THE ETHICS OF OUR TIME II

FAITH HEALING

Let’s put “Faith Healing” into two categories; 1) Those that take place in front of a crowd of strangers, and 2) Those which are private.

1) Those that take place in front of a crowd of strangers. Surely it’s understandable that when a ‘healer’ is holding a big service everyone expects there to be a healing. Surely it’s not too far a stretch for the ‘healer’ to be certain there will be a healing which everyone will see; after all, the revenue to pay for his chosen arena, retinue and lifestyle will be generated in direct proportion to how many successful healings there are seen to be. We shouldn’t be surprised when we find out that at least some of these healings have been faked.

2) Those which are private. Some level of belief, either in one’s doctor, one’s medicine, one’s god, or a certain location can have a profound healing effect. This is the stuff stage healers wish they could get on a regular basis; cancerous tumors disappearing, bodily systems regenerating, diseases disappearing, all kinds of miraculous stuff. But in these cases it isn’t the intervention of a healer that worked, it was, as a famous teacher once said, “Your faith [that] has healed you.” This is commonly called The Placebo Effect by scientists. The fact that the word “placebo” is contained in it is in no way meant to imply that the effect isn’t real. It has generated some bad feelings, possibly because we think we’ve been cheated of real medicine. But as long as it worked, why should it matter? It’s been shown that if people don’t believe in their doctor or other healing agent, even the real medicine can fail to do its intended job.

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You meet a man who says he always tells the truth. He lies. What is there to discuss? He takes the pittance of the widow and spends it on luxury. Any questions?