thought-provoking posts I've read for a long time. I was brought up with faith and lived with faith until about 11 years ago (I'm 73) when circumstances made me question my beliefs. Since then I've tried to work on the basis of reason and science. I've not regained my faith but neither has reason and science necessarily provided all the answers.
ReplyDeleteThat's a grand compliment you have given me, thank you.
DeleteI have known a few people who have lost faith because of the events of their lives and it is understandable in the face of tragedy or hardship.
There have been times when I have tried to act in the way that would be demanded by a Christian faith, not always because I had much faith but because I thought it was a gracious approach.
It's interesting that the protestant approach is not very tolerant of doubt but questioning is the consistent hallmark of Judaism, Jesus' own religion
Living as I do in an area which was (less so now than 40 years ago) a pretty extreme protestant stronghold I can confirm that tolerance was certainly not something which was practiced very much. Certainly many took the view that if you were not a protestant Christian then you were, almost by definition, incapable of a moral approach to life. That is one of the things that drove me away from religion. I have always taken the view that a Good Person does not have to be a Christian. Nor need a Christian necessarily be a Good Person. I prefer to define people by their attitude to others rather than their attitude to religion (or lack of it).
DeleteThank you for making me think again.