The most important reason anyone is an atheist

[Little Rik]

There are many spiritualist "cures" for ailments, none of which can be shown to have any effect beyond being a placebo.

No wonder that they are not working.
The reason is that they have little to do with spirituality.
I have seen people who look at crystal for hours hoping to sort out their problems.
I have seen religious people who say that they are engaged in spirituality not having a clue what spirituality is and so on.
The list is infinite and goes on for ever.
Spirituality is the effort to grasp the knowledge, the wisdom and the pleasure that lie within and that can only be achieved by working very hard and the best way is through intuitive science although there are different ways.

Modern medical science, on the other hand, has proven to be remarkable effective in both treatment and prevention of illness.

I do believe in medical science.
I wouldn't go to see my doctor time to time otherwise but that is not the point.
We are talking about solving problem for good not putting bags of sand there were the water spill to see the problem recur elsewhere.

I don't really have the time to do the research right now, but I'm pretty damn sure that while the number of hospital beds per capita in 1st world countries has fallen (at least in general), the instance of infection per capita within same counties has fallen a damn sight more dramatically. You have to bear in mind that it's not just the application of surgical procedures and pharmaceuticals that caused this drop in diseases, it's also due to improved sanitation, easy access to clean water, better food hygiene, etc...

You have seen that!
I have seen every single working day countless people chocking up the health system and i have seen countless of people out in the community unable to send their dear one in rehab. centers or nursing home because there is no vacant beds or because it cost a lot of money to get in.

Do you have anything to show that there is, or at least could be, such a thing as you're suggesting (a sort of "disease equilibrium", for want of a better term)?

In the past obesity and diabetes were the diseases of the rich, today they are the disease of the middle class as well as the rich.
Dementia, Parkinson and Alzheimer diseases are totally out of control.
No cure so far.
These are just the spills that occur when you fix the problem elsewhere.

---

You know enrico, your ramblings are unnervingly similar to that of schizophrenic patients. They share the same conviction of their ideas as you do. I watched a documentary where one man was sure that if he killed himself, he would go to hell and then return to earth with magical powers. You can see how dangerous delusions are right?

Let us see who is a delusional.
Someone say that life is finite without bring evidence of it while someone else say that life goes on bringing evidence from thousand of NDE and logic evidence from the fact that knowledge and wisdom can not be build up in a lifetime.
So who is the delusional and who is the wise?