Let’s just say I’ve had too many ugly personal experiences with fundamentalist religion.
There was a pretty good scene where he confronted the kid about how he was miles down the road when the endorphins wore off and these people found out they weren’t really healed (or were even worse off than before). The kid said that never happened. House asked him if he did extensive follow-ups with all the [del]marks[/del] people he “healed.” The kid said God told him they stayed healed and House made a sarcastic remark about how the kid was “being fair.”
There was also some chatter among the doctors about the psychology of faith healing, spontaneous remission from cancer and other general remarks about how all that stuff can be explained naturally. I think the show was trying to walk a line between debunking faith healers and theistic faith in general. Several of the other doctors were theists but they stuck to investigating natural explanations for the “miracles.”
The kid’s father’s answer when the kid said “You have to have faith in me.” kind of summed it up.
“I have faith in the Lord. You I trust…as much as anybody can trust a teenage boy.”
I’m not sure how accurate House is normally as far as science is concerned, but one scene had me laughing at their blunder…I have to scream…
Geiger counters do not detect EM radiation!!!
Home appliances do not emit decay particles!!!
I feel better now, back to the thread…
Yeah, I was afraid for a while they were going to claim that her microwave shrunk the tumors.
The guy who posts medical reviews of House liked the episode but had this to say:
“The radiation-from-household-appliances-curing-cancer idea was simply ridiculous; radiation therapy uses sepcial wavelengths of specifically focused beams of radiation, not just random entire body radiation.”
“The dry cleaner, tax accountant, the guy from the bus stop.”
Classic! “Why does he get a name?”
This was hilarious.
Also liked the bit at the very end, when Wilson says, “House, you are…[long pause]…as God made you.”
House had just the tiniest hint of a smile as they parted.
Actually, geiger counters can and do detect gamma radiation. They work by amplifying the miniscule current caused by ionizing radiation, and a photon with sufficient energy can do this just as easily as an alpha or beta particle. However, depending on the materials used to construct the counter, it can be more or less efficient at measuring gamma radiation compared to alpha or beta. So was the use of a geiger counter an error? Technically no. Was it the best choice? Probably not, but the geiger counter has the advantage of being more easily recognized by the viewers than a scintillation counter.
Now this is definitely true. What’s more, radiation from household appliances is - unless the thing is majorly malfunctioning - radio waves or microwaves, or visible light, none of which has sufficient energy to ionize atoms in the organic compounds in the human body. No ionization, no damaged molecules, no change to the biochemistry and thus no medical effect at all, helpful or otherwise. You could make the argument that they were checking on the odd chance that one of the appliances was in fact majorly malfunctioning and giving off high doses of UV, but that’s stretching it.
Well, they did state pretty clearly that it was highly unlikely unless one of the appliances was malfunctioning in a major way.
It was also a good excuse to send Chase breaking into a patients home…
They did say that the household appliances couldn’t have emitted cancer-shrinking radiation. But they checked just to be sure something wasn’t malfunctioning.
StG
I didn’t like how the cancer chick got religion at the end, though it is accurate, and not a problem with the show. My grandma always called that cramming for finals, and I remain impressed that my grandpa didn’t have any last minute requests to see a pastor before he died.
Waaaait a minute, herpes is “The Clap”? I always thought gonorrhea was “the clap”, but it’s an old term that I’ve only come across recently, so I may be totally wrong.
OK, we’ve covered the radiation and herpes, now how about the brain tumors? Can’t remember the specific name, but can these tumors give the patient ESP abilities? Isn’t that one of the symptoms that pointed them towards that diagnosis?
Merriam-Webster online agrees with you, FWIW.
I liked it OK. I too got a bad feeling that the end would cop out, and I’d argue it did give fodder to woo-woo devotees. “But if it made her feel better, and she got to see Florence, it *is * a good thing!”
Still, I loved House ripping on the kid. Hopefully some people will retain the lessons on cold reading and placebo effect.
So, whose religious stance do we know now?
House: atheist
Cameron: agnostic atheist
Chase: pretty mainstream Christian
Foreman: ?
Wilson: seems open to belief, but also seems to address religion from an outsider’s viewpoint - perhaps a Deist?
Cuddy: ?
Not ESP, but I believe they can cause auditory halucinations. There was nothing the kid knew that he couldn’t have picked up normally.
A very good episode, especially from a character development viewpoint. I loved Cameron and Foreman’s discussion from Cameron’d view on God to her comment to him regarding last week’s show. And Chase and the scoreboard.
Especially good bit about Wilson and House’s relationship. It certainly explains why Wilson continues to be House’s friend.
I was thinking about this after the episode as well. We know that Wilson is Jewish, though he doesn’t seem particularly devout at all. He does seem to believe in God, but that could be as far as he goes.
Foreman made me wonder a bit this week. He seems open to there being a God (re his conversation with Cameron), but didn’t seem to have any fixed belief. I can’t remember any other episodes off hand where his beliefs seem to have come up.
Also, I was trying to remember something about Cameron. Wasn’t there an episode where it’s revealed that she believes something that is usually only associated with religious people, like pro-life or something? I can see her saying “You don’t have to be religious to believe…” but I can’t remember what it was.
I really liked this episode, and I was quite worried going into it. I am a Christian, and what most people consider a fundamentalist, but I don’t believe in faith healers and stuff like that. They did poke a little fun at religious people, but not like what they might have done.
Lots of great moments overall. My favorite was the dad “I have faith in God. I trust you…as far as I can trust a teenage boy. Take off your clothes.” As a former teacher in public, Catholic, and Christian schools, I wish more parents would take that stance with their kids! Back them up as far as you can, but realize they are still prone to temptation and Your Child just might maybe could have done something wrong. The teacher doesn’t always make up lies about your precious little one. Oops, sorry, I went off on a bit of a rant. 
There was no rectal bleeding in this episode. 