Religion must not influence medical practice

The great socialist leader Karl Marx famously said, “Religion … is the opium of the people,” and I agree entirely. Marx and I share similar principles and priorities when it comes to looking after people. We believe that humans are so subdued by their unerring faith in an omnipotent being that they accept the hand life has dealt them. They fail to rise up and fight the real evils in life-poverty, oppression, and disease.

I have deliberately not mentioned if I have any affiliation, past or present, with a secular group, as I think this would cloud the issue concerning my revulsion towards religion. I am not an atheist (someone who does not believe that there is a god) nor am I an agnostic (someone who believes that human beings know nothing of things outside the material world). But why should I need to be anything? Why do we need religious labels? Religions are no more than social clubs; ways to pass some time in the company of people with similar interests. I do not have to defend my absence of religion to anyone; if anything the reverse is true-the pious have to convince me.

The same standard of medical care must be provided equally by …