 | The examples and perspective in this articlemay not represent aworldwide view of the subject. You mayimprove this article, discuss the issue on thetalk page, orcreate a new article, as appropriate.(March 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Part ofa series on |
| Spiritualism |
|---|
Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such aslaying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicitdivine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice.[1] Believers assert that the healing of disease and disability can be brought about by religious faith through prayer or other rituals that, according to adherents, can stimulate adivine presence and power. Religious belief in divine intervention does not depend onempirical evidence of anevidence-based outcome achieved via faith healing.[2] Virtually all[a] scientists and philosophers dismiss faith healing aspseudoscience.[3][4][5][6]
Claims that "a myriad of techniques" such asprayer,divine intervention, or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure illness have been popular throughout history.[7] There have been claims that faith can cureblindness,deafness,cancer,HIV/AIDS,developmental disorders,anemia,arthritis,corns,defective speech,multiple sclerosis,skin rashes, total bodyparalysis, and various injuries.[8] Recoveries have been attributed to many techniques commonly classified as faith healing. It can involve prayer, a visit to a religiousshrine, or simply a strong belief in a supreme being.[8]
ManyChristians interpret theChristian Bible, especially theNew Testament, as teaching belief in, and the practice of, faith healing. According to a 2004Newsweek poll, 72 percent of Americans said they believe that praying to God can cure someone, even if science says the person has an incurable disease.[9] Unlike faith healing, advocates ofspiritual healing make no attempt to seek divine intervention, instead believing indivine energy. The increased interest inalternative medicine at the end of the 20th century has given rise to a parallel interest among sociologists in the relationship of religion to health.[2]
Faith healing can be classified as aspiritual,supernatural,[10] orparanormal topic,[11] and, in some cases, belief in faith healing can be classified asmagical thinking.[12] TheAmerican Cancer Society states "available scientific evidence does not support claims that faith healing can actually cure physical ailments".[8] "Death, disability, and other unwanted outcomes have occurred when faith healing was elected instead of medical care for serious injuries or illnesses."[8] When parents have practiced faith healing but not medical care, many children have died that otherwise would have been expected to live.[13] Similar results are found in adults.[14]
Regarded as a Christian belief that God heals people through the power of theHoly Spirit, faith healing often involves thelaying on of hands. It is also called supernatural healing, divine healing, andmiracle healing, among other things. Healing in the Christian Bible is often associated with the ministry of specific individuals includingElijah,Jesus andPaul.[2]
Christian physician Reginald B. Cherry views faith healing as a pathway of healing in which God uses both the natural and the supernatural to heal.[15] Being healed has been described as a privilege of accepting Jesus's redemption on the cross.[further explanation needed][16]Pentecostal writer Wilfred Graves Jr. views the healing of the body as a physical expression ofsalvation.[17] After relating a story of Jesus's exorcising an individual and healing ill individuals who approached him,[18] the author of the book of Matthew states that the miracles were a fulfillment of a prophecy from Isaiah 53:5.[19]
Christian writers who believe in faith healing do not necessarily believe that an individual's faith presently brings about the desired healing. "[Y]our faith does not effect your healing now. When you are healed rests entirely on what the sovereign purposes of the Healer are," argues Larry Keefauver.[20] Keefauver cautions against allowing enthusiasm for faith healing to stir up false hopes: "Just believing hard enough, long enough or strong enough will not strengthen you or prompt your healing. Doing mental gymnastics to 'hold on to your miracle' will not cause your healing to manifest now."[20] Those who actively lay hands on others and pray with them to be healed are usually aware that healing may not always follow immediately. Proponents of faith healing argue that it may come later, if in this life at all. Keefauver argues that "the truth is that your healing may manifest in eternity, not in time".[20]
TheNew Testament relates that it was only after healing a blind man thatJesus' status was recognized.[21] Four of the seven miracles performed in thebook of John that the author uses to indicate that Jesus was sent from God were acts of healing or resurrection. Jesus heals a Capernaumite official's son, heals a paralyzed man by a pool inBethsaida, heals a man born blind, and resurrectsLazarus of Bethany.[22]
