A while back I posted about the social phenomenon in seminary bathrooms where the pressure to observe cleanliness rituals is far greater than commands to say…love your neighbor. I’m just saying. In that post I threw out the fact that I don’t believe in germs. Now, I’m here to clear things up and tell you why.
According to Apple’s dictionary:
germ |jərm|
noun
1 a microorganism, esp. one that causes disease.
2 a portion of an organism capable of developing into a new one or part of one. Compare with germ cell .
• the embryo in a cereal grain or other plant seed. Compare with wheat germ .
• an initial stage from which something may develop : the germ of a brilliant idea.
My main beef is with the first definition, because this is how people most commonly use it today. They use it to mean anything unclean or dirty. The “microorganism” that this word germ refers to is either a bacteria or virus of some kind. (Notice they don’t sell anti-germ soap, only anti-bacterial) If there are any scientists out there maybe they can tell me if there is such a thing as a germ that is not a bacteria or virus.
So this ends up being some kind of catch all term that is used to make people obsessed about cleanliness. Here’s the problem… germ has this negative connotation that something is unclean or dirty and can make you sick. However, there are tons of bacteria that live in our bodies that are essential to our lives. You can call them good bacteria, but we would die without them.
So, there’s no such thing as germs and recent studies have shown that the 5-second rule is more like the 2-minute rule for most foods. So, feel free to pick up that piece of toast flick off any hitchhiking dirt and chow down.
language smanguage….
is this tongue in cheek??
germ is merely the popular term for bacteria or virus. While I agree about blowing this whole “germ” thing and cleanliness thing way out of porportion (I once commented in class that when I had kids I was going to through them out in the mud and role them round a bit, to build their immune system), there is still great value in washing one’s hands. Think doctors. And I definitely want who ever is fixing my food at my local grubbery to wash his hands when coming from the toilet.
It’s 11pm and I’m at the office.
I just dropped my chips-ahoy on the ground.
So I picked it up, thought of Lucas, and swallowed it down.
Now I’m thinking, if I don’t make it, I might like for you to give the messages at my service.
What do you say?
Hope you’re great…
it’s only slightly tongue in cheek… the only reason we use the word germ is because of our unrealistic phobia about cleanliness. i’m not saying throw out basic hygeine, only that “germ” is a nonesense term used to promote fear of the dirt bogeyman.
as far food preparers washing hands after using the bathroom… i can understand that, but there have also been a lot of studies showing that fecal matter shows up pretty much everywhere no matter what you do.
you mean your funeral? sure no problem, but don’t think i’m going to blame the cookie.
I feel like a fool for taking this post’s title at face value at first. Guess what comes in 1st when I google “Germs don’t exist”. =D
btw, I completely agree with your distaste of ‘germophobia’. It would be very interesting to hear a discussion on the negative effects of over-using antibacterial agents. We did just fine without them for a few thousand years, didn’t we?
yes we did peter… welcome to my four walls.
[...] concerns. I respect those issues and take them very seriously. (Even though I’ve admitted I don’t believe in germs and I’m a fan of the common cup. I want to be able to drink deeply at communion and I mean [...]