Abolishing Original Sin From Your Mouth

Tuesday, June 17, 2008
When I was getting the impressions for my implant crown done today, I was treated to the following stunning revelation by our family dentist:

"When Eve partook of the Apple, God introduced thorns and weeds into the world, making it more difficult to harvest the crops of the field. The nerves of the teeth are the weeds in the garden, and are God's punishment for Eve's disobedience."

I think he was kidding.

While I've always known that my dentist was a pretty devout member of the LDS Church, this is the first time he's spoken about it so explicitly.

He's treated our entire family for many years, and we've always liked him and been more than satisfied with his work.

His performance is what matters, so I'm sure I'll let this little bit of weirdness go.

But if he starts to pray over the nerves in my teeth to drive out their original sin, I am so out of there.

12 comments:

Cindi in CO said...

That's just a little - odd.

The Mechanicky Gal said...

Well, he's christian you know! tm.

Random Michelle K said...

I... well... that's...

Weeds and nerves are sins?

I mean, don't they serve a purpose when they're healthy?

Help me! My brain hurts!

Anonymous said...

Well, some consider weed to be a sin (though I hear the HBO series is pretty good), but I think that's something altogether different.

Anonymous said...

Having recently gone through a heretofore unprecedented amount of dentistry, suffering through each step (which are not finished), I think if my doc got biblical on me and started blaming the female gender for the pain I was feeling, I would lose my cool. To put it mildly.

You're right, performance is what matters. But I'd've been peeved.

MWT said...

Uhh... God gave me teeth with nerves in them. Therefore he must want them to be there. :p

Anne C. said...

Religious people are wierd. (Nothing personal, R.P.)

Jim Wright said...

I'd have told him that before the original sin bit there was no need for dentists - therefor his chosen profession is obviously a result of evil. Dentists, the Devil's handmaiden.

Shawn Powers said...

Dude, I'm down with the big JC and all -- but I'm kinda thankful for my nerves...

I could get specific, but really, there are many advantages you get from nerves. Some PG-13 even. :D

Eric said...

Didn't Scalzi take pictures of a display that said much the same thing when he was touring the Creation Museum? Which, coincidentally, was also a bit like having teeth pulled, from his account, so maybe there's a deeper connection between Creationism and dentistry than previously suspected.

In any event, I'm not sure he was kidding. Tho' I really wonder why he decided to chat about Original Sin while he was working on your mouth. Seems kind of random to me, even with the kind of iffy metaphor of nerves : teeth :: weeds : field.

Really iffy metaphor. I mean, for one thing, most people who aren't Edgar Allan Poe characters don't harvest teeth. I mean, what the hell? "Sorry the tooth harvest took so long, Pa, but we had a lot of nerves to dig up this year...." I can understand wanting to overlook this weirdness, but I'd be a little concerned lest there be some fundamental confusion on his part about why he's in there. "Oh yeah... I wasn't supposed to pull that, was I?" Oops.

Janiece said...

Eric, he's a good dentist (although a little random in his conversation). He's done extensive work on both me and my Smart Girl, and routine work on the Smart Boy and the Smart Man, and we've been very, very pleased with his work.

The religious talk didn't start until he found out I knew he was a Mormon and also that I was once a comparative religion major.

The Smart Man says this is the reason you don't want to know too much about the people in your life that aren't your friends - because when you do, they over share, and make you uncomfortable.

But I'm a chatty Cathy, so I end up in these positions pretty frequently. Unfortunately.

Tania said...

::blinks::
::is agog with surprise::

wuh? hUh? That's just odd. That's the sort of things one my uncle Chuck (the one that lives on Adak) would make up to see if I'd believe him or not.

I want to hope he was just sharing some oddball story he'd heard, but I doubt it.