Jesus told his followers to heal the sick and stated that signs such as healing are evidence of faith.[23] The apostle Paul believed healing is one of the special gifts of theHoly Spirit,[24][25] and that the possibility exists that certain persons may possess this gift to an extraordinarily high degree.[26] The New Testament says that during Jesus'ministry and after hisResurrection, theapostles healed the sick and cast out demons, made lame men walk, raised the dead and performed other miracles. Apostles were holy men who had direct access to God and could channel his power to help and heal people.[27] For example,Saint Peter healed a disabled man.[28][29]
Accounts or references to healing appear in the writings of manyAnte Nicene Fathers, although many of these mentions are very general and do not include specifics.[30]
TheRoman Catholic Church recognizes two "not mutually exclusive" kinds of healing,[31]: I,3 [32]: nn2–3 one justified by science and one justified by faith:
TheCatechism of the Catholic Church states that "theHoly spirit gives to some a special charism of healing" but also that "the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses" by which it citesSt. Paul as a biblical example of someone who found meaning in their own suffering.[33]
In 2000, theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued "Instruction on prayers for healing" with specific norms about prayer meetings for obtaining healing,[31] which presents the Catholic Church's doctrines of sickness and healing.[34]: 230 [further explanation needed]
It accepts "that there may be means of natural healing that have not yet been understood or recognized by science",[32]: n6 [b] but it rejects superstitious practices which are neither compatible with Christian teaching nor compatible with scientific evidence.[32]: nn11–12
Faith healing is reported byCatholics as the result ofintercessory prayer to asaint or to a person with thegift of healing. According toU.S. Catholic magazine, "Even in this skeptical, postmodern, scientific age – miracles really are possible." According to aNewsweek poll, three-fourths of American Catholics say they pray for "miracles" of some sort.[36]
According to John Cavadini, when healing is granted, "The miracle is not primarily for the person healed, but for all people, as a sign of God's work in the ultimate healing called 'salvation', or a sign of the kingdom that is coming." Some might view their own healing as a sign they are particularly worthy or holy, while others do not deserve it.[36]
The Catholic Church has a special Congregation dedicated to the careful investigation of the validity of alleged miracles attributed to prospective saints. Pope Francis tightened the rules on money and miracles in the canonization process.[37] Since Catholic Christians believe the lives of canonized saints in the Church will reflect Christ's, many have come to expect healing miracles. While the popular conception of a miracle can be wide-ranging, the Catholic Church has a specific definition for the kind of miracle formally recognized in a canonization process.[38]
According toCatholic Encyclopedia, it is often said that cures atshrines and duringChristian pilgrimages are mainly due to psychotherapy – partly to confident trust inDivine providence, and partly to the strong expectancy of cure that comes over suggestible persons at these times and places.[35][c]
Among the best-known accounts by Catholics of faith healings are those attributed to the miraculous intercession of the apparition of theBlessed Virgin Mary known asOur Lady of Lourdes at theSanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes inFrance and the remissions of life-threatening disease claimed by those who have applied for aid toSaint Jude, who is known as the "patron saint of lost causes".[failed verification –see discussion][39]
As of 2004[update], Catholic medics have asserted that there have been 67 miracles and 7,000 unexplainable medical cures at Lourdes since 1858.[40] In a 1908 book, it says these cures were subjected to intense medical scrutiny and were only recognized as authentic spiritual cures after a commission of doctors and scientists, called theLourdes Medical Bureau, had ruled out any physical mechanism for the patient's recovery.[41]
In some Pentecostal and CharismaticEvangelical churches, a special place is thus reserved for faith healings withlaying on of hands duringworship services or for campaigns evangelization.[42][43] Faith healing or divine healing is considered to be an inheritance ofJesus acquired by his death and resurrection.[44]Biblical inerrancy ensures that themiracles and healings described in theBible are still relevant and may be present in the life of the believer.[45]
At the beginning of the 20th century, the newPentecostal movement drew participants from theHoliness movement and other movements in America that already believed in divine healing. By the 1930s, several faith healers drew large crowds and established worldwide followings.
