Faith healing

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mysticrose's picture
Faith healing

There are priests who do faith healing and they say that it was a miracle and gift from god but when they saw a native people doing faith healing, they would say that they are calling the power of evil. I don't know what is the difference with what they are doing. Are they really summoning different powers?

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Walker's picture
They are summoning money out

They are summoning money out of peoples wallets is what they are doing. All those conjurers are scam artists that make people think they are helping them heal. It's all a big joke in my opinion.

Matty Arnold's picture
Neither of them are summoning

Neither of them are summoning any power at all. To quote Tin Minchin, "These people aren't applying a skill, they're either lying or mentally ill." Faith healing is disgusting - it is discouraging people from seeking proper medical attention by convincing them that their superstitious rituals are enough. Faith healing and other 'alternative medicines' are cons that hinder the progress of modern medicine. From the same Minchin song: "By definition, alternative medicine has either not been proven to work, or been proven not to work. Do you know what they call alternative medicine that has been proven to work? Medicine."

DarkLight's picture
Faith healing is one of the

Faith healing is one of the biggest and most ridiculous scams that has ever existed. And the worst part is that it's very easy to deceive a person who is sick with a terminal disease, because they will do anything and try anything to survive. This is why the scam works perfectly and many people buy into it.

efpierce's picture
As with any religion, the

As with any religion, the words are the same but the meaning will always be different to fit someone else's needs. The "faith healers" are really just street performers gone bad.

mysticrose's picture
They how can we explain if

They how can we explain if someone with a hopeless disease was immediately healed after seeking the help of a healer priest or faith healer? How about a priest that charge nothing after doing a prayer healing, is he also into scam?

Tim Hill's picture
There is such a thing as

There is such a thing as coincidence. The Priest who "heals" with prayer and does not charge is just as deluded as one who does.

Matty Arnold's picture
You ask how we explain

You ask how we explain someone immediately getting better after having a hopeless illness, but I've never seen a case like that. As Tim Hill says, coincidence can certainly play a part, and you have to look on a case by case basis what the most likely explanation for any recovery is, and I guarantee it won't be the faith healing for any major illness.

The priest that charges nothing probably genuinely thinks he is helping. That's quite different than actually helping, though.

SammyShazaam's picture
Wow guys. Let's think

Wow guys. Let's think critically for just a few moments.

The human body is very complicated. In each one of your cells, there is a very intricate program that dictates how your body is most likely to react to any given injury or illness, and probably more external situations. While obviously we are not powerful enough to overcome any injury, the human body is programmed to heal itself as quickly and as thoroughly as possible (sometimes the efficiency clashes with thoroughness, which is why humans will scar over missing limbs instead of regenerate them. An override for that patch is in the works if you care to dig up the Nature Neuroscience article).

We want to heal. Unfortunately, our brains have executive power over the whole works. So when we are told and believe that we can not heal (for example - a qualified doctor says that the cancer is undoubtedly terminal. Some people think MD stands for something important) our brains stop devoting as much of the body's energy toward healing, since it now believes this to be impossible. A person who believes in God can overcome this belief by hearing a priest say that God wants them to be cured. We have all seen that many Theists believe priests more than doctors, much to the dismay of the scientists who rely on the political sector for funding.

Anyway, a person who has more faith in god than in doctors, and is told that god wants them healed even though the doctor says it's impossible, will resume their natural healing process because they believe it is god's will. Sometimes it works, but in any case they stand a much better chance than the person who has already decided that their death is inevitable.

So, faith based healing is in theory possible. However, god is not necessarily a part of it.

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