Bible Biology

I am terrible at remembering people's names, but that doesn't mean I don't remember them. I will most likely remember three things about people I meet:

(1) What a person looks like

(2) Which country a person comes from

(3) Which course/profession they are in

(Not necessarily in that order)

I know, I know, it sounds terribly impersonal to remember country/culture of origin and field of interest, but they are the two things I like asking because they give me some sort of background as to how the person thinks, where they come from, and how they interact with the world. I have found that makes conversation much easier and avoids silly mistakes and prevents me from making a fool out of myself sometimes. 

The thing is, what you study is a big deal, especially if you are passionate about it. For example, I am convinced many people find me very annoying when I make random comments that automatically lead conversations into neuroscience and physiology, but it's how I see the world. I have even learnt to see the Bible in a different way because of it, because of some expressions and metaphors it puts. I know that the authors did not know of all the physiology going on when they put the metaphors there,  but I do truly believe that Scriptures are inspired by God - the same God who created every living organism, molecule and transcripted gene.  So I decided to try to put together some things I think about when reading some passages of scripture. 

(Note: some of the references can be seen and studied further in the books by Dr. Paul Brand and Phillip Yancey, Fearfully and wonderfully made and In the image and likeness of God)

Purified by blood

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. 

(Hebrews 9.22)

For many people, the sight of blood is disgusting and alarming - as it should be. Seeing blood most often means that there is something terribly wrong and the situation involves risk in similar proportions to the volume of blood. Also, anyone who has ever tried washing a bloody stain knows how crazy anything being 'cleansed' by blood sounds, and how 'receiving new life from blood' sounds absurd. 

But, for someone who studies even a tiny bit of physiology, that metaphor suddenly makes sense. Blood is designed to carry oxygen to tissues and to carry away toxins and waste products. If blood circulation is cut, toxins will accumulate and the tissues isolated will die - you can test it on yourself, tying something tightly around your arm or finger. Your limb will go prickly and start to go dark, and when you untie it, it will be painful to have blood flooding through the vessels and capillaries again (which also applies to the metaphor, because when you think of what it's like when Jesus comes into our lives and starts 'cleaning it out' and removing sin, it is extremely painful). 

In the end, the only reason why the sight of blood is alarming, is because it has a very necessary function it should be fulfilling inside the body's tissues. Blood cleanses, and blood brings oxygen for normal cell functioning. Blood purifies, and blood brings life. 

...and the two shall become one flesh.

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

(Mark 10.7- 8)

I know, this topic can be very hard to talk about and I won't go into detail, but I will say what I see when I read it: rather than thinking of the uniting, I go the opposite way to understand the importance of the topic and I think of the separating. 

It was only the first time that I walked into an anatomy lab and saw separate limbs from one same body that I understood the gravity and brutality of divorce. Something that once was one, and then is severed, separated from what it used to be part of. It is something unnatural, revolting and that clearly is not the way it was meant to be. 

The body of Christ

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 

(1 Corinthians 12)

I could talk about this text all day long, for pages and pages, but I will try to not go into too much detail. 

Being one same body

I love this text because it has a systemic approach of the body to an extent much beyond the medicine of the time Paul wrote this. Now we know how much one part of the body cooperates with another. A body cannot be made only of eyes or only of feet or only of livers. Each organ has a specific function and must do so - and if it does not another organ will be overburdened in compensating - or the body will cease living altogether. Organs need each other, and what one does affects all the others. 

In physiology we like separating systems neatly, but the truth is, we are all just one system composed of many parts working together and keeping track of what is going on. It is both terrifying and beautiful. 

Pain

Pain exists both in the physical and emotional aspect, and in the case of the body of Christ this serves perfectly for the metaphor. When one part of the body suffers, it does not suffer alone. Other cells and parts near it will suffer immediately with inflammation and citokine relesases in the region (resulting in swelling, heat, and, well, pain). Pain is a good thing: it means that the rest of the body must care for that region, and it is a signalling that that part needs protection. And there is much that we can learn from that in the body of Christ: if we see someone else in pain, we will suffer with them and try to assist in healing and protection, not just add onto the fire. 

Also, pain has systemic consequences. Recent studies show that prolonged inflammation, for example, has neurological consequences. When we are one and when we love, we are not immune from pain - we are most likely even more vulnerable to it. 

