Should I fire the veterinarian with Creation Museum literature in his waiting area?

[Bossy Monkey]

Said museum is a project of an outfit called Answers in Genesis (AiG) (and you thought the OTHER AIG was bankrupt!). He had several copies of their newsletter (Here's the lead story, For Whom Should We Vote?: http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/au/for-whom-should-we-vote Seems like a backhanded endorsement of McCain, but I admit it was more subtle than I expected). They were addressed to him by name, so not something he picked up by accident or something left there by door-to-door creationists; next to them was another stack, this one specifically about the Creation Museum.

He is a reasonably competent vet, and was kind and helpful in the matter of putting Madeline (the cat) to sleep. However, I feel like anyone so blinded by religion as to believe in creationism is instantly disqualified from being a doctor for anybody. Also, I'd rather not give the nuthatch money so long as there's any alternative. So I'm going to go to the other nearest vet and see if they also have snake-handler type literature. Here in the hinterlands, it may turn out that finding a vet with compatible beliefs might take longer than I'd prefer, but since we're still less than 10 miles from Columbia, I'd like to think it can be done. (We chose the guy initially because Madeline needed to be seen immediately that day and the nearest vet didn't have an opening; he was the second nearest.)

He also has a stick up his butt possibly even bigger than the one up mine. Mr. Congeniality, he isn't. I guess if he were one of those warm, kindly, love everybody type Christians, I could maybe cut him some slack, but as he isn't, I'm not much so inclined.

Also he wrote, illustrated and self-published a Christian fantasy novel for kids. Of course, 1/3 of that could be said about C.S. Lewis as well, but I'm pretty sure his work won't be confused for Mr. Lewis'. Dark, I know, but I was on the verge of firing him just for the novel.

Also also, I ditched a long-time friend immediately when she told me she didn't believe in evolution, not because I was in any way angry at her per se, but because there was no way I would be able to restrain myself from non-helpful, "WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!" type comments. I foresee a similar problem with the vet.

[MountainLaurel]

1. I wouldn't want medical care from anyone that indoctrinated

And invested in un-science, and I wouldn't want such an individual caring for my family members either.

[Bossy Monkey]

2. Pretty much my thoughts (as well as not wanting to subsidize such ignorance) nt

[vademocrat]

3. I agree with the first two posters - where'd he get his DVM?

[Bossy Monkey]

5. Auburn n/t

[Sanity Claws]

4. Tell him you are afraid that he'll have a dinosaur in his

waiting room so you can't come to his office anymore.

[Bossy Monkey]

6. Brilliant! I should n/t

[KamaAina]

7. Careful. He's probably the only vet in town who treats dinosaurs.

:P

[Bossy Monkey]

10. Maybe that's the solution; tell him that I won't be bringing my cats back

but when I get my pet dinosaur, he's the one I'll call.

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. I would have said before, "If he's competent, stick with him". Now I don't.

The only way that we're gonna get the Jesus Crispy shitbags out of our government and out of our lives is to publicly humiliate and excoriate them at every opportunity.

They need to be told that they are morons, and they need to lose business and friends.

[Bossy Monkey]

9. Well I was going to put on "What's his name?! What's his address?! Torches & pitchforks at sundown!"

but thought it might be a little over the top.

[crim son]

11. No, not if he's good at his work.

This is a country where all beliefs are tolerated, if not respected. Will his foolishness prevent him from properly treating your pet? Only you know. It's completely understandable how his stance might piss you off, but... I believe we should give people the benefit of the doubt, professionally speaking. As for a friend with ridiculous beliefs, I have a hell of a time dealing with them. The friendship doesn't last, because I want to be able to commiserate with a friend and I could not with a freeper or a fundy. I have a number of these people as acquaintances, however.

[Bossy Monkey]

12. I tolerate his beliefs, just have no desire to support them

As he is apparently a fundamentalist, his foolishness might easily prevent him from properly treating my pet. I'm not that up on my Bible study. Presumably he doesn't share the attitude of this crazy (Jehovah's Witness I think) person, apparently in Denmark: http://dbhome.dk/carlo/cat.htm but it seems that some can conclude from Biblical sources that cats are Satanic. (I'm not making a serious point, but you should read the link; it reads like a brilliant parody. The guy's homepage is in Danish, which I can't read, and seems to be about Jehovah's Witnesses, but might be anti-. For all I know, the cat thing might BE a brilliant parody.)

Edit: I appreciate that nobody cares but me, but it was funny. Comments here http://tornandfrayed.typepad.com/tornandfrayed/2005/01/are_cats_for_tr.html indicate that it's a parody by an ex-JW.

[crim son]

15. Fair enough.

You must do what you believe is best.

