2/16/2017
Dr. Gregory House, God and Lies
When I was a teenager, I used to watch medical TV shows like “Gray’s Anatomy”. I have
always been interested and fascinated in medical TV-shows. How doctors diagnose, treat, and
care for their patients. Doctors with the ability to think clearly and objectively in times of crises.
According to Robert Centor, currently, the Associate Dean for the Huntsville Regional Medical
and Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham, assessing the problem and giving a proper solution in a brief period is
what doctors do to save and keep patients alive. Moreover, not only giving proper treatment but
making sure that the patient is comfortable during treatment. Furthermore, one of the doctor’s
essential duets is to comfort the patient if needed. Unlike what Robert is saying, Dr. House lacks
some of the essentials criteria of what a doctor should be like.
The character Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) in the TV show House is a genius,
arrogant doctor, who thinks of himself as the smartest, most efficient doctor in diagnosing
mysterious diseases. House is tasked with leading a team of diagnosticians as the Head of
Diagnostic Medicine at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in Princeton, as he
states the procedure of making the treating the patient as “Solving a Puzzle”. Dealing with drug
addiction and poor people skills, that more often hurts patient’s and family’s feelings. House’s
personality and attitude toward people with a verity of races and ethnicity and how he keeps
mocking everyone, also that he developed a way of stereotyping people in a horrible way.
House’s behaviors in the TV show brought a lot of critics and real doctors’ attention regarding
drawing a bad picture for respectful doctors (Summary).
“Everybody Lies.” (Dr.House)
“It’s a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. the only variable is about
what. ” (Dr.House) According to the New York Times Magazine article called "Looking for the
Lie", Mark Twain said, "Everybody lies, every day; every hour; awake; asleep; in his dreams; in
his joy; in his mourning." Although House more often says, "Everybody lies", he rarely meets his
patients yet when he does he often says "I believe you" but he lies to patients because he does not
actually believe them. It is just House’s way of manipulating people, Consequently, searching
their place of living, questioning relatives, family members, and friends, doing unauthorized tests
on the patients only to get to his diagnoses. For example, a lady claiming she hadn't had sex,
politician claiming he couldn't have AIDS. Even sometimes, when they tell the truth they tend to
neglect small details yet crucial to house’s diagnoses. Therefore, he tends to not believe patients
so he torments the patient’s privacy to get it his way.
House assumptions are not restricted with his patients, also his colleagues. Houses affect
those who are surrounded by him. One of those his friend Wilson
House's reaction (later): House: "You said she was your cousin. Why would you lie?"
Wilson: "It got you to take the case."
House: "You lied to a friend to save a stranger, you don't think that's screwed up?"
Wilson: "You've never lied to me?"
House: "I never lie." (this is definitely a lie)
Wilson: "Oh, really." (#101)
Watching the TV-show House for a long time, I was comfortable with what can be thought of
as the ridiculous things about House like he is racist, sexiest, and homophobic. I don’t belief that
but I can see why first timers viewers would think like that. House is the kind of person who
manipulates people so what he does he more often provokes someone with a racist comment or
another kind of his typical house behaviors just to prove his point. To illustrate, while trying to
recruit a new team of diagnoses after his old team got separated. Dr. Cole, one of the original
forty applicants who made it to the final candidates, who is a Mormon, which offers House
plenty of opportunities to be House. Not surprisingly, he is decidedly anti-religious in general.
Moreover, House bets a colleague that no matter how much he baits Cole, the young man will
not fight back. After a particularly nasty attack on LDS Church founder Joseph Smith, Cole
punches House in the face. House losses the bet. In another episode, House offered a guarantee
on the job, with an option to get rid of two competitors for whoever could get cuddy’s thong;
House’s boss. Cole decided to deceive house by making a deal on the side with cuddy. Cuddy
gives Cole her thong with a condition that Cole chooses the ones that cuddy’s prefer to kick out.