The first Pentecostals in the modern sense appeared inTopeka, Kansas, in a Bible school conducted byCharles Fox Parham, a holiness teacher and formerMethodist pastor. Pentecostalism achieved worldwide attention in 1906 through theAzusa Street Revival inLos Angeles led byWilliam Joseph Seymour.[46]
Smith Wigglesworth was also a well-known figure in the early part of the 20th century. A former English plumber turnedevangelist who lived simply and read nothing but the Bible from the time his wife taught him to read, Wigglesworth traveled around the world preaching about Jesus and performing faith healings. Wigglesworth claimed to raise several people from the dead in Jesus' name in his meetings.[47]
During the 1920s and 1930s,Aimee Semple McPherson was a controversial faith healer of growing popularity during theGreat Depression. Subsequently,William M. Branham has been credited as the initiator of the post-World War IIhealing revivals.[48]: 58 [49]: 25 The healing revival he began led many to emulate his style and spawned a generation of faith healers. Because of this, Branham has been recognized as the "father of modern faith healers".[50] According to writer and researcher Patsy Sims, "the power of a Branham service and his stage presence remains a legend unparalleled in the history of the Charismatic movement".[51] By the late 1940s,Oral Roberts, who was associated with and promoted by Branham'sVoice of Healing magazine also became well known, and he continued with faith healing until the 1980s.[52] Roberts discounted faith healing in the late 1950s, stating, "I never was a faith healer and I was never raised that way. My parents believed very strongly in medical science and we have a doctor who takes care of our children when they get sick. I cannot heal anyone – God does that."[53] A friend of Roberts wasKathryn Kuhlman, another popular faith healer, who gained fame in the 1950s and had a television program onCBS. Also in this era,Jack Coe[54][55] andA. A. Allen[56] were faith healers who traveled with large tents for large open-air crusades.
Oral Roberts's successful use of television as a medium to gain a wider audience led others to follow suit. His former pilot,Kenneth Copeland, started a healing ministry.Pat Robertson,Benny Hinn, andPeter Popoff became well-knowntelevangelists who claimed to heal the sick.[57]Richard Rossi is known for advertising his healing clinics throughsecular television and radio. Kuhlman influenced Benny Hinn, who adopted some of her techniques and wrote a book about her.[58]
Christian Science claims that healing is possible through prayer based on an understanding of God and the underlying spiritual perfection of God's creation.[7][59] The material world as humanly perceived is believed to not be the spiritual reality. Christian Scientists believe that healing through prayer is possible insofar as it succeeds in bringing the spiritual reality of health into human experience.[60] Prayer does not change the spiritual creation but gives a clearer view of it, and the result appears in the human scene as healing: the human picture adjusts to coincide more nearly with the divine reality.[61] Therefore, Christian Scientists do not consider themselves to be faith healers since faith or belief in Christian Science is not required on the part of the patient, and because they consider healings reliable and provable rather than random.[62][63]
Although there is no hierarchy in Christian Science, practitioners devote full time to prayer for others on a professional basis, and advertise in an online directory published by the church.[64][65] Christian Scientists sometimes tell their stories of healing at weekly testimony meetings at local Christian Science churches, or publish them in the church's magazines includingThe Christian Science Journal printed monthly since 1883, theChristian Science Sentinel printed weekly since 1898, andThe Herald of Christian Science a foreign language magazine beginning with a German edition in 1903 and later expanding to Spanish, French, and Portuguese editions.Christian Science Reading Rooms often have archives of such healing accounts.[66][65]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has had a long history of faith healings. Many members of the LDS Church have told their stories of healing within the LDS publication, theEnsign.[67][68][69][70] The church believes healings come most often as a result ofpriesthood blessings given by the laying on of hands; however, prayer often accompanied with fasting is also thought to cause healings. Healing is always attributed to be God's power. Latter-day Saints believe that the Priesthood of God, held by prophets (such as Moses) and worthy disciples of the Savior, was restored via heavenly messengers to the first prophet of this dispensation,Joseph Smith.[71][72]
