Credits: Rx bottle and cap by Olivia Luo, ring and skull by Pen Anders
With this piece, I continued my exploration of religious imagery that I have been embarking on for the last few years. My own religious practices are somewhat eclectic, which is how I ended up in the possession of many crystals, animal bones, but also a angelic statuette.
After seeing Olivia Luo’s gorgeous Rx bottle model, I considered how prescription medication fits into the world of religion. Up until very recently, in the grand scheme of things, medicine and religion were one and the same, with doctors superscribing prayer just as often as pharmaceuticals. With the spread of the germ theory of disease a line was divided- these things are “religion” and “prayer” and these things are “science” and “medicine.” When one considers the power of phenomenon such as the placebo effect, though, how can we be so sure such a stark line exists? Some sects reject modern medicine as being against the will of God, but for those who don’t, how different are pills from miracles?
