Miracle Healing

[kreeden]

Originally Posted by Jensa

How does what doctors think effect anything?

Don't think that it does , much . Other then the effort they would put into the caring .

However , what the patient thinks makes all the difference in the world . I have no proof of that , but I'm sure that we will in time . Our understanding of such is limited at the best .... well , my understanding is at lest .

[Fluffy]

Unfortunately for us, medical knowledge is NOT all encompassing and there are thousands of areas waiting to happen. I dare say if you went back 1000 years and used modern medicine to cure a plague, the victims would put that down to a miracle as well.

All this proves (if it even does that) is that there are cures to medical conditions which we aren't yet aware of (amazing I know). Turning this into a miracle is not a logical follow on because there is not a scrap of evidence that any of these things are being caused by God or even any sort of divine power.

[stemann]

Unfortunately for us, medical knowledge is NOT all encompassing and there are thousands of areas waiting to happen. I dare say if you went back 1000 years and used modern medicine to cure a plague, the victims would put that down to a miracle as well.

Good point. Miracles are often seen as a new thing being discovered rather than something 'external to science' or that science can't explain. Scientists never claim that they have discovered everything there is to discover and probably never will.

[dorsk188]

The last two posters have an excellent point. In the case of cancer, aren't most mutated cells that could become a tumor removed by the body's immune system? Perhaps in a few dozen years, stem cells or nanotechnology will allow us to send in "smart lymphocytes" that can dismantle a tumor and reenforce the body's immune system. It may even be possible to induce a "placebo" effect on the brain chemically, leading to more spontaneous remissions.

The placebo effect is nothing to be scoffed at, a person believes a pill works because a doctor says it will. Imagine how effective it would be if you believed an all-powerful being is "reachin' inside you and just... just burnin' that tumah away... Praise the lord!" Especially in front of a large crowd of believers.

[greatcalgarian]

Science