Consequently, when Cole won he chose one of his friends to kick out which made House
suspicions and with a brief assessment of the situation he knew that Cole made a deal with cuddy
because why he would choose to kick his friend. Thus, House decided to kick out Cole for
teaming up with cuddy. House’s ideology is to bend the rules to save the patient life or solve the
puzzle. However, if you get caught deceiving House you will be punished. These mentioned
examples might give viewers to think that it is justified to lie or deceive you superiors, friends or
even strangers as long as you don’t get caught. Essentially this the way that House usually
operates.
“There’s Nothing in This Universe That Can't Be Explained. Eventually. ”(Dr.House)
One of the characteristics that define House is mocking those who believe in God. House
has tackled the issues of belief, religion, and faith more than once during the show in the episode
titled “Unfaithful,” is certain to hit on those themes once again. House is a self-described atheist,
loudly declaring religion as nonsense and its adherents as fools. Moreover, House is a scientist,
rational to the core; to House, science is almost a religion itself. In addition, House is quick to
mock religious hypocrisy (“House vs. God,”) and blind faith as he mocked Cole as previously
mentioned. He even often provokes patients by saying” If I fix you, would you worship me”.
In one of his cases, House stumbled upon a 15-year-old faith healer, which was in
House’s self-interest to prove believers that God does not exist. In the process of figuring out
what is the problem with the boy, House’s crew were more than chocked when the boy knew
certain details about their personal lives, and history. It was convincing to them that the boy had
a real gift, which is as the boy claims that God is using him as a device to heal people.
Consequently, House’s endless effort to prove they are wrong brought him eventually to a fit
diagnoses. An illness which had hallucinating as one of his symptoms, House then confronted
the boy by saying “Faith. Is another word for ignorance, is it not?”.
As House was seeking an answer that defies what the faith-healer belives, he gets in an
argument with Chase.
House: “God talks to him.”
Chase: “It’s not psychosis, he’s just religious. The only medical issue that showed up on the
blood work is low sodium.”
House: “No — you talk to God, you’re religious. God talks to you — you’re psychotic.”[219]
In my opinion, without God, life has no meaning, It is the sole purpose of living things to
have faith in a higher entity (. Not only it gives as a goal of life but having faith that there is a higher
power in the universe somehow gives us relief. One the other hand, a person without a belief would
have no obligation, and restrictions. Thus, the ultimate result would only be a world of chaos. In
another word, life can only be objectively meaningful if meaning is imposed on it from the outside,
and God is needed to impose meaning on it from the outside.
Getting back to the point. In Wilson’s words, House’s best friend.
James Wilson: “When it comes to being in control, Gregory House leaves our faith
healer kid in the dust. And that’s why religious belief annoys you. Because if the
universe operates by abstract rules you can learn them, you can protect yourself. If a
Supreme Being exists he can squash you any time he wants.”
House: “He knows where I am.”[219]
I believe that Wilson was right, House as a person who beliefs in science. Thinking that he must have
an explanation for everything to feel the sense of control. House’s reaction to those who believe in
God is similar to those who belief in God confronting atheists. Consequently, I can see how house
think it is justified to prove them wrong it just like someone defending their own religion. In
addition, I don’t think most people would be offended in the way that House think of religious
people. I know I did not.
In conclusion, House’s character presents a crazy, arrogant, and raciest in some people’s
opinions. Yet a genius that gets the job done. More often he makes His methods of solving problems
might be unprecedented but eventually it saves patients’ lives. Personally, the Tv-show House is one
of the reasons that inspired me to get into my major. Getting to solve problems and interacting with
patients is one of the subfields of Biomedical engineering. Watching House was a great experience
with me. It is true that some viewers might be offended by some of the comments made in the show.
But it is just a show and what’s a show without some controversy.
Cited Work
Centor, MD "Want to become a doctor? 5 criteria you should consider." KevinMD.com. N.p., 01
Oct. 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.
"House, M.D. HOU-201 Episode Script | SS." Springfield! Springfield! , Web. 08 Feb. 2017.
" House, M.D. HOU-101 Episode Script | SS." Springfield! Springfield! Web. 17 Feb. 2017.