According to LDS doctrine, even though members may have the restoredpriesthood authority to heal in the name of Jesus Christ, all efforts should be made to seek the appropriate medical help.Brigham Young stated this effectively, while also noting that the ultimate outcome is still dependent on the will of God.[73]
If we are sick, and ask the Lord to heal us, and to do all for us that is necessary to be done, according to my understanding of the Gospel of salvation, I might as well ask the Lord to cause my wheat and corn to grow, without my plowing the ground and casting in the seed. It appears consistent to me to apply every remedy that comes within the range of my knowledge, and to ask my Father in Heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, to sanctify that application to the healing of my body.[74]
But suppose we were traveling in the mountains, ... and one or two were taken sick, without anything in the world in the shape of healing medicine within our reach, what should we do? According to my faith, ask the Lord Almighty to ... heal the sick. This is our privilege, when so situated that we cannot get anything to help ourselves. Then the Lord and his servants can do all. But it is my duty to do, when I have it in my power.[74]
We lay hands on the sick and wish them to be healed, and pray the Lord to heal them, but we cannot always say that he will.[75]
A number of healing traditions exist among Muslims. Some healers are particularly focused on diagnosing cases of possession byjinn or demons.[76]
Chinese-born Australian businessmanJun Hong Lu was a prominent proponent of the "Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door", claiming that practicing the three "golden practices" of reciting texts and mantras, liberation of beings, and making vows, laid a solid foundation for improved physical, mental, and psychological well-being, with many followers publicly attesting to have been healed through practice.[77]
Some critics ofScientology have referred to some of its practices as being similar to faith healing, based on claims made byL. Ron Hubbard inDianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and other writings.[78]
Nearly all[a] scientists dismiss faith healing as pseudoscience.[3][4][5][6] Believers assert that faith healing makes no scientific claims and thus should be treated as a matter of faith that is not testable by science.[79] Critics reply that claims of medical cures should be tested scientifically because, although faith in the supernatural is not in itself usually considered to be the purview of science,[80][81][d] claims of reproducible effects are nevertheless subject to scientific investigation.[4][79]
Scientists and doctors generally find that faith healing lacksbiological plausibility orepistemic warrant,[3]: 30–31 which is one of the criteria used to judge whether clinical research is ethical and financially justified.[83] ACochrane review of intercessory prayer found "although some of the results of individual studies suggest a positive effect of intercessory prayer, the majority do not".[84] The authors concluded: "We are not convinced that further trials of this intervention should be undertaken and would prefer to see any resources available for such a trial used to investigate other questions in health care".[84]
A review in 1954 investigatedspiritual healing,therapeutic touch and faith healing. Of the hundred cases reviewed, none revealed that the healer's intervention alone resulted in any improvement or cure of a measurable organic disability.[85]
In addition, at least one study has suggested that adult Christian Scientists, who generally use prayer rather than medical care, have a higher death rate than other people of the same age.[8]
I have visited Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal, healing shrines of the Christian Virgin Mary. I have also visited Epidaurus in Greece and Pergamum in Turkey, healing shrines of the pagan god Asklepios. The miraculous healings recorded in both places were remarkably the same. There are, for example, many crutches hanging in the grotto of Lourdes, mute witness to those who arrived lame and left whole. There are, however, no prosthetic limbs among them, no witnesses to paraplegics whose lost limbs were restored.