More or less honoured parts of the body

There are some body organs that receive much attention, such as the brain and heart, which are more 'admirable' in an obvious way. But something I love about the body is the way that some relatively small organs have massive function. The spleen, for example, if ruptured and not cared for can lead to death within few hours, and we cannot live without a liver or kidneys (though nowadays there is hemodialysis). Or even the glands - like the suprarenal glands or the thyroid gland. Mess them up and, boy, you'll see conditions as brutal as Addison's and hyper/hypothyroidism, and you see how the entire body is affected by these seemingly small parts of the body. 

You can, but should you?

"I have the right to do anything," you say--but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything"--but not everything is constructive.

(1 Corinthians 10.23) 

When I see this text, I think of DNA. I know, a bit far fetched, but bear with me. Every cell in your entire body is made up of the exact same genetic code. That is a lot of information. But, some cells have bucketloads of genes which will never be expressed or genes that will only be expressed very briefly. A cell cannot express all genes at all times if it is to be a healthy and normal cell, it must express only the genes that are beneficial to itself and to all the other cells in the body. There is a 'set of rules' that the cell must live by (or 'commandments'?) we could say, in such a way that it will fulfil what it was made to do and benefit the entire organism. Too bad the set of commandments is much more than just 10. 

To be the head

"And [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy." 

(Colossians 1.18)

Now, again, unpopular topic, I know, BUT I must say that for a neuroscientist to read this, this is rather beautiful to read. Again, I could go on for AGES talking about this, but I will try very hard to speak concisely. 

When I think of head, I think of the Central nervous system, of the Brain and Spinal cord. I think of all the sensory information of every last and tiny cell in the body being sent to the brain and from the brain. I think of massive networks of neurones. I think of communication. I think of cooperation. I think of harmonious, vastly complex and exceedingly difficult to understand phenomena. 

Here is the thing: the brain is the entire time functioning in favour of the rest of the body, and along with the blood, providing communication and unity and harmonious function. The HEAD and the BLOOD (sorry, had to put that in capitols simply because it's too much awesomeness and it makes a lot of the bible make sense). 

So, it is only through the head (Jesus) and through the blood (His blood, to be more precise) that we can be one body and function properly in a coordinated manner. The head joins the information from synapses (why not call them prayers?) and processes the information and produces systemic responses to the information input. 

The funny thing is, it is only through the brain that we can also feel pain - so it also unites us in that, and makes us care for one another as little cells in this body. How amazing is that? And the brain does all that, and feels the pain of all the parts of the body but does not do it for itself - the brain does not have innervation, and in a very poetic way, is 'selfless' and puts its own pain aside in order to feel the pain of others and respond to that. That makes me think of Christ putting aside his pain in leaving the Father, in dying on a cross, in order to save us from what should have been our pain and our death. 

Also, the brain does a lot of things that we don't understand. For example, if you voluntarily decide to stop breathing, you can do that - for some time. When the situation gets critical, your brain kicks in with the autonomous nervous system and makes you go back to breathing weather you like it or not. Therefore, there are many things that Christ, as the head, will do that we will not understand or agree with at the time - but he does it having something much greater in mind. 

The brain is also what makes us who we are in the body. Without it, it is the condition of being brain dead. It is the brain that allows us to empathise, to feel hope, love, joy. That allows us to think and decide. That allows us to be more than a worm or fish. 

So, when I read

"But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God."

(1 Corinthians 11.3)

I no longer think of an authoritarian point of view: I think of how the man must be the head in the sense that he must protect and make sure the woman is well, cared for and to be in constant communication with her so that together they can keep each other alive and serving one another in the best way possible. 

I could go on for ages, but I'm guessing that's a good start for some Biology in the Bible. Hope you liked it! 

The untameable chain

The other day I caught myself silently protesting within the safeness of my mind the unfairness of the way the world works. In many countries, getting into this or that university depends on sitting that one exam. Getting that job depends on that single interview. So much of our lives relies on these moments, on having a good day, waking up in a good mood, being calm, being... what you are expected to be. How many times have I not thought to myself after a miniature disaster: "If only it had been on another day, one that I hadn't a headache, then..." "If only I had had another day to study, then..." ... then I would have been ready to take on life. 

The problem is, life isn't like that.

She's independent.

She's wild.

She can't be tamed.