[IDemo]

13. Tell him your raptor has been hacking up hairballs since your cat went missing

[Bossy Monkey]

24. Either that or Dino the dogasaurus got into the Fruity Pebbles again n/t

[curse of greyface]

14. I liked the wife answer. But if he really belives that I don't think he would make a good vet.

It isn't political is pratical. I want someone with a scientific mind to treat my kitties.

I wouldn't send them to a creationist vet any more than I would a homeopathic one.

[Bossy Monkey]

19. You don't believe in the memory of water? Shocked, I'm shocked!

(Not really; I don't either, though some defender of homeopathy will no doubt turn up momentarily.)

PS: Pretty kitty!

[curse of greyface]

20. Kitty thanks you... NT

[Crunchy Frog]

16. I could never trust a doc who believed in creationism.

It's supposed to be a scientifically based discipline. The nutcase who put the baboon heart in that baby was a creationist and his beliefs apparenty prevented him from understanding the compatibility issues with such distantly related species, since he didn't believe they were related anyway.

Go with someone who has a basic understanding and appreciation for science.

[Bossy Monkey]

21. I dunno, he seems really to care about the animals, and I don't think he'll be called upon to try

anything that drastic. I just... can't. As I mentioned above and will below, I just don't feel comfortable giving the guy my money. If we could sit down and talk it out and he wanted to treat the pets pro bono, well, that might be another thing.:)

[Mutley]

17. We want conservatives to respect our lifestyle

shouldn't we respect theirs?

[Bossy Monkey]

22. I respect his lifestyle all day long. I am not interested, however, in supporting it.

Conversely, if I ever get around to opening Footloose and Gluten Free, I probably won't put posters of Lev Trotsky on the walls. However, if I do put them up, I won't be surprised if a fairly large proportion of prospective customers back slowly out the door never to return. I like to think that the guy is still connected enough to planet Earth to realize that there are people who are going to have doubts about a vet who believes in creationism.

[NNadir]

18. No one who despises science can be a competent vet.

Do it for your pets.

[Bossy Monkey]

23. It's possible that he is, but I don't feel much like chancing it.

(Also, if we start thinking he's a particularly incompetent vet, we're then going to start thinking that Madeline could have been saved if we'd taken her someplace else, which neither of us could bear. So my version of being a vet who believes in creationism is going to be being a reasonably intelligent person who nevertheless believes that a vet who believes in creationism can be at the least competent. But we're still taking them elsewhere.)

[marzipanni]

25. I googled 'doctor who believes in creationism'

because I was trying to recall a program on NPR about such a doctor, and like you, I thought doctors would be more intelligent than that. I found this, which was kind of interesting.-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7613403.stm
but in the comments on the story this one made me LOL-

"It's as if we're going backwards. The US was founded as a secular society by people fleeing religious extremism (Puritans) and the founding fathers insisted on the separation of church and state. Now, we see an presidential electoral process where religion takes centre stage and people campaign on the basis on their religious views on abortion, gay marriage etc. And now even the scientific achievements of Darwin and other enlightenment figures are being rejected in favour of biblical literalism and other such nonsense. If these anti-evolutionists insist on turning their gaze backwards that's fine - we'll all end up living in caves, then go back to being monkeys in trees, thus proving Darwin right. Genesis should be relegated to the kindergarten along with all other fairy tales."
Hilary, Edinburgh, Scotland

[Bossy Monkey]

28. Go Hillary in Edinburgh...

except it was the religious extremists (Puritans) who were doing the fleeing. Also, it's always been like this in the South; they're just more visible because of televangelists and bigger money. Mencken was making fun of us for more or less the same stuff in the '20s.

[Kutjara]

26. I'd no more want a vet (or doctor) who didn't believe in evolution...

...than a mechanic who didn't believe in hydraulics.

At the most basic level, what use is a doctor who doesn't believe that microbes evolve? He/she would endlessly treat a constantly changing pathogen with the same (increasingly useless) drug.

[Bossy Monkey]

27. I think they suspend their fundamentalism with regard to inoculations

Anyway, he has given the kitten shots. Doubt can creep in pretty fast about stuff like that; hell, if he doesn't believe in evolution, why would he make sure his vaccines are up to date? So, yeah, another pretty good reason to go see somebody else.

[Nikia]

29. It's up to you, but it doesn't mean that he is a bad vet

A person's Fundamentalist religious beliefs don't necesaarily make them less knowledgeable about anatomy and physiology of animals. They sort of compartementalize them into different parts of their minds. In some parts of the country, many people think that way. I grew up with many people who thought that way and I would never ditch them over that.
You could try another vet. It is up to you to try another vet for whatever reason that you choose. I wouldn't be rude or confrontational about it. You never know how the other vets are in the area and might need him someday in an emergency or something.