Conflict and Life in Medicine

“You’re a brave man, Athelstan. I always respected you for that. You taught me so much. You saw yourself as weak and conflicted, but to me, you were fearless, because you dared to question.”

Quote from Vikings, Season 3, Episode 6 ("Born Again")

Daring to Question: Courage in the Face of Medical or Any Dogma for that Matter

I just returned from a two-week journey through the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. The history of this region is extraordinary: filled with wars, the preservation of knowledge, and a remarkable perseverance of spirit. Wonderful people in every locale, I assure you.

While traveling, I spent time reading about local history, medical history and watching the series Vikings, of which led to this reflection.

For those familiar with Vikings, Ragnar Lothbrok’s words to Athelstan speak across the centuries to medicine and life today. The act of questioning, daring to challenge assumptions, lies at the heart of scientific progress. Yet our healthcare system often treats dissent as disloyalty. Modern politics is similarly polarized, with both sides claiming primacy over speech and ideas. Many schools now teach as though knowledge is fixed, rather than through the Socratic process of questioning, learning, and improvement.

Medicine is not a binary science. It is evolving knowledge in shades of grey.

Artificial intelligence may be prying open these dogmatic windows, at least for now. AI systems are not yet fully shackled by dogma, though, of course, they carry the biases of their programmers.

Here is an AI-generated response to the question of medical dogma:

“Medical dogma has saved lives when rooted in solid evidence—think germ theory or vaccines. Yet history shows rigid adherence often delays progress, as with ulcers and H. pylori or cholesterol debates. Dogma guides practice, but questioning it fuels breakthroughs, balancing certainty with curiosity in medicine’s evolution.”

So true. Hold dogma closely when it offers benefit, but expect change when new evidence emerges. Sadly, this rarely happens in modern medicine. Too often, dogma persists even when evidence demands revision.

I have written about this topic a few times before, but this time it relates to a current major issue, vaccines.

This is why I want to highlight my new three-part podcast series on vaccines. Across conversations with Dr. Joel Warsh, Dr. Paul Offit, and Dr. Liz Mumper, you’ll hear conflicting yet deeply thoughtful perspectives on vaccine safety and science. They don’t always agree, and that’s okay. If this were settled science, consensus would be easy. It isn’t.

As knowledge consumers, we must listen carefully and make informed decisions for ourselves and our families. That freedom to think independently has long been an American ideal. Though in medicine today, independent thought can feel threatening to the “medical industrial machine.”

As discussed previously, Dr. Marty Makary’s book Blindside exposes how rigid protocols and institutional inertia blind clinicians to evolving science and individual nuance. Too often, practices persist not because they’re right, but because they’re familiar. From overprescribing antibiotics to clinging to outdated cancer screening guidelines, these patterns are seen. Dr. Makary now leads the FDA, an institution long mired in failures around children’s nutrition and school food policies. His voice signals hope for long-overdue reform.

Here, stoic philosophy offers timeless wisdom. Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditations:

“If anyone can refute me, show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things the wrong way. I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.”

The Stoics prized reason over ego, truth over reputation, a mindset medicine desperately needs. To question dogma is not to reject expertise but to honor it.

True progress begins where intellectual humility meets moral courage.

Medicine advances when brave voices risk discomfort to seek clarity.

Like Athelstan, we may feel conflicted and may we feel conflicted. But in questioning, we become fearless because the health of others demands it.



For the children,

Dr. M