Pierce, Scott D. "Scott D. Pierce: It's a Mormon in the 'House'" DeseretNews.com. Deseret
News, 30 Oct. 2007. Web. 08 Feb. 2017.
"Polite Dissent." Polite Dissent » House – Episode 8 (Season 4): “You Don’t Want to Know”.
Web. 08 Feb. 2017.
"Plot Summary." IMDb. IMDb.com, Web. 19 Feb. 2017.
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Sex Education in All Schools
Each year the United States’ teens experience more than three-quarter of a million
teenage pregnancies (Klein), and youth under the age of 25 experience more than 9 million
sexually transmitted diseases (Weinstock). Comprehensive sex education is effective at assisting
young people to make healthy decisions about sex and to adopt healthy sexual behaviors as
adults would be. A controversy exists about whether it is appropriate to teach children in all
public schools about sex. (Kirby et al) It is considered an important and crucial subject that
children must be well informed about. Sex. Including, sexual practices, child sexual abuse, and
sexually transmitted diseases. It is also an essential process for all humans that include
reproduction, intimacy, and building a strong foundation for sexual health. Sex education in
schools prevents sexually transmitted disses and teenage pregnancy, it transfers children into
responsible adults, and it is a better learning source than watching pornography. However, other
argues that parents have the right to teach their children about sex, religious ideologies, and
depriving children of their innocence.
Sex education in schools prevents sexually transmitted diseases. During Obama’s
administration, a $110 million campaign had supported a range of programs including those that
teaches about what harms and risks that specific sexual activates can uphold, and other
advantages of contraception that concentrate basically on urging children to delay sex (Stein).
Now, only 22 states, and district of Columbia only require schools to teach sex education,19.
furthermore, 33 states mandate HIV/AIDS education, and 35 states let parents teach their
children about sex. In addition, close to 3 million Americans get Chlamydia every year, most
commonly among 14-24-year-olds because of unprotected sex. In 2011, nearly 1.5 million cases
of Chlamydia trachomatis infection were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and
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Prevention. (CDC). This contradicts the number of HIV cases reported to the CDC which
indicate sex education programs in schools are not as helpful as it is supposed to be. Children
tend to love exploring at a young age, and hormones imitate that behavior with sexual activities
with others. Thus, prior to the children knowledge of risks of having sexual intercourse with
others without using the proper protection might lead to certain sexual infections as Chlamydia
or more permeant ones like HIV.
Others believe that children are better to know about such sensitive subject as sex and
sexuality from their parents not from teachers, which in somehow might be beneficial to the
children and parents in the same time, as stated earlier children tend to seek knowledge at young
age it is their time to explore and ask all kind of stuff and who is better to share such knowledge
other than parents ,parents providing such sexual knowledge about the privet parts, sexual
intercourse is away to not only builds a strong foundation of trust between them but also to tell
them that sex is not only a simple physical activity but intimate and sacred one, which also build
trust and respect. Parents nowadays are more open to their children regarding sharing sensitive
information such as sex with their children. However, when you think about it as being young at
age, there was no subject of sex that was shared to you as it is now.
In my personal experience, growing up in a strict religious community, in Science classes
sex is described as a way in order to reproduce, In religion classes, sex shall not be done before
marriage under any circumstances. That was the definition of sex to a regular child in the eye of
the community. Now the question comes to the role of the parents which is to provide the certain
knowledge about sex to their children. In my case, they were not any explanations in this matter
because I’m not supposed to have any sexual activity before marriage. However, I was taught
from my parents to not allow any stranger to touch me in my privet areas and to not talk to
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strangers so often. One more reason that I think the way that my parents shared certain
knowledge to me would be beneficial because in Saudi Arabia only kind gardens teachers have
institutes that teach both sexes at the same time but in elementary schools and high schools you
only interact with males, therefore, no sexual activities are possible for me, which is one of the
reasons they have unisex schools In Saudi Arabia.
