Reasonable Doubt

I worked in a hospital for 8 years and 7 of those were spent verifying credentials for physicians. It included things like ensuring they actually went to medical school, completed a residency, were licensed, and had insurance - plus finding out if they ever had to use it (the insurance :)

Also important was verifying every move they'd made from Day One, from hospital to hospital, to be sure they didn't or wouldn't fall short of the basics needed to provide quality care. Lastly, once they were on the staff, it was important to make sure they kept being a good doctor through constant monitoring of outcomes, procedures, etc. I won't bore you with the details, but the hospital is nothing short of a mini law enforcement agency. The doctor police.

You might be surprised at how good the medical community is at policing itself. If there's a problem or even a potential problem, they are all over it and will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure patients receive the best care possible. It's true. I've said before, if you think all doctors are in it for the money or the prestige or the power, you are just wrong.

Certainly and unfortunately mistakes are made from time to time, but you would be amazed at the steps taken to avoid them - be it the hospital itself or every staff member who works there. Rest assured if you find yourself in an accredited hospital there are a lot of people doing their best to ensure you get better and go home.

I was relieved to learn that Belgium has a similar system of checks and balances. Not all European countries do.

So what has all this got to do with reasonable doubt?

Last week, I couldn't help but click on a BBC news article that read something like "Atheist Preacher . . ."

Okay, that's different. I'm curious.

It went to an article about a Protestant church in Gorichem, Netherlands. That's about an hour and a half from our house.

Since I like to know if someone who's out there delivering any kind of message or service is credible, I decided to find out just who this preacher is. I think it's important for doctors, teachers and preachers to have completed the appropriate training in their specialty before they go out and work on the rest of us.

So, in that light, I learned that Klaas Hendrikse (the Dutch church preacher) grew up in the Netherlands, attended Nyenrode, then attended the University of Michigan, worked for Xerox for 10 years, got interested in religion and then studied theology for 6 years at University of Utrecht where he graduated and became a preacher.

Not to bore you too much, but there are 3 influential college ranking organizations and each uses a different criteria in ranking:

(1) The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) commonly known as the Shanghai ranking

(2) The QS World University Rankings

(3) The Times Higher Education World University Rankings

Naturally, I went a step further to find out just how the University of Utrecht stacks up against the big guys . . . and others you and I are familiar with.

_____________________

(1) Shanghai Ranking

#1 Harvard

#2 Univ. of Calif. Berkley

#3 Stanford

#50 UTRECHT

#95 Texas A&M

LSU - did not make the list

_____________________

(2) QS Ranking

#1 Cambridge

#2 Harvard

#3 Yale

#83 UTRECHT

#198 Texas A&M

#501 LSU

_____________________

(3) Times Ranking

#1 Harvard

#2 Calif.. Inst. of Tech.

#3 Mass. Inst. of Tech.

#143 UTRECHT

Texas A&M - did not make the list

LSU - did not make the list

_____________________

Okay, I'm impressed. So enough of that . . . with this info, I decided Mr. Hendrikse has some credibility. In 2010, there was quite a stir within the church hierarchy, but when the open-minded decided and the dust settled Mr. Hendrikse remained in the pulpit as he has been for nearly 30 years.

For a doubting Thomas, is this the new black?

This is the BBC article