Skeptics of faith healing offer primarily two explanations for anecdotes of cures or improvements, relieving any need to appeal to the supernatural.[e][88] The first ispost hoc ergo propter hoc, meaning that a genuine improvement orspontaneous remission may have been experienced coincidental with but independent from anything the faith healer or patient did or said. These patients would have improved just as well even had they done nothing. The second is theplacebo effect, through which a person may experience genuine pain relief and other symptomatic alleviation. In this case, the patient genuinely has been helped by the faith healer or faith-based remedy, not through any mysterious or numinous function, but by the power of their own belief that they would be healed.[89][f][90] In both cases the patient may experience a real reduction in symptoms, though in neither case has anything miraculous or inexplicable occurred. Both cases, however, are strictly limited to the body's natural abilities.
According to theAmerican Cancer Society:[8]
... available scientific evidence does not support claims that faith healing can actually cure physical ailments... One review published in 1998 looked at 172 cases of deaths among children treated by faith healing instead of conventional methods. These researchers estimated that if conventional treatment had been given, the survival rate for most of these children would have been more than 90 percent, with the remainder of the children also having a good chance of survival. A more recent study found that more than 200 children had died of treatable illnesses in the United States over the past thirty years because their parents relied on spiritual healing rather than conventional medical treatment.
TheAmerican Medical Association considers that prayer as therapy should not be a medically reimbursable or deductible expense.[91]
Belgianphilosopher andskepticEtienne Vermeersch coined the termLourdes effect as a criticism of themagical thinking andplacebo effect possibilities for the claimed miraculous cures as there are no documented events where a severed arm has been reattached through faith healing at Lourdes. Vermeersch identifies ambiguity and equivocal nature of the miraculous cures as a key feature of miraculous events.[92][93][94]
Reliance on faith healing to the exclusion of other forms of treatment can have a public health impact when it reduces or eliminates access to modern medical techniques.[g][h][i] This is evident in both higher mortality rates for children[13] and in reduced life expectancy for adults.[14] Critics have also made note of serious injury that has resulted from falsely labelled "healings", where patients erroneously consider themselves cured and cease or withdraw from treatment.[7][j] For example, at least six people have died after faith healing by their church and being told they had been healed of HIV and could stop taking their medications.[97] It is the stated position of the AMA that "prayer as therapy should not delay access to traditional medical care".[91] Choosing faith healing while rejectingmodern medicine can and does cause people to die needlessly.[98]
Christian theological criticism of faith healing broadly falls into two distinct levels of disagreement.
The first is widely termed the "open-but-cautious" view of the miraculous in the church today. This term is deliberately used byRobert L. Saucy in the bookAre Miraculous Gifts for Today?.[99]Don Carson is another example of a Christian teacher who has put forward what has been described as an "open-but-cautious" view.[100] In dealing with the claims ofWarfield, particularly "Warfield's insistence that miracles ceased",[101] Carson asserts, "But this argument stands up only if such miraculous gifts are theologically tied exclusively to a role of attestation; and that is demonstrably not so."[101] However, while affirming that he does not expect healing to happen today, Carson is critical of aspects of the faith healing movement, "Another issue is that of immense abuses in healing practises.... The most common form of abuse is the view that since all illness is directly or indirectly attributable to the devil and his works, and since Christ by his cross has defeated the devil, and by his Spirit has given us the power to overcome him, healing is the inheritance right of all true Christians who call upon the Lord with genuine faith."[102]
The second level of theological disagreement with Christian faith healing goes further. Commonly referred to ascessationism, its adherents either claim that faith healing will not happen today at all, or may happen today, but it would be unusual.Richard Gaffin argues for a form of cessationism in an essay alongside Saucy's in the bookAre Miraculous Gifts for Today? In his bookPerspectives on Pentecost[103] Gaffin states of healing and related gifts that "the conclusion to be drawn is that as listed in 1 Corinthians 12(vv. 9f., 29f.) and encountered throughout the narrative in Acts, these gifts, particularly when exercised regularly by a given individual, are part of the foundational structure of the church... and so have passed out of the life of the church."[104] Gaffin qualifies this, however, by saying "At the same time, however, the sovereign will and power of God today to heal the sick, particularly in response to prayer (see e.g. James 5:14, 15), ought to be acknowledged and insisted on."[105]