And even if it were another day, we would have no more control over that hypothetical day than the one when things actually did happen. In the end, we would be at the mercy of circumstances and situations, be them ideal or not. Romantic or absolutely tragic. Architected in perfection or dodgily unstable.

The thing about this wildness of life, is that we attribute importance to these big, 'decisive' events we have in life (the ones that make us fuss and be nervous, anxious, and goodness knows what else goes on in our little preoccupied brains that try to carry a world too heavy for them), but the thing is... I don't think we should be giving them so much importance. No, no, I'm not saying they are unimportant, not at all. They do change our lives very much. However, they should not be given so much importance because there are other important things as well. 

- An unexpected epiphany -

Not a moment goes by in which you are not, somehow, changed forever. 

Every day. Even the boring days. The dull days.

Spent at home, watching a movie. Or maybe going out with your friends. Nothing is the same, because everything you see, smell and touch; everything you watch or listen to; every conversation you have with a random stranger or a close friend. Every experience parts from you biding farewell to someone different from the person who arrived in the first place. 

That happens because life is a chain of events, and like every chain, every part of it is necessary for the next one to attach to - but the next one is just that bit further forward so as to you never really are where you were before. You are never really who you were before.
Even if we think biologically, cells are dying and being born every moment in you. Things are changing in the universe - energy is being dispersed, spread out. Entropy is increasing. We can never, ever make the universe be exactly as it was before - yet we cling to our illusions that things are somehow the same. They are not. They were not. They cannot be the same. And therefore, if we are to live in this universe and be able to live and adapt, we cannot be the same. We learn, we change. 

Think of something, your favourite band, favourite food, or something that you are terribly afraid of, think of the first time you thought of something that would then become your biggest dream, or think of the person you love most in the world. Do you remember the first time you came into contact with any of these? When you started to like, to fear? When a thought gloriously went through a metamorphosis from a quiet thought to a dream? When you met the person you love most? Sometimes we do, others we don't - but the thing is, it did happen, one impossibly dull and utterly ordinary day; a day you maybe expected nothing from. Some anonymous day that faded into the routine, and you never realised the importance it had, until it already had become important, until that very plain day changed you, your taste, dreams, fears and love forever. Until that day grew into you in fondness or in memory or in fear, and became a part of you - that makes it impossible to think of what it would be like to pull that single link, that single thread of a day that has been woven into your soul so intricately, you can barely see it anymore. 

So, rather than obsessing over these days that seem stamped with importance in title or in content, what if we saw them as another link in the chain that makes up our lives? What if - better still - we got up every morning gloriously remembering how you are not the same person that lay down the night before? Looking in hope rather than fear at all the chances to change, to morph into something more glorious, more beautiful... and so these chains of concerns and worries, hanging from our wrists and binding our feet keeping us from running freely through our days may some day blossom into a beautiful chain of flowers - filled with life, unexpectedness and unique beauty - a beauty that can never be tamed or possessed, the same way a flower cannot live once it has been picked to be owned, but a beauty to be admired in its passing, in its coming and going, in every and any season life presents to us. 

"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause, you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, or thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day." 

- Charles Dickens, High hopes

Watery "I"s

I stood watching the river silently creep under me. The bridge that held my feet held itself steadily watching the continuous flow, as it always had from it’s early years of existence. The day sighed into twilight, tired of its long shift. 
There’s something about rivers and something about bridges that always get me. It’s like there’s this secret signature in my soul that makes me look at a river plundering on and feel like I have something in common with it, this silent bond of mutual understanding: always going somewhere, carrying bits and pieces from the past trying to get somewhere and not being really sure where ‘somewhere’ is. 
I like rivers. But I can’t hold them. 
I identify with them. And that’s why I am content to let them be rivers. 

Sometimes people get crazy ideas and try to reroute artificially a river - usually not a great idea. Sometimes they try to hold them in, or take in their energy. But trying to hold a river in seems wrong, seems somehow like a sin, like taking away it’s identity and trying to make it into something it is not - and so pressure builds, and builds, until the slightest crack in a dam is enough for it to insistently dig in until it can make it’s way out, to be the river it was to be in the first place. 
Some people are lakes, and are easily contained - and if you try to make them into a river, they will just dry up. Others are rivers, and if you try to contain them, pressure will build until it bursts. They need to find a sea to spill into, and lose themselves in. Others are rain that falls soft upon fields, silently but surely. Others are a mad storm that pours and then never comes back. 
The thing is: each person is one way, and you can either take them how they are, or you can try to mould and shape them to what you want - but that’s robbing them of their identity, of what they are to be. 
I like the idea that people are like water because we need water to live, and most of us is made from this exogenous molecule that is constantly being substituted in our bodies. 

