Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy says belief in Christian Science led to father's death

Myles Kennedy, who has fronted Slash's band and Alter Bridge, has recently opened up how his family's adherence to Christian Science had led to his father's untimely death.

In a recent interview with Eddie Trunk, the singer disclosed that his father died of appendicitis after refusing to see a doctor because of his belief in Christian Science, a sect that focuses on supernatural healings.

The singer explained that the death of his father had become the central theme of his upcoming solo album, "Year of The Tiger."

"I realized year of the tiger was 1974, which was the year my father passed away when I was a kid... My family, at that point, were Christian Scientists. So basically, this woman Mary Baker Eddy started this in the 1800s, and the premise is that you don't go to doctors. You believe that God is gonna heal you. It's very frustrating even talking about it, frankly," Kennedy said, according to Blabbermouth.

"So dad got sick and chose not to go and see a doctor. He died of the appendicitis. He died one night in his sleep because it blew up and gangrene went all over," he continued.

Kennedy explained that his father did not know that it was appendicitis because of his refusal to see the doctor.

The singer recounted that his father got sick and had been in a lot of pain eight weeks prior to his death, and it was believed that his appendix had ruptured at that time.

He noted that his father had passed away when he was only 4 years old and added that his grandmothers on both sides also insisted on not going to the doctors because of their belief in Christian Science.

Other Christian organizations have been critical of the teachings of Christian Science and classify the sect as a biblically-based cult.

Matt Slick, president and founder of the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM), asserted that the Christian Science denies the essential doctrines of Christianity. He argued that the sect "drastically" redefines the Bible's culture and terminology, which he says results in a "non-Christian mixture" of metaphysical and philosophical ideas.

According to ChristianScience.com, the sect considers Jesus Christ as the "Way-shower," and acknowledges that His crucifixion and resurrection had served to "uplift faith to understand eternal Life."

Slick noted that the sect uses Eddy's book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" as its main source guide as well as an interpretative source of the Bible.

He argued that the book reinterprets the Bible so differently that it "absolutely rejects the substitutionary atonement of Jesus and states that it had no efficacious value."

While Christian Scientists consider their philosophy to be consistent with Jesus' original teachings, Slick contended that the sect has only produced "unbiblical and false doctrines."