Airborne: an analogy to religion

[Hagoth]

When Mrs. Hagoth feels a cold coming on she immediately starts taking Airborne to fend it off. When someone else in the family feels a cold coming on Mrs. Hagoth strongly suggests that they immediately take Airborne. Our two (extremely intelligent) sons always bristle at this. They always get impatient and give her a lecture about how Airborne is all hype and there's neither scientific reason nor evidence that it would suddenly make you impervious to viruses. She says, "well, just take it anyway. I believe it helps, and what have you got to lose?" They always stubbornly refuse to take it despite her arguments. They go away annoyed at her insistence of unsubstantiated claims and she goes away annoyed that they won't even give it the benefit of the doubt.

When I feel a cold coming on Mrs. Hagoth immediately suggests that I take Airborne. I say "well, I don't think it really helps, but OK." I don't mind the flavor and it makes her happy that I don't fight her about it. I take it once and then go about my business of being sick. She knows I don't believe it works, she knows it probably doesn't work, but somehow it gives her a sense of security and makes her feel like she's doing the only thing she can in the face something that is beyond her/our capacity to change, and it gives her hope that by doing something she might benefit from the mere act of doing it, compared to doing nothing, which she knows won't yield any benefit.

And that pretty much encapsulates religion in our family too.

[Enoch Witty]

Forget analogy. This is straight-up parable.

[shadow]

And in both cases, you pay to play.

[wtfluff]

This happens constantly in my family too.

"OK" is a great answer when asked to participate. (As long as it's not some crazy remedy that could actually cause harm.)

Mentioning something that probably actually helps Hagoth's wife in this situation will get me in trouble on this message board, so I won't...

[oliblish]

My wife uses and pushes Airborne as well. One of the reasons it seems to be popular is that it was created by a school teacher. I am not sure why they would advertise that it was created by someone who has absolutely no qualifications.

She has another cold remedy that is similar and a whole cupboard of pills and stuff from various MLMs and natural remedy stores.

I usually just let it go but one time she brought home a homeopathic remedy for the flu. If you have ever read up on true homeopathy it is just nuts!

Basically, they take what makes you sick and water it down until there is nothing but water. Then they put a drop of that water on sugar pills and sell them to you. But water has a memory and somehow it cures you. It makes no sense at all.

Here is an explanation of the homeopathic flu virus from wikipedia:

A popular homeopathic treatment for the flu is a 200C dilution of duck liver, marketed under the name Oscillococcinum. As there are only about 10^80 atoms in the entire observable universe, a dilution of one molecule in the observable universe would be about 40C. Oscillococcinum would thus require 10^320 more universes to simply have one molecule in the final substance.[96] The high dilutions characteristically used are often considered to be the most controversial and implausible aspect of homeopathy.[97]

I tried to explain this to my wife but she won't listen to any of it. She truly is a magical thinker.

[alas]

Good parable. Especially good if it helps you deal with the LDS as gracefully as you deal with cures for the common cold.

My DH's sister was in town (here in balmy Southern Utah) recently and her (nut case) husband had picked up a nasty cold from being in Utah Valley's pollution and being exposed to sick grandkids just before they came south for a visit. Through his sniffles and hacking, he was swearing by Airborne. Yeah, we could see exactly how much it was helping with his cold. He whined and moaned about how sick he was, all the while quite positive that he would be over it in 24 hours because of the Airborne. 24 hours later, sure enough, he was worse. I was afraid if my SIL rolled her eyes any higher, they might stick.

But maybe he believes in it because of the school teacher thing, because he was a school teacher.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

Airbooooooooo ooooo oooooo rrn, Rangeeeee eeeeee eeee rrrrr!!! Dammit now that cadence is stuck in my head.

[fh451]

When Mrs. Hagoth feels a cold coming on she immediately starts taking Airborne to fend it off.

Good analogy! But remember, while there is no clinical benefit to taking Airborne (or many other home-remedy types of stuff), the placebo effect is a real effect. And when it comes to "feeling better," many people actually do "feel better" whether there was any active mechanism or not. IMO, that is what religion does - makes many people feel better (unfortunately while making many people feel worse).

fh451

[FoundMyOwnWay]

My wife is a big fan of airborne as well. She is a teacher and always talks about how teachers are exposed to many different bacteria and viruses, so this teacher that created airborne knew what they were doing for sure. To make her happy I usually begrudgingly take some when I am sick and it is pushed my way. I do believe that getting the body plenty of nutrients is helpful to recovery, however if one is already getting proper nutrients through their diet than most of the airborne just ends up as waste water. Oh well, a very minor waste of money and time compared to what the morg is selling.

[Hagoth]

And when it comes to "feeling better," many people actually do "feel better" whether there was any active mechanism or not. IMO, that is what religion does - makes many people feel better (unfortunately while making many people feel worse).

I totally agree and that was my point. If Airborne made my wife feel good but it caused an allergic reaction in me, I would likely avoid it. The church does cause negative reactions for me, but also some good. I can swallow some of the pills that are less harmful but I must spit out others.

Apart from my personal comparison to my family's religious temperament, this might be a better analogy for priesthood blessings. I have had blessings make me feel better but I have never had one actually heal me.