I was born on April 12, 1931, in Chicago, Illinois. The hospital where I was born was subsequently torn down. Most of my childhood was spent in Independence, Missouri. Harry Truman’s house was just across the street from our back alley. As a teen, we moved south of Independence, into the Raytown school district. I graduated from Raytown High School in 1949. I then attended Central Methodist College, (now University) in Fayette, Missouri, from 1949 to 1953, where I was president of the senior class, and graduated with a major in English literature. I had signed up to attend graduate school at the University of Kansas, study English literature further, when the draft board came calling. They ordered me to serve our country in the Korean War. I registered as a conscientious objector to that war, because I felt that war was unjust, but wanted to serve our country. I was assigned, through the American Friends Service Committee, as an alternative to military service, to be a Psychiatric Aide in Independence, Iowa, from 1953 to 1955. I became interested in medicine during that service, and after it had been completed, went to the University of Iowa, graduating with an M.D. degree in 1960. I completed a one year internship at the University of Cincinnati in 1961, and then entered a six year residency in general and thoracic surgery at that institution from 1961 to 1967. I then became Chief of Surgery at the Cincinnati Veterans Administration Hospital, Associate Chief of Staff for Research at that institution, and Assistant Professor of Surgery in the University of Cincinnati.
I left the university in 1973 to join my friend, Malcom Lentz, in private practice in Chillicothe, Ohio. I practiced general surgery there for ten years. I then found my knowledge getting stale, and went to Ohio State University in 1983, for additional training in cardiovascular surgery. I then resettled in Zanesville, Ohio, where I limited my practice to chest, lung, esophageal and vascular surgery. My primary focus was to combat lung and esophageal cancer. I retired from doing major surgery in 2004, and at that time formed a not-for-profit corporation whose main purpose was to provide care for medically indigent patients. My main focus was then directed toward fighting smoking and obesity, and those diseases those evils caused, COPD, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. COVID hit me hard the last week of 2020, and the sequela of that disease forced me to retire in 2021. I was able to serve as a physician for over 60 years, from 1960 to 2021.
During my medical career, I was never able to reconcile the knowledge that I had about human physiology with the beliefs that our religions were promoting. It was not until late in life, after a long period of religious study, including some sixty books, three years of intermittent Bible study, three readings of the Koran, and reading ”The Origin of the species…”that I woke up. The full meaning of the discovery by Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin, the natural evolution of the species, finally hit me full force. My conflict was resolved.
All life species have evolved naturally as our planet earth has presented us with constantly changing conditions. Those varieties of life that have most fit with those new environmental conditions have survived, while those species less able to fit into that new environment have not survived, long term. There has never been a Divine being that is directing and ordering the development of humans, except in our anthropomorphic imaginations. That development has occurred all on its own, once life began. No Divinity directs the universe. The universe runs on the laws of physics and relativity only. Yes, we are completely subservient to the laws of chance. Good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people. It is up to us to play those probability curves to our best advantage.
Our religions say otherwise. They say there is a human-like divinity who controls all events in the universe and everything humans do. They combine this anthropomorphic belief with grand mythology, associated with the morals of prophets. Although that religious mythology is colorful, fanciful and appealing, it conjures up a false belief: an all-powerful divinity who has direct personal power over humans. Unfortunately, becoming better persons, and finding long term survival as a species, is entirely up to us, not some regal figure in the sky.
Survival of the fittest, in the case of the human species, is no longer primarily about cunning, prowess, strength, and various body parts, such as hands, vocal cords, bipedal gait. It is now primarily about how well we show empathy and respect for each other. Those societies where its members have felt driven to cooperate with each other, have been able to construct vibrant, thriving, nurturing societies, where there is abundant infrastructure to make life more comfortable for all its members, where there are fantastic scientific achievements, and marvelous discoveries. Those societies which do not show respect for all its members wallow in sour despair, suppression and destruction. Unless we develop a universal human ethic, where each human treats all other humans with respect, we are toast on this planet earth.
Our religions have, for the most part, prohibited us from reaching that universal ethic, necessary for us to survive as a species. Granted, they have given us marvelous morals, as taught by their prophets. They have also given us a profusion of religious extremists, who treat with disdain and punishment all those other humans who profess belief in other religious mythologies. Our religions have, in addition, given us a plethora of religious fanatics, who believe that all humans who profess other mythologies should be tortured or killed.
How do we get beyond the veil of colorful, but sinisterly sinful, mythologies of our religions, to reach universal human ethics, where humans treat all other humans with empathy and respect, and where all men and women, regardless of their color, shape, culture or beliefs, are provided equal opportunities to obtain their fulfillment in life? That’s what my books and essays are all about.