"This antibiotic is artificial, builds up resistent strains, and destroys the balance of healthy flora in your system, leading to long term problems and suseptibility if used too frequently."

Eat this root. Please!"

Good one Tara.

Okay, extra credit for whoever adds more centuries. :) I'll start:

2100 AD: "That root is expensive and unnecessary; Here, sit under this pyramid."

2200 A.D. Hold still while I run this scanner over you!

You clever people.

Planting and transplanting herbs (not simply finding them in the wild) = ?natural?
Watering herbs (not waiting for nature?s gentle rains) = ?natural?
Drying, pounding into powder, mixing, concocting herbs = ?natural?
Prescribing herbs for particular ailments = ?natural?
Prescribing antibiotics (microorganisms, many of which are derived from soil, fungi etc.) for the same ailments = ?artificial.?

Why?

Percentage of U.S. army casualties in WWI (a time when the soldiers had only the ?balance of healthy flora? in their systems to keep them alive) due to pneumonia = 18%.

Percentage of U.S. army casualties in WWII (when penicillin was rushed to the front) due to pneumonia = less than 1%.

Winning WWII (as the Master Card ad would say) = priceless.

Number of lives saved by penicillin and other antibiotics in the last 50 years = millions.

Overuse of antibiotics is indeed a problem. Resistant strains will inevitably arise, prompting the development of new alternatives (a process that I would describe as only ?natural?). But given the choice between antibiotics and ?eat this root? (a false choice to be sure), humanity did well by choosing antibiotics.

Ending futile soap box rant now.

@Kirk

Well, I would say that this entire thread was a joke. Except perhaps for Tara's comment. :) It's just a reflection of how things medicinal have started to go full circle.

Your rant was only futile in that it's a response to satire... :)

Best I can tell, we're all mostly in agreement on the subject, if not 100%. We've surely used antibiotics for ourselves, and would for Reilly if need be. Strangely, we haven't needed to yet for him.

My comment was very much tongue-in-cheek...

I certainly have used anti-biotics for myself and my kids when the need has arisen. (I do appreciate the roots and plants that help circumvent the need for them most of the time, however).

Even my literal mind recognized the satire in the original. My rant was directed specifically at the designation of antibiotics as "artifical" (repeated by Tara). The natural/artificial dichotomy is in most respects a false one.