- An utterly unromantic digression - 

Technically, the person you love most in the world is 72.8% water.  

We need it to live, and to survive, and it comes from all sorts of origins and end up making us who we are. But, at the same time, you can’t hold water in your hands, it cannot be contained by frail fingers. It slips, it flees and flows. It comes in the form that it comes - from a chuckling river, patient lake, wild ocean, and we can take it or leave it, and no more can be done. We can drink it in and let it be part of us, or we can leave it altogether. But we can’t hold it, or save it for later. We can’t take all of it in at once, or it would kill us - we take little by little. It goes changing us, and becomes part of us. Sometimes, we come back for more and drink a person in, and they keep becoming more and more of us - but that requires the effort to come back to the source. 
Love is letting the lake be a lake and a river be a river, and be content in doing so because you know that trying to make them into anything else would rob them of their identity. Sometimes, in love, more important than knowing when to hold on, is knowing when to let go. Let the river take its course.

“The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them” ― Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island 

And this is why I like bridges: They connect, and they bring together, without interruption. You can be near the river, you can practically be on the river: have your feet dangling down and touching the water, but never keeping it from being itself. It is a place for meeting, and it is a place of meeting - where two margins meet. It is like margins on a mutual agreement to reach out to one another, letting the river run freely. 

I wish people were more like bridges and less like dams, that they would reach out rather than try to contain. That they would be there, but also let be. But then maybe that’s just me, trying to make a lake into a river. 

Silent revolution

In a society of people that want to be heard, it is a rebellion to be silent. At times, it is easy to find one's self empty of words, just listening to conversation and easily with the mind drifting away in the currents of recent events and just no desire to engage in energetic conversation or display opinions, simply because there is too much to be said. Sometimes the mind is too full to spill out. 

Having an overflowing mind does not translate into lips overflowing with words. Actually, it rarely does do so - and when it does, very seldom they are the right ones. Any word, attempt of communication seems feeble and insufficient and childish. It is when our minds fill that we find how foolish we are to think that words are the best means of communication for all kinds of knowledge, documents, letters, news, emotion. They are simply not good enough.

Rather than giving wings to our imagination, relationships and minds, words are more like cages. 

Some people have the ability to display them eloquently and convey message, meaning and feeling very accurately - but I'm afraid there are very few people gifted to do so. It is those people that dive into reality and into the messiness that spoken language is and know how to translate one to the other.  Those are the people with equal power to love the world, start a revolution or start a war. Those are the people burdened with eloquence, with the responsibility of holding one of the most effective ways to encourage, to change the world or to destroy it with the deadly ammunition that words prove themselves to be. Words are cages, and clumsy, but if handled wisely they can soothe or pierce the soul with equal surprising accuracy in both restoration and destruction. 

However, though words hold such great power, they may be overrated proportionally to how much silence is underrated. I like to think that the fact that silence can so easily be uncomfortable is the indicator that silence can be much more accomplished than any amount of words in relationships. It is only the closest and the dearest that are perfectly content to be side by side sharing silence. It is a gift that develops with time and recognition that what exists between people goes beyond all eloquence and words. Henri Nouwen puts it in an interesting way: 

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing, and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."

Silence comes along also with introspection and fullness of mind and of heart in the perception that not all the language in the world would be enough to convey what is in a person. At best, it would be insufficient.

Of course, this is not taking away merit of communication and how much words aid us in engaging with each other, but I believe they are far from being the best and most efficient in doing so. It takes a great deal of skill and of talent to say the right words in the right way, in the right time. However, most things can be communicated most effectively with no words at all. The same universe inside each human being that we get a glimpse to through every word, we see it much more honestly and less edited through actions and gestures. What one does does not depend on one's opinion or image of one's self, it is the closest to their soul that we may get. 

Words can much more easily be deceiving and dependent on what a person wishes to convey of themselves, rather than what we actually are. 

