Throughout the history of human health, religion has had both beneficial and detrimental effects.

Consider, for example, the state of medicine during the Middle Ages. Then, as in much of history, the Church played a major role in providing health care. Priests were the principal caregivers. However, illness was viewed in those days as punishment from God, so treatment often involved tormenting the body to expel evil `spirits.' Some Church teachings actively discouraged the advancement of medical science. For instance, priests were prohibited by papal decree from shedding blood, barring them from performing surgery. Also, the Church forbade dissections of human or animal cadavers, preventing any comprehensive knowledge of anatomy or physiology.

Religion and medicine are both concerned with making people whole. In fact, the words `healing' and `holiness' are both linguistically derived from the concept of wholeness.

Many health-care and teaching/research...