According to the Catholic apologist Trent Horn, while the Bible teaches believers to pray when they are sick, this is not to be viewed as an exclusion of medical care, citingSirach 38:9,12-14:
"when you are sick do not be negligent, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you...And give the physician his place, for the Lord created him; let him not leave you, for there is need of him. There is a time when success lies in the hands of physicians, for they too will pray to the Lord, that he should grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life."[106]
Skeptics of faith healers point to fraudulent practices either in the healings themselves (such as plants in the audience with fake illnesses), or concurrent with the healing work supposedly taking place and claim that faith healing is aquack practice in which the "healers" use well known non-supernatural illusions to exploit credulous people in order to obtain their gratitude, confidence and money.[57]James Randi'sThe Faith Healers investigates Christian evangelists such asPeter Popoff, who claimed to heal sick people on stage in front of an audience. Popoff pretended to know private details about participants' lives by receiving radio transmissions from his wife who was off-stage and had gathered information from audience members prior to the show.[57] According to this book, many of the leading modern evangelistic healers have engaged in deception and fraud.[107] The book also questioned how faith healers use funds that were sent to them for specific purposes.[k] PhysicistRobert L. Park[89] and doctor and consumer advocateStephen Barrett[7] have called into question the ethics of some exorbitant fees.
There have also been legal controversies. For example, in 1955 at aJack Coe revival service inMiami, Florida, Coe told the parents of a three-year-old boy that he healed their son who had polio.[108][109] Coe then told the parents to remove the boy'sleg braces.[108][109] However, their son was not cured of polio and removing the braces left the boy in constant pain.[108][109][110] As a result, through the efforts ofJoseph L. Lewis, Coe was arrested and charged on February 6, 1956, with practicing medicine without a license, a felony in the state of Florida.[111] A FloridaJustice of the Peace dismissed the case on grounds that Florida exempts divine healing from the law.[55][112][113] Later that year Coe was diagnosed withbulbar polio, and died a few weeks later at Dallas'Parkland Hospital on December 17, 1956.[108][114][115][116]
TV personalityDerren Brown produced a show on faith healing entitledMiracles for Sale which arguably exposed the art of faith healing as a scam. In this show, Derren trained a scuba diver trainer picked from the general public to be a faith healer and took him to Texas to successfully deliver a faith healing session to a congregation.[117]
The 1974Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) required states to grant religious exemptions tochild neglect andchild abuse laws in order to receive federal money.[118] The CAPTA amendments of 199642 U.S.C. § 5106i state:
(a) In General. – Nothing in this Act shall be construed –
"(1) as establishing a Federal requirement that a parent or legal guardian provide a child any medical service or treatment against the religious beliefs of the parent or legal guardian; and "(2) to require that a State find, or to prohibit a State from finding, abuse or neglect in cases in which a parent or legal guardian relies solely or partially upon spiritual means rather than medical treatment, in accordance with the religious beliefs of the parent or legal guardian.
"(b) State Requirement. – Notwithstanding subsection (a), a State shall, at a minimum, have in place authority under State law to permit the child protective services system of the State to pursue any legal remedies, including the authority to initiate legal proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction, to provide medical care or treatment for a child when such care or treatment is necessary to prevent or remedy serious harm to the child, or to prevent the withholding of medically indicated treatment from children with life threatening conditions. Except with respect to the withholding of medically indicated treatments from disabled infants with life threatening conditions, case by case determinations concerning the exercise of the authority of this subsection shall be within the sole discretion of the State.