A beautiful speech is absolutely useless if it is not lived out, however no speech at all is necessary when all the messages are translated into life and reality through actions and behaviour. A leader who inspires people to follow without the need of using eloquence and fancy statements will be followed much more faithfully, because he lives out rather than speaking out. 

When a parent yells to a child saying "You cannot yell to people!", which will be most engrained in their brain: the words, or the action? What use is it to say eloquent verses of admiration or say beautiful promises that one does not intend to keep when this same love and admiration cannot be observed in what is done? How can we live with contradictions between the words and all that is said in silence? How do two people, two clashing images - the one in speeches and the one in reality - fit in one? Most of the time, it just doesn't make sense. It's messy. It's contradictory and schizophrenic. Which is why, many times disposing of words can be the most honest thing one can do. 

Ultimately, I think what I am trying to say - in a surprisingly ironic and contradictory way - is: 

Words are futile for anything worth being said.

pas divin de deux

I have never considered myself to be a good follower. In any type of situation I am exceedingly quick to question and to change things ordained by social convention; in social situations I was never annoyed by doing things differently, not following alpha members in groups - never expecting anyone to follow, just happily doing my own thing. That's why I had no idea what to expect as yesterday I stepped into two dancing classes in pairs, blues and swing dancing. The concepts were not difficult since most of the moves I knew from previous classes in various other dancing styles, but, unlike the styles I was used to, here I would have to follow someone's lead. I did not know if I would manage to do that. And, well, often I did not.

What I did find, however, was that once I trusted that the person knew what they were doing, I found myself perfectly happy to follow. I would then not be trying to get the steps into the music or correct anything. The thing is, it is hard to follow when it is hard to trust your partner, and that may be the exact reason why following has always been a fear factor to me. 

This, many times seems to be a contradiction, given that I am a Christian. Jesus called the disciples to leave all things and follow him. How can I follow Him, that I don't even see physically, when I can't even follow actual people in front of me? As I considered the following business, my mind was driven to piles and piles of verses about submission to Christ, and to God, all things I always had great difficulty in understanding. When I read these verses, the submission I thought of was much closer to an oppressive submission, but I suddenly realised that is not the submission he offers at all. 

The submission he offers is much more of an invitation than a demand. If I may, in my mind it sounds like he is asking us to have this dance with him, we may or may not accept. Unlike the submission to power in fear that we often see, the submission in a dance in pairs is completely different: it is based on trust, on familiarity and in synchrony: all things that develop with time. Once they are learnt, they make what used to be a clashing display of different wants and objectives, what used to be difficult and awkward, suddenly become natural.
One does not stop being one's self in the dance with someone else, but is willing to coordinate in harmony with someone else in a way to produce something even more beautiful than would be done alone. This is the invitation we are presented with, not to be less of ourselves by following, but to be even more, through Christ and the relationship with him. 

At a certain point in the night yesterday, one of the people that took me out to dance said "don't worry about your feet, I'm going to twirl you, and just go with it", and little by little I realised that he knew what he was doing and was perfectly happy to twirl, dance, kick and come back: not having a care in my mind. At one moment when I was twirled, my hand was let go of and I nearly went head on into a pillar - at which he said "I'm sorry! It's my job not to twirl you into a pillar, that was my fault!". After that I was slightly apprehensive - I had to be aware of my surroundings and be careful in my following. I realised I could not follow, and had to change my approach.

The thing is, that doesn't happen in the relationship with God. The longer we are in it, we see he does not fail, that he never twirls us into the pillar. We realise that at no moment he forgets, lets go and lets us run into the world. At no moment we seek to find no hand to hold us. He promised extensively that that hand would be there (Isaiah 41.10). Of course, that doesn't keep us from letting go - but he is willing to help us get up and come back if we want to and carry on in this divine dance that christianity is. And so, with time and effort, more and more we find that we really can 

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." (Proverbs 3.5-6)

Sometimes, when dancing, I would forget the key concept of relying; rather than dancing I took up the concept of fencing in which it is preferable to have the lead, and I would try to do so. Sometimes I would get away with it, but most of the time it would be messy, and both myself and the partner stopped understanding what was going on or what our role was; I tried to rely on my own understanding rather than trusting my partner, and it became... well, a mess. I forgot this was not about winning, it was about doing something, producing something good, something blessed, something beautiful: together.