For a conservative family, which I come from. I believe this was enough for me to
proceed with my life. hypothetically, what if it was a different country, with a different system,
and culture. Consequently, limitations and restrictions are going to differ. To illustrate, certain
knowledge about sex was not crucial but in this case, it might be. Children think why their
body’s structure are different from each other as it been stated before children tend to explore. I
bet that every person had that thought as growing up, and if a child did not obtain such
knowledge from the parent then a young classmate, for instance, might share his or her a limited
knowledge interpretation about sex. Thus, it might lead to being involved in a sexual activity of
some kind. A survey conducted by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that
indicates a 19 percent decline in HIV cases numbers that was reported in the last 8 years. In
addition, nearly 15 percent of 15-year-olds have had sex, and more than 20 percent of teens
didn't use contraception when they lost their virginity. Moreover, among teen girls who were
sexually experienced, more than 80 percent told interviewers that they didn't get formal sex
education until after they'd lost their virginity (CDC).
One the other hand, most of the catholic conservative families relatively disapprove some
sex education programs that are being taught in public schools, therefore, they are not even
considering allowing such curriculum in their schools (Masl). According to the cardinal Newman
society. Lack of moral foundation is one of the main reasons that they are denying to teach such
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material .To illustrate, Unit 2 lesson “Sex or Sexuality? Some questions are being asked with
minimal guidance, except what may be provided by the teacher or parent who leads the
discussion. Without clear reference to the Church’s moral teachings, which was supposed to be
the method in this, there is the danger that the student foundation of healthy, and sacred sexual
relationship that is built by catholic guides. An example of what the cardinal has disapproved
was, what the words “sex” and “sexuality” suggest, frequently mentioning that “boys can talk
about hooking up, one-night stands, maybe referring to their genital organs, etc., while the girls
can talk more about pregnancy, falling in love…” The lesson makes no reference to the
Church’s moral teaching, and the concepts of sin are not addressed until later in the program.
Therefore, it gives teenagers addressed in this matter an opportunity to feel these emotions and
physical activates. Another thing, in the same lesson “Sex or Sexuality”. There were a couple of
morally offensive images as the cardinal described. Students have to evaluate a photograph a
bare-chested woman in an intimate position with a man. The intention of this photograph was for
the students to feel provoked or confused by the image in addition to another couple of similar
photograph.
In conclusion, sex education is essential for all young people. Most of the comprehensive
sex education programs in schools are proved to be “effective” for teenagers. However, other
argues that it takes away children’s modesty and innocence. I can understand how conservative
society can be afraid of such programs. In fact, I consider the material of some lesson to be too
descriptive and indecent. In addition, the American society is one of the most diverse nations in
the world. Therefore, those who are sensitive regarding their children’s innocence should admit
them in what they believe to be appropriate. Although, I never had lessons such as those
mentioned before but I had sex education in a biology course and I’m happy the way I turned up
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to be. However, my situation had different variables. Thus, different variables have different
solutions.
Cited work
Hawkins, Geraldine. " Catholic Parents Object to Sex Ed Program Being Forced on Children of
Archdiocese of Boston." Mass News . N.p., 5 June 2003. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.
Klein JD & Committee on Adolescence. Adolescent pregnancy: current trends and
issues. Pediatrics 2005; 116(1):281-286.
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Masl, Molly. "Carnal knowledge: The sex ed debate." NBCNews.com. NBCUniversal News
Group, 01 July 2004. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.
"Meeting Point Sex Ed Program Not Ready for Catholic Schools." Cardinal Newman Society.
N.p., 29 Aug. 2016. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.
Stain, Rob. "Obama administration launches a sex-ed program." The Washington Post. WP
Company, 28 Oct. 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.
"Update to CDC's Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines, 2010: Oral
Cephalosporins No Longer a Recommended Treatment for Gonococcal Infections."
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
10 Aug. 2012. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.
Weinstock H et al. Sexually transmitted diseases among American youth: incidence and
prevalence estimates, 2000. Perspectives on Reproductive & Sexual Health 2004;
36(1):6-10.
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