[genman]

Is this yin, yang somehow measurable? If not then there is a fundamental problem.

Also Western medicine is very well aware of side effects, it's actually one of the fundamental concepts. For example it knows that taking Paracetamol is good against pain, but increases risk to the liver, especially when taken with alcohol. It's also very well aware of causes of fever and doesn't recommend lowering it for the sake of it, only from certain dangerous level. It also knows that taking antibiotics affects gut bacteria, so it's often recommended to take also probiotics. It knows that some medicine could affect women differently, especially when they are pregnant or are breast feeding. The list goes on, it's never black and white.

[cdf]

Most religions have the concept of ritual cleanliness for thousands of years, esp touching dead bodies make them unclean and yet at some point, doctors have to be reminded to wash their hands after performing autopsy.

How did we get there? Because "modern science" rejects superstitious beliefs and ritual cleanliness is superstition. Right?

I chose antibiotics and paracetamol as examples precisely because it is well understood _now_ . You go back 50 years before we understand gut bacteria or the difference between male and female bodies and suggest the same, the then modern medicine will laugh at you and call you a witch doctor.

[genman]

What you claim is simply wrong. The problem was not that the doctors ignored religious superstition, but the Christian customs had been altered over the time and touching the dead was actually act of compassion - there were no impurity laws in late Christianity like it was in Judaism.