This poll is bigoted and hateful, really. It suggests that compassion correlates with spiritual beliefs, and implies that those who do not believe in God are unfit to work in Healthcare.
FrankRx - 14 years ago
I'm a regular HISTALK reader and have to agree that the question was poorly worded. Had it been separated into its component parts I would have responded "yes" to compassion, "no" to spiritual beliefs. As has been pointed out in several other comments, the two are not related. As it is, I responded "no" to the question as asked.
NakedApe - 14 years ago
Superstition has no place in the practice of Information Technology.
Just wait until one of these wackaloons finds out that server processes are called daemons.
How long before they try to exorcise or worse baptize the server with Holy Water?
Susan van - 14 years ago
Why is the doctor in the graphic for this website smoking a pipe. Is he blowing holy smoke?
Whoneedsmagicoiltofigureoutacomputer? - 14 years ago
It would be much preferred if the IT folks (and all hospital staff, for that matter) would be more reality based than this.
Neil - 14 years ago
I work in IT.
They had better not try to smear me with that fucking holy oil or they might find their holy frocks annointed with unholy toner.
Neil - 14 years ago
If I ever need an operation, I'm going to make damn sure that the surgeon is an atheist. I don't want some moron poking around inside me who thinks that their invisible friend is assisting.
ButMadNNW - 14 years ago
As others have said, the wording of the poll is wrong. IT workers in healthcare should, perhaps, have a higher level of compassion - you are maintaining computer systems that can have a direct effect on someone's health or the quality of care they receive, and it is important to remember what that person and their family are going through if you have to have direct contact with them. In other words, be careful how you phrase things and approach topics.
HOWEVER, it is absolutely possible to have this compassion without needing "spirituality". The majority of the most compassionate people I know actually identify as atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, etc. - i.e. non-Judeo-Christian. Religious and spiritual people do not have sole claim on compassion. And belief/faith/superstition/luck/whatever should never be accepted in place of competence/study/hard work, especially in science-based fields like IT and healthcare.
littlejohn - 14 years ago
What does "spirituality" have to do with curing sick people? If you believe in invisible sky-daddies and talking snakes, there is no way I'm going to let you near me with a scalpel. I thought medicine was a branch of science. Well, except voodoo.
Woof - 14 years ago
I'd much rather have members of the reality-based community involved with any treatment I need.
AK - 14 years ago
The poll conflates spirituality and compassion, which are different things. One can be spiritual without compassion, and one can be compassionate without spirituality.
B - 14 years ago
Lol, this ceremony probably makes the chaplains maintain a sense of importance. Sorry to puncture the bubble, but your magic oil and mumbo jumbo belong to the first century desert tribes, not a 21rst century hospital.
pharmz - 14 years ago
I think empathy is the concept you were looking for. I don't think IT folks should have any more than others but, everyone would be better off if all had a good sense of empathy.
KayGee - 14 years ago
Important safety tip for IT professionals: If you do get God Goo all over your hands, be sure to wash them thoroughly before touching a server keyboard. The next IT guy who has to use that keyboard may cause you serious harm if you don't.
Pastor S - 14 years ago
You folks *do* have a religion.
You worship machines.
Bob Loblaw - 14 years ago
Good grief, I hope I don't get sick and then have to go to a hospital full of staff that think that their religious bend can help heal people. Annointing oil? What a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.
Lynn Eggers - 14 years ago
I agree, Stephen... I'm very tired of this idea that only religious people can be moral or compassionate or sensitive. It's simply not true. And competence, the most important quality in an IT person, has absolutely no connection to religiosity.
Lynn
boltbrain - 14 years ago
I understand the meaning of the word COMPASSION, as the expression of sympathy for a separate person in different circucmstances. I expect that understanding is the common on. I have some ideas on how it works conceptually, and I expect I could find common ground with a great many people on that subject.
I understand the meaning of the term SPIRITUAL BELIEFS, as the holding of a baseless conviction as to the existence of disembodied consciousness. I am confident that those who have them would express them as convictions or the equivalent of convictions, that they are unable to point to evidence supporting their convictions, would agree their beliefs entail disembodied consciousness, but would prefer to put it some other way. I have no understanding at all of how a disembodied consciousness would be able to exert influence on embodied third parties, or how a person who believes in the existence of disembodied consciousness might explain it.
Perhaps I am missing something obvious. If so, I would appreciate someone explaining it here.
Stephen - 14 years ago
The wording of this poll question seems to imply that compassion and spiritual beliefs are connected in some way. They are not. These are mutually exclusive concepts. Please stop pushing the idea that compassion (or, more generally, morality) can only come from religion. This is a lie. Just stop.
anonymous - 14 years ago
Higher level of compassion and sense of responsibility yes, spiritual beliefs - no. Relying on belief in many cases may cause more harm than good. Of course, some types of spiritual beliefs lead to heightened sense of responsibility (like the one Ed Marx has demonstrated), but not all, and heightened sense of responsibility is not dependent on one's spiritual beliefs.
