Modern medical science has told us that our body is composed of cells. Recent research has further informed us that the cells are composed of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid), a nucleic acid containing genetic information. It is claimed that DNA is the root of the human body and life, and DNA can tell us everything about our health conditions and illnesses and illness treatment. It seems that DNA is a magic and panacea to the treatment of any illness and disease.
This biological view of our body is consistent with the dominant medical philosophy, which is rooted in the conventional substance philosophy of science promoted heavily from Descartes to Newton . A main feature of modern medical philosophy is reductionism. It assumes that any complex phenomena observable at one level can be explained by activity at a lower level. Therefore, mainstream medical scientists believe that the causes of a disease can be reducible to a much lower level, much smaller, simpler and more tractable unitary entities. Thus, DNA has been found by biologists as the fundamental entity of the body: nothing more than that.
What is the realty of DNA ? We have been informed that DNA is a chemical substance, or a chemical molecule consisting of a number of atoms such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus. The composition of atoms within a molecule has a fixed ratio, called a chemical formula. The reality of our body at the base level is atoms -- fixed and solid material substances.
Here is the first obvious problem medical science has encountered. If the root of our body is only material and chemical atoms, how do we make difference between the living body and the dead body? Why do we have minds and thoughts? DNA analysis can not answer this critical question.
A further problem with medical science is that if an illness can be completely reducible to a single elementary entity of the human body, which is seemingly unrelated to other parts of the body and the whole body conditions, how our body can be differentiated from a lifeless machine? DNA analysis seems to ignore the fact that our body is an integrative and inseparable whole. Any part of the body taken away from the whole body for examination can not represent the living whole.
Moreover, DNA analysis, like many other medical researches, always takes a spontaneous "snapshot" of the body parts for examination. In doing so, it completely ignores the living body as a continuously changing process. When a DNA sample is taken out for testing, it only represents the past state of that DNA and does not represent the present conditions of DNA in the organic body.
Therefore, in isolated testing, if DNA is found to have a problem, it does not necessarily indicate that the living body has the same problem. If nothing wrong is found in DNA, it does not necessarily mean that the body has no problem at all . We can only understand the real property of DNA when it is presently conjoining with other parts in the body and continuously functioning for the whole body system. Unfortunately, the analytical methods of modern medical science completely miss the point.
Dr. William Sun is Director of The Process Centre, an international research network in cross-disciplinary fields based on process thought philosophy. He received Certificate in Complementary and Alternative Medicine from the US National Institute of Health, Certificate in Assessment and Treatment of Depression in the Primary Care Setting from HarvardMedicalSchool, and PhD in Law from Leeds Metropolitan University, England. He is Visiting Professor of Harbin Engineering University, member of the Scientific and Medical Network, and British Association of Holistic Medicine. He has recently published a book The Triple Process Remedy: A New Philosophy on Illnesses of Stress, Anxiety and Depression. More info can be found on the website: http://www.processremedy.com.
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» left by JL from US (162 days 15 hours ago.)
OK, I get this, I think. You have given me something to think on. What about inherited diseases? I may have more questions later. Respond to this comment
» left by Dr. Sun from UK (161 days 20 hours ago.)
Thank you for your comment. I will submit another article to explain inherited diseases.
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