Thirty-one states have child-abuse religious exemptions. These are Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming.[119] In six of these states, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Ohio and Virginia, the exemptions extend to murder and manslaughter. Of these, Idaho is the only state accused of having a large number of deaths due to the legislation in recent times.[120][121] In February 2015, controversy was sparked in Idaho over a bill believed to further reinforce parental rights to deny their children medical care.[122]
Parents of an 11-year-old girl were convicted of child abuse and felony reckless negligent homicide and found responsible for killing their children when they withheld lifesaving medical care and chose only prayers.[123]
Parents of an 8-year-old girl in Australia and 12 members of their religious sect were found guilty of manslaughter for withholding lifesaving medication. Members of the sect sang and prayed rather than seeking medical help.[124]
There are also activities that, although not classified (or claimed) as science, have implications that trespass into the scientific territories. Examples of this category of activities are the claim that we have been visited by aliens riding unidentified flying objects, all psychic phenomena, and faith healing. We study the nature of all these activities under the general heading of pseudoscience. ...
For example, most scientists dismiss the notion of faith-healing, a phenomenon for which there is a certain amount of evidence.
Pitt, Joseph C.; Pera, Marcello (2012).Rational Changes in Science: Essays on Scientific Reasoning. Springer Science & Business Media.ISBN 978-94-009-3779-6. Retrieved18 April 2018.Such examples of pseudoscience as the theory of biorhythms, astrology, dianetics, creationism, faith healing may seem too obvious examples of pseudoscience for academic readers.
Zerbe, Michael J. (2007).Composition and the Rhetoric of Science: Engaging the Dominant Discourse. SIU Press. p. 86.ISBN 978-0-8093-2740-9.[T]he authors of the 2002 National Science FoundationScience and Engineering Indicators devoted and entire section of their report to the concern that the public is increasingly trusting in pseudoscience such as astrology, UFOs and alien abduction, extrasensory perception, channeling the dead, faith healing, and psychic hotlines.
Robert Cogan (1998).Critical Thinking: Step by Step. University Press of America. p. 217.ISBN 978-0-7618-1067-4.Faith healing is probably the most dangerous pseudoscience.
Leonard, Bill J.;Crainshaw, Jill Y. (2013).Encyclopedia of Religious Controversies in the United States: A–L. ABC-CLIO.ISBN 978-1-59884-867-0. Retrieved18 April 2018.Certain approaches to faith healing are also widely considered to be pseudoscientific, including those of Christian Science, voodoo, and Spiritualism.
Supernatural experiences provide a foundation for spiritual healing. The concept supernatural is culturally specific, since some societies regard all perceptions as natural; yet certain events-such as apparitions, out-of-body and near-death experiences, extrasensory perceptions, precognitive dreams, and contact with the dead-promote faith in extraordinary forces. Supernatural experiences can be defined as those sensations directly supporting occult beliefs. Supernatural experiences are important because they provide an impetus for ideologies supporting occult healing practices, the primary means of medical treatment throughout antiquity.
Cures allegedly brought about by religious faith are, in turn, considered to be paranormal phenomena but the related religious practices and beliefs are not pseudoscientific since they usually have no scientific pretensions.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Walsh, James J. (1911). "Psychotherapy". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Bertrin, Georges (1910). "Notre-Dame de Lourdes". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Naturally, this result has provoked bitter complaints from many believers who assert that God should not be put to the test. In response to the MANTRA study, an English bishop said, "Prayer is not a penny in the slot machine. You can't just put in a coin and get out a chocolate bar." Similarly, in aNew York Times article on prayer studies from October 10, 2004, Rev. Raymond J. Lawrence Jr. of New York-Presbyterian Hospital is quoted as saying, "There's no way to put God to the test, and that's exactly what you're doing when you design a study to see if God answers your prayers. This whole exercise cheapens religion, and promotes an infantile theology that God is out there ready to miraculously defy the laws of nature in answer to a prayer."
Cures allegedly brought about by religious faith are, in turn, considered to be paranormal phenomena but the related religious practices and beliefs are not pseudoscientific since they usually have no scientific pretensions.
Media related toFaith healing at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
