Faith & the Placebo

[root]

I wonder what "people of faith" make of this:

People who are aware that close family and friends are preying for them during a time of ill-health do show a marked improvement every bit as much as someone who is given a placebo.

On the other hand, individuals who are not aware that family and friends are praying for them show no improvement similar to an individual who is not aware of a given placebo. Why does "preyer" not work when the recipient of preyer is unaware?

[Eric H]

Greetings and peace root,

I think to try and understand faith healing we have to try and look at it from God’s perception and not mans.

In many ways it may not be so important to God to heal the body, I feel that God is more interested in our spirit or faith.

If I became healed through prayer and I believed that God was answering my prayer that would increase my faith in God, and this has happened to me.

There is a parable in the Bible that I like about faith.

A cripple is brought to Jesus to be healed, and Jesus said your sins are forgiven.
Jesus knew that this was not what the crowd wanted to hear and they did not believe that he had the power to forgive, so he said to the cripple take up your bed and walk.

The parable seems to place forgiveness of sins as being more important to God, because we should also learn to forgive others.
It also seems that the crowd had no faith in Jesus so he had to heal the man so that the crowd would have faith that Jesus could forgive sins.

As to the placebo it probably works in a similar way, we trust in the doctor and the medication he gives us so we believe that we will be healed even though the tablet is worthless.

In the spirit of seeking faith

Eric

[root]

It does not address the issue of the relationship that the sender of preyer talks to god, the recipient of the preyer presumably recieves from god (though I am sure you will correct me if I am wrong). the question still remains why is no benefit gained when the recipient is unaware of preyer being made for them?

The point obviously I am getting at is that preyer & religous healing is a simple placebo effect with no divine intervention.

[azim]

I wonder what "people of faith" make of this:

People who are aware that close family and friends are preying for them during a time of ill-health do show a marked improvement every bit as much as someone who is given a placebo.

On the other hand, individuals who are not aware that family and friends are praying for them show no improvement similar to an individual who is not aware of a given placebo. Why does "preyer" not work when the recipient of preyer is unaware?

Could you please give some more information regarding this? Who performed this experiment? Were the results published? If so, where?

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[root]

Evidence supports the hypothosis that belief is a conscious, rational process and further behavioural studies seems to bolster this. First and foremost is the fact that to benefit, you have to know you are being treated - the placebo effect won't kick in if a sham medication is given covertly. Similarly, preying for yourself or family friends preying for you produce some positive results, while being secretly preyed for does not.

The Lancet vol 366, p 211

[azim]

Evidence supports the hypothosis that belief is a conscious, rational process and further behavioural studies seems to bolster this. First and foremost is the fact that to benefit, you have to know you are being treated - the placebo effect won't kick in if a sham medication is given covertly. Similarly, preying for yourself or family friends preying for you produce some positive results, while being secretly preyed for does not.

The Lancet vol 366, p 211

Mmm, I very much doubt I'll be able to get a copy of this edition and read the article, but thats not your fault.

I do believe placebo's can work, because the mind has a much larger power of our body then we presume, however I woudn't exactly be convinced that my prayers being answered are just placebos and the like. For example, many times the 'miracle' prayer being answered isn't yourself being healed - but rather a loved one (for example, your child) that is healed from usually quite a serious illness, obviously placebo could have no power in this situation.

I wouldn't discount the findings, although I'm not exactly sure what the findings are...