With Jesus, we don't get away with it. We can't control anything. He is quick to bring us back into synchrony and point out that we are not following and remind us all we have to do is keep our eyes on our leader, and be willing to follow. Willing to trust.
Like this, with trust, finding as the dance goes on that he is strong to hold us, we are able to do so much more than we ever could do in a solo, or with an unexperienced partner that is not able to bring out the best in us. The twirls are longer, faster, the jumps are higher, and we learn to mirror him and to be more and more like him: we learn to know him and our feet move swiftly and certainly in the moves that we have been taught.
Like this - nearly counter-intuitively - resigning our own freedom of dancing alone and giving up on trying to learn the dance moves as we wish, we are not less free to dance: the trust allows us to be free, be better, learn and be more and more of ourselves, not less as in an oppressive leadership. 

And if, even with all this, we ever doubt that he can hold us, all we need to remember is the text in Hebrews 1.3 I read this morning and caused me to think of all this: 

"This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God's nature. He holds everything together by what he says - powerful words!" 

So maybe we just have to trust that we are part of 'everything' and he will hold us together - the same way he holds the galaxies, the stars and the planets; the same way he coordinates harmoniously chemical reactions and physiological interactions in these glorious organic miracles. And, when receiving the invitation to this dance, we can be sure to graciously submit our will in hope that his beauty will also be brought to fully alive in this gloriously divine expression of trust, love and harmony. 

Do your research before hugging trees

I must be a horrible, heartless, soulless person. That's the only thing I can think with some of the looks I get upon discussing or being questioned about topics like animal experimentation. 

In 2012, for example, a random group of people broke into a big research lab in Brazil to get out the beagles that were undergoing experimentation. Everyone was talking about it and had something to say about animal experimentation. "Oh, poor beagles. STOP animal experimentation. You scientists are horrible people. You use the animals and then KILL them."

It's very pretty to have this speech, to hug trees and try to save animals and the world - it's quite dramatic going out into the streets with a sign or body painting or whatever to show just HOW MUCH you want to change the world and save animals. But, let's be honest, most of the time the world isn't changed by posters, cliché sentences, and screaming your opinion at the top of your lungs. Actually, lots of the time this sort of thing disturbs me profoundly and I will tell you why. 

Have you ever seen someone do animal experimentation? Getting the animal, handling it for extensive periods of time, having it near you, trying to not give names and not grow attached to it in any way, and then have to sacrifice it... Have you ever seen that? No. Or someone getting a chicken embryo to study development? Seeing the beating heart when opening the egg shell carefully and knowing you are the reason why that heart is going to cease beating? No. You haven't. And you don't know what it feels like. 

People think that we are untouchable in our lab coats and fancy goggles, but we're not, we're human. I've seen scientists talk about how they care for animals, how they support animal shelters in an attempt to relieve their conscience of the fact that they quite often kill animals in the laboratory. I have seen people leave the room in lectures, be sick, nearly faint. It's not pretty, it's not fancy and it is definitely not cold blooded murder: you only know how horrible death is when you see it, but you feel the wait of it when inflicting it with your hands, and it is not a good weight to bear, it is not a weight we were made to bear. 

So, I'm imagining you are thinking "Well, if it's so terrible, then why do you do it? It just proves our point that there should NOT be animal experimentation!". Yes, you are right, there should most definitely not be animal experimentation. The same way there should be no murders, rapes, hunger or disease. BUT, we are in a world with suffering, with disease, and we intend to do something about it in research, and unfortunately our only closest model of your friend's cancer or your acquaintance's parkinson's disease or your grannie's arthritis is alive and is an animal model. We are working on other ways to do these things - cell culture, organ on a chip, all these things are being worked on, but none of them are fully functional yet. Therefore, we have to resort to animal models when the others do not suffice. While you want to promote life by screaming in the streets about how horrible we are, we are working long hours in the laboratory to try to develop a vaccine so that your child will not take ill, and a cure for your family relatives' cancer, parkinson's or alzheimer's. We are trying to change the world and promote life in a silent revolution. 

This finally begins to deconstruct the common scientist stereotype, that we do what we do because we are cold blooded: we do what we do keeping in mind that there is a bigger reason for what we do. Every time I pick up paraphormaldehyd, a scalpel, liquid nitrogen, a pair of scissors and nankin to dye an embryo I tell myself: I'm doing this for a reason. Maybe it's idealistic and naïve of me as an undergrad student, but it's the only way I can get myself to do it. In a way, one might say that because we hate seeing suffering and wrong in the world - because we feel the pain too much - that we inflict pain to stop it. You would be surprised at the number of people who go into research because of relatives with disorders in whatever they are working in. 