Sam Seaborne - 14 years ago
All I can say is good thing Ed had a photographer nearby to capture that private moment!
Heart warming!
This poll is bigoted and hateful, really. It suggests that compassion correlates with spiritual beliefs, and implies that those who do not believe in God are unfit to work in Healthcare.
I'm a regular HISTALK reader and have to agree that the question was poorly worded. Had it been separated into its component parts I would have responded "yes" to compassion, "no" to spiritual beliefs. As has been pointed out in several other comments, the two are not related. As it is, I responded "no" to the question as asked.
Superstition has no place in the practice of Information Technology.
Just wait until one of these wackaloons finds out that server processes are called daemons.
How long before they try to exorcise or worse baptize the server with Holy Water?
Why is the doctor in the graphic for this website smoking a pipe. Is he blowing holy smoke?
It would be much preferred if the IT folks (and all hospital staff, for that matter) would be more reality based than this.
I work in IT.
They had better not try to smear me with that fucking holy oil or they might find their holy frocks annointed with unholy toner.
If I ever need an operation, I'm going to make damn sure that the surgeon is an atheist. I don't want some moron poking around inside me who thinks that their invisible friend is assisting.
As others have said, the wording of the poll is wrong. IT workers in healthcare should, perhaps, have a higher level of compassion - you are maintaining computer systems that can have a direct effect on someone's health or the quality of care they receive, and it is important to remember what that person and their family are going through if you have to have direct contact with them. In other words, be careful how you phrase things and approach topics.
HOWEVER, it is absolutely possible to have this compassion without needing "spirituality". The majority of the most compassionate people I know actually identify as atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, etc. - i.e. non-Judeo-Christian. Religious and spiritual people do not have sole claim on compassion. And belief/faith/superstition/luck/whatever should never be accepted in place of competence/study/hard work, especially in science-based fields like IT and healthcare.
What does "spirituality" have to do with curing sick people? If you believe in invisible sky-daddies and talking snakes, there is no way I'm going to let you near me with a scalpel. I thought medicine was a branch of science. Well, except voodoo.
I'd much rather have members of the reality-based community involved with any treatment I need.
The poll conflates spirituality and compassion, which are different things. One can be spiritual without compassion, and one can be compassionate without spirituality.
Lol, this ceremony probably makes the chaplains maintain a sense of importance. Sorry to puncture the bubble, but your magic oil and mumbo jumbo belong to the first century desert tribes, not a 21rst century hospital.
I think empathy is the concept you were looking for. I don't think IT folks should have any more than others but, everyone would be better off if all had a good sense of empathy.
Important safety tip for IT professionals: If you do get God Goo all over your hands, be sure to wash them thoroughly before touching a server keyboard. The next IT guy who has to use that keyboard may cause you serious harm if you don't.
You folks *do* have a religion.
You worship machines.
Good grief, I hope I don't get sick and then have to go to a hospital full of staff that think that their religious bend can help heal people. Annointing oil? What a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.
I agree, Stephen... I'm very tired of this idea that only religious people can be moral or compassionate or sensitive. It's simply not true. And competence, the most important quality in an IT person, has absolutely no connection to religiosity.
Lynn
I understand the meaning of the word COMPASSION, as the expression of sympathy for a separate person in different circucmstances. I expect that understanding is the common on. I have some ideas on how it works conceptually, and I expect I could find common ground with a great many people on that subject.
I understand the meaning of the term SPIRITUAL BELIEFS, as the holding of a baseless conviction as to the existence of disembodied consciousness. I am confident that those who have them would express them as convictions or the equivalent of convictions, that they are unable to point to evidence supporting their convictions, would agree their beliefs entail disembodied consciousness, but would prefer to put it some other way. I have no understanding at all of how a disembodied consciousness would be able to exert influence on embodied third parties, or how a person who believes in the existence of disembodied consciousness might explain it.
Perhaps I am missing something obvious. If so, I would appreciate someone explaining it here.
The wording of this poll question seems to imply that compassion and spiritual beliefs are connected in some way. They are not. These are mutually exclusive concepts. Please stop pushing the idea that compassion (or, more generally, morality) can only come from religion. This is a lie. Just stop.
Higher level of compassion and sense of responsibility yes, spiritual beliefs - no. Relying on belief in many cases may cause more harm than good. Of course, some types of spiritual beliefs lead to heightened sense of responsibility (like the one Ed Marx has demonstrated), but not all, and heightened sense of responsibility is not dependent on one's spiritual beliefs.
All I can say is good thing Ed had a photographer nearby to capture that private moment!
Heart warming!