We have this fancy word — “orthodoxy” — which means a generally approved teaching, and implies a generally approved thinking. It assumes an authority among men which promotes and defends correct teaching and thinking. The claim also includes the assertion such “right thinking” cannot be questioned. The question for you and I is not whether to embrace any orthodoxy, but the approach we use to question it. The means of enforcing adherence to any orthodoxy is all we need to know.
Let’s back up just a moment and refresh what lies behind my approach. Truth is a Person — God Almighty. It is utterly false and misleading to envision truth as some disembodied thing detached from God’s person. It remains utterly dependent on Him. A thing is true only insofar as it reflects His revelation, and His revelation of Himself is as much as we can know about ultimate reality. Human intellect cannot fathom truth, only abstract certain material observations. Ultimate truth is perceived, not in the intellect, but in the spirit. Both the matter and faculty of Ultimate Truth is outside the intellect, and can only be a matter of spirit, though the intellect can be harnessed to serve the spirit. We might discuss academically the existence and content of an orthodoxy, a word implying Truth, but we cannot hope to nail it down concretely. It’s not an abstract thing, but a matter of living loyalty. Humans rightly evaluate declarations on orthodoxy in their spirits, as a matter of internal conviction. They discern that along with any implied compliance with orders from a human authority, but rational logic alone is insufficient for the task.
So obviously I take most orthodoxies as self-important puffery. Equally obvious is my recommendation you take the same approach. For example, the official orthodoxy regarding AIDS. From the very first, it smelled rotten to me. There were serious questions, but the questioners were hushed, marginalized, and persecuted. There was nothing remotely honest nor honorable about the parties pressing the orthodoxy. It was downright oppressive, and this was the primary evidence it was all a big lie. So now comes this marvelous exposé. If you can’t get the film, there’s this excellent review. In essence, the whole thing was a hoax designed to keep the CDC from being shut down. Since they can’t get the facts straight, it’s only natural they create a huge lie, with a harshly enforced orthodoxy, and which happens to harness itself to another evil orthodoxy for support. So naturally the MSM refuses to note any question without painting it as somehow evil. It’s rather like Satan castigating someone for lying.
The basic ANE approach — the biblical approach — is to tolerate such idiocy when it doesn’t get in the way. At some point, it becomes necessary to point out the lies. You and I both know the sheeple are unlikely to accept our message, but that’s not our problem. It’s God’s problem, and He can handle it just fine. In this case, the underlying issue is the US government, and most other human governments in the world today, have demonstrated an utter lack of interest in real science and medicine. Noting such things as vitamins and herbs will do more to help you fight the flu than any vaccine is a threat to government power. Mainstream medicine is primarily the result of doctors who are simply union thugs in disguise, and the AMA is merely a commercial monopoly interest. They are the loudest and most threatening voices on the stage, so real physicians are intimidated into silence, when they aren’t so utterly fooled they don’t know the difference. Nurses, if anything, tend to be worse.
You are on your own. Does that scare you? Does that make you feel impotent against the vast horde of information out there, which you face with insufficient means to sort through it all? Sorry, but reality sucks. It’s not as if you can’t work to form a community of balanced expertise in the various specialties, but you can’t afford to simply walk into any doctor’s office and expect those certificates on the wall to really mean much. Instead of settling the issue for human safety, the medical system has long ago become what it claims to replace, so that medical orthodoxy is often a bigger danger than the so-called quacks. This is true of almost every regulated activity. We have come to the place when precious few government agencies can be trusted for anything at all. If there’s any chance the profit motive can touch any part of the process, it will be corrupted without fail.
In this world today, orthodoxy of any kind should be the first indicator something shady is at work.
