I'm not going to cite the recent homeopathic liposuction case, or the scientific study about prayer vs heart disease, but I am going to state a simple principle:
Any medical practice that claims to treat different medical conditions DO NOT WORK. (Because there are different causal mechanisms, which can't all be affected by one treatment method.)
(Fine, fine, there is the placebo effect, blah blah blah, but aside from that...)
We've got homeopaths, reiki specialists, , and now "prayer rooms".
"Visitors to the rooms – established at churches in Wellington and Auckland, with another planned for Dunedin – receive attention from three-person "prayer teams" who say they can cure conditions as varied as cancer and back pain."
Let me repeat: "they can cure conditions as varied as cancer and back pain." And now let me repeat my above principle: Any medical practice that claims to treat different medical conditions DO NOT WORK.
"[Mr Fox] cited the examples of a woman with an inflamed eye that returned to normal after prayer and another person whose back pain was healed instantly." Oh yeah? Then let's see the medical case histories, reports of doctors who examined these people before and after, and follow up studies that show it's not simply the euphoria of the moment (which explains the evangelical shows).
And remember kids: '[Professor Les Toop] was not aware of any evidence showing prayer could physically heal people. "I'm quite sure there will be multiple anecdotes about, but that's not the same as objective evidence."'
But I'll let them have the last word:
'Prayer minister Lana Schmidt, who helped establish the room in December 2005, said "God's healing power" could cure any physical ailment – but prayer was not a substitute for medical treatment.
"Don't go off your medications because you have got prayer. We would never tell anyone to do that."
Ms Schmidt said she had seen people healed of serious afflictions, though her own condition – kidney failure that keeps her on life support 12 hours a day – was yet to be resolved.'
[END]
Thursday 26 July 2007
The power of disbelief
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1 comment:
i feel sorry for you that you need to look down upon people who have faith in something whereas your faith lies in a "spaceship". Do you, too, believe that your soul travels to venus to find itself back to earth? Good. at least you have a belief and that helps you get through your days. You don't have to agree with others, but as they live, you don't have to judge.
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