"Where Are All the Atheist Hospitals?" Asks Catholic Who Never Did Any Research

[trotsky]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/04/08/where-are-all-the-atheist-hospitals-asks-catholic-who-never-did-any-research/

...But back to that comment about how he knows “for a fact” that atheists don’t build hospitals… It’s such an old canard, yet it gets repeated in religious circles all the time. Even the headline of his piece is “The Reason Why So Many Hospitals Have ‘Saint’ in the Name,” implying that Catholics want to help people but atheists don’t.

I have no doubt there are atheist hospitals, at least if we’re talking about hospitals built and run by atheists. You wouldn’t know it because we don’t slap Christopher Hitchens‘ name on them, but non-Catholic hospitals run exactly the way you’d expect if an atheist built them.

...

Meanwhile, there are atheist-run charitable groups. And atheist scientists conduct a lot of the research used to help people in those hospitals. Unlike Catholic churches, we don’t have the built-in advantage of money coming in from everyone who claims to be an atheist. We don’t have their infrastructure, either. Why would we?

...

By the way, let’s not forget Catholic hospitals do plenty of harm, too. They won’t perform abortions, even if a woman’s life is in danger. They won’t help with ectopic pregnancies. They won’t perform vasectomies. They don’t provide birth control or emergency contraception. Even in Canada, where physician-assisted death is legal, Catholic hospitals would rather see patients suffer indefinitely instead of helping them end life on their own terms.

[MineralMan]

1. It's a stupid question. The better question would be:

Where are all the secular, non-religious hospitals. The answer, of course, is that they are everywhere. University hospitals. Private hospitals not affiliated with churches. Doctor-owned hospitals, and government owned hospitals, too.

All of those secular hospitals provide the full spectrum of care, including reproductive choice care, unlike those Catholic hospitals.

[Ernesto]

3. They call themselves "Dignity Health"

I call them "Misogyny Health".

[Heddi]

4. Sadly, though, they're getting eaten up by the religious (usually Catholic-run) hospital groups

I don't feel like posting the links but a few years ago I posted quite a bit about the Providence et al. groups in the PNW that are just eating up once secular smaller hospital groups leaving a complete lack of any secular hospitals in many areas. This is an issue b/c Washington allows for physician-assisted suicide, abortion, etc, and the question remained how these services would be affected once once non-religious hospital and medical groups were run by devoutly religious organizations. At last I knew, only one medical group was specifically non-religious. As I am no longer in the PNW and do not have a license to practice there anymore (nor do I plan on returning to the area) I don't keep up with the news as much as i used to.

Of course, our ship-bound friends of yore used to reply it wasn't any big deal, just drive across the state to *the* secular hospital to get an abortion or whatever, or get your prophylaxis at 7/11 like the rest of us. Sigh. Those were the good old days.

[dreamland]

2. All Catholic hospitals are paradoxes

They spout religion over science. I don't see praying rooms but rather scientific instruments used by scientifically trained doctors. IMO, their very existence is irony. Why they don't just have give their patients thoughts and prayers.