Now, defences made, I feel I must state something that may be very impopular, but that for far too many years has bothered me, and that is the fact that I do not know what all the fuss is about most of the time. Some people have very hateful speeches towards science, and I don't really know where that comes from. I do agree, for example, with the fact that animal models should not be used for experimentation in non-fundamental branches of research such as the cosmetic industry. However, when people are fighting so much to save the beagles, I can't help but laugh inwardly about how ridiculous the situation is, many times, for 3 reasons: 

1) People only fight for what they like (aka, think is cute)

When people broke in to the lab in Brazil, they went and they saved all the beagles (ruining YEARS of research) but left the rats and the pigs to die. You don't see anyone doing walks to defend the mosquitoes or cockroaches from insecticides or the sole of anyone's shoe. Although there are vegetarians, many animal lovers are not vegetarians and are not inclined to be in front of a butcher's saying he is a cold blooded killer. So, you just love the fluffy and warm animals but the rest can die (especially if they are tasty)?

2) People have no idea what they are talking about

People get emotional and people get stupid about things. They don't know enough about it, and because it seems to be a noble cause they go for it without thinking. Lots of people praised the beagle incident "oh, they SAVED the beagles!". Guys, the beagles were bred in certain conditions so as to have NO IMMUNITY. Three months later, the 'free beagles' all died. Please, get your facts straight before lifting up your posters and breaking in and destroying very expensive lab equipment.
Something else under this that I cannot go on without mentioning is the recent measles outbreak and the return of several diseases which should have been eradicated by now, but are not because of people who refuse to vaccinate their children.  Because of not searching for reliable sources and just believing any non-scientific nonsense, they are putting their children and other people who cannot be vaccinated due to health conditions at risk. This is why I highlight HOW important it is to get your facts straight and look for RELIABLE sources of information. 

3) Even the most energetic people against it have benefited from it

Every person picking up a poster, sign or talking for greenpeace or WWF or whatever non-governmental organisation, has in some way benefited from animal experimentation. Be it from direct use of medication and cosmetics which were tested on animals (or would you really refuse to undergo antibiotic treatment with an infection that could kill you in 2 days because a number of rats were killed in testing it?), or from indirect benefits like studies about infection that led doctors to use latex gloves, wash hands, use 70% alcohol and antibacterial soap. If you want to go back to living like there is no science or medicine, go for it. I'm not inclined to be there to see the bubonic plague coming back the same way measles is coming back because of recent anti-vaccers.

In a nutshell, I do not want to insult anyone or offend anyone; what I'm trying to say is that, yes, animal experimentation is something to be used with great care, and death (even of animals) is not something to be taken lightly, but our scientific and technological development is not ready to have it completely ruled out (though we are working hard towards it). However, whenever emotional involvement takes away one's better judgement and, therefore, makes facts and arguments disposable, caution must be taken even in apparently good causes: if you just think what everyone thinks, you aren't thinking at all. So, be you in favour or against animals, a vegetarian or a carnivore, let's be wise in pointing fingers and accusing anyone of being a cold blooded killer. We don't live in a perfect world, and therefore, we are not perfect - but let us work towards making it a better place, starting with listening and being loving, even towards the freaks in the lab coats. 

A house divided in itself

Soldiers hiding in trenches of self,
What in the world have we come to be?
Hatred feeds off of desire for wealth
Is there no end to the beloved’s tyranny?

In despair the tears burn like fire
Hearts bombed in horrid explosion
Lonely, hopeless, trapped in barbed wire
Fearful of clicking of slightest emotion

Words are more deadly than knives
Deceitful lips cut deeper than steel
Merciless, shred the soul in lies
Severing any surviving desire to feel

Lips shooting curses paradoxically bless
Maybe it is love’s deepest irony:
Should it come from hands that caress
The wounds that are most deadly

A broken heart, a wound so fatal
Inflicted only by most unlikely enemy
Love is murdered in its very cradle
When hatred erupts within family

 
(Not fussy about the music, but the video is well worth watching until the very end)