Muslim Patients and the British GP

Abstract

Science has to do with objectivity and reason whereas religion has to do with subjectivity and intuition. At first sight they seem incompatible: the scientific approach is practical, analytical, critical and unemotional, whereas the religious approach is theoretical, empirical, moral and emotional. The British general practitioner is primarily a scientist yet may well be deeply religious, and his patient too may be deeply religious and yet be a scientist. No one can be pigeon-holed precisely and not all situations can be judged by the same yardstick. Few patients present as textbook cases; every clinical picture tells a different story.