2 of 4

Damadian had grown up in a church-going family and was president of the church youth group. But he had never made a personal commitment to Christ.

A week after he graduated from medical school, Raymond and Donna married. Then it was a year's residency at Kings County Hospital in New York, a year as a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis, and then on to Harvard University for postdoctorate work. After two years in the Air Force, Damadian joined the faculty of the State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences Center in Brooklyn, eventually becoming associate professor of biophysics and internal medicine.

Bigger plans In 1969, Damadian had opportunities to use a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer in his biophysics research. It was a technology discovered in the 1940s but had been limited to experimental use because nothing larger than a pencil could be placed within the circular magnet. Working with the device, Damadian had an idea: if you build an NMR large enough to scan a human body, it could help detect cancer cells.

It was like "going from a paper glider to a 747," he says now. In June 1970, Damadian conducted further experiments with rats—healthy and cancerous—on the small NMR to see if the machine could differentiate between the cells. It could. Aware of the magnitude of his discovery, Damadian set his sights on building a large-scale scanner that would perform magnetic resonance imaging.

When he published his findings in 1971, the race to develop the first MRI scanner began. Damadian assembled a small staff to help him. Knowing that other scientists and corporations were trying to do the same thing, Damadian pushed himself and the staff to the breaking point.

"I wanted to build this machine, and I wanted to be the first." After six years of intense, exhausting work, Damadian's team succeeded. The world's first human scan was made on July 3, 1977. But the toll it took on Damadian's faith was almost unrecoverable.

Work is my god Little by little, Damadian had abandoned God. "I thought of myself as a good, responsible, productive person interested in the welfare of humanity," he says. "Therefore I was a good person who had no need for God."

Working in the aggressively secular environment of academics and science where "God wasn't necessary" did considerable damage. "That thinking becomes the root of atheism, and it got hold of me."

At the same time, Damadian was consumed with his work, putting in such long hours that he saw little of his wife, two sons, and daughter.

Problems at home mushroomed out of control, an issue on which he doesn't like to go into detail.

next page... |  2 of 4

	What did you think of this story?
	Please to give us your feedback.

Home  |  People of Faith  |  Stories of Hope  |  Today's Culture
Build Your Faith  |  Laughing Matters  |  Archives  |  Contact Us

				Try 3 Issues of Christianity Today Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address Subscribe to Christianity Today and get 3 free trial issues. No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive nine more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The three trial issues are yours to keep, regardless. Give Christianity Today as a gift Order a gift subscription!