there are thousands of cases in which people have been miraculously healed by faith. How is that a bad thing? Faith encourages people to do good things and live happy fulfilling lives. Car accidents kill more people than anything else and the need for oil has caused countless deaths Certainly there are much worse things than religion Yet I don't see anyone out there boycotting driving.
2007-05-03 10:05:03 · 31 answers · asked by hate 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I'm curious WHY so many theists (like you) feel this overwhelming need to "argue their case". WHY can't you just accept that there are other religions and atheists who prefer NOT to have a religion, for whatever reason? Seriously, what do you get out of pushing your "faith" on others? It's a waste of time. You should spend the time HELPING people (hey, give "faith healing" a try, if you're so into it), rather than arguing. You will NEVER convert most atheists, any more than you would convert someone from another religion, to YOUR beliefs. Accept it and move on.
2007-05-04 07:06:40 · answer #1 · answered by Gwynneth Of Olwen 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The healing is just a placebo effect. A good sugar pill would be as effective.
Religion does have some good points for some people. The thing that worries me is how many want to have the end of times that is prophesied in several holy books. This is very dangerous because it could become self fulfilling. Heck, that idiot in charge of Iran is pretty open that is what he wants to do. And the Christians with all the talk of "rapture" really don't do much to make me think that they are a whole lot better.
On the whole, I think that it has been far more negative than positive.
2007-05-03 10:14:13 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
first of all, you are mixing your "cause" for "miraculous" cures when conventional medicine fails with the merits of religion.
If you want to judge the "good" with the bad and chalk a "placebo effect" for untreatable terminal illnesses as "good" then you must also chalk up all the people in the world who were persecuted, executed or ostricized becasue of religion. The death toll would far outweigh the "placebo" effect of religion by at LEAST a margin of 1000 to 1 and I'm being generous for religion.
Terminal illness cures. This is where things that are quantifiable concepts such as alternative medicine and holistic medicine come in.
The belief behind it is that certain "placebos" that don't hurt the body, cause it to gear up its natural immune system to fight these ill effects and diseases. If a person believed that watching re-runs of gilligan's island was going to cure his cancer, and did so, it would be the same as prayer to similate the body's immune system. Basically you are deluding yourself into thinking something is helping you, but in reality it isn't the "thing" or activity that is, it is your tricking your mind into it and it pushes you into overdrive. That is why things like alternative medicine have had little positive proof that it works outside the realm of terminal illness like cancer.
Even then it is not exact so it can't be relied on as a legit way to treat the sick.
2007-05-03 10:22:52 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Most 'Atheists' do not believe in the biblical image of God; some believe in Goddess, some in Nature,and others in the Infinite Universal Power or Universal Energy.
2. Faith in a shaman is as healing as faith in Greek gods or any other mythical creatures and has nothing to do with your image of God.. Sorry, your question does need clarification.
U may recall that--I Am Who I Am--does not require a given name, a male name created by humans--God, Lord, and so on.
Energy is not male or female, not good or bad it just is! Thus, the discussion is about acceptance of the childish image of God resembling an old man. Perhaps God of Abraham, Izaak, and so on did look like these old men. I do not look anything like that and I am built in Gods image also. So which image should I believe in? Lets settle the issue of mage first, and then the other attributes, shall we? And lets not forget that we do not suppose to make images. Thank you.
2007-05-03 11:18:03 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I'm not going to bother listing the historical instances where horrible things were done in the name of God.
Instead I'll stick to the present.
What on earth are these "faith-based initiatives" coming out of the Bush administration? No thank you... you can keep your faith to yourself.
Why all the bad press about homosexuality and equal marriage? What a crock, homosexuality is bad because it's a sin? It's not a sin to me. Why aren't two homosexual men allowed the benefits of the status of marriage if they choose to make a life-long commitment to each other? Why can't they get married? Religion.
There was a US Senator who said he didn't care about the environment because good Christians like him would be raptured long before the negative effects of pollution really kick in. This person is spending tax dollars????
Absolutely rediculous.
2007-05-03 10:32:32 · answer #5 · answered by Tao 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
First, there are ZERO cases of miraculous healing.
Second, faith encourages people to be disconnected from reality, so even if they want to do good things those things don't work in THIS REALITY.
Eliminating religion is like eliminating bad driving and your beliefs are like car crashes of the mind. You meant well, but you still ran over those kids.
2007-05-03 10:14:33 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Faith & religon are not the same thing, faith- not everything in life is bad, infact most things are pretty good, religon- this is what is & has been & will be & then we not every1 thinks the same way ppl die, so many religous wars, pointless. Religon is a way to explan the unexplaned, to cope with all the bad things in life when a person is too weak to do it one thier own. Religon is an imagonary friend to make you feel better, faith is inner strength, the ablitly to tell yourself "yeah this sucks, but... I'm still not gona give up".
2007-05-03 10:17:10 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
There are many plausible reasons for faith healing, me personally I believe that the power of the human mind is amazing, and if you have faith that you will be healed than your mind kind of does the rest. I don't believe in religion, I don't even believe in a higher power, however I do believe that there are many paths to happiness and that each person has to take his own path, I've chosen mine, and it is mine. You also have chosen yours and as long as you are happy with that path than I can't begrudge that. There are only two kinds of religious people that bother me, (1) The Zealots, and (2) the ones that believe in something but haven't a clue as to why they believe that. But I guess that that is just me.
2007-05-03 10:25:24 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
No; they've been healed by unknown causes, not faith. Faith encourages trying not to understand why, so the results cannot be duplicated. Faith kills.
By the way: You are aware that there are many different religions, right?
2007-05-03 10:15:07 · answer #9 · answered by eldad9 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Do you have links to these actual miraculous faith healings?
I don't boycot religion. I just boycot religion being something that is put into our public lives everyday by someone else.
2007-05-03 10:10:49 · answer #10 · answered by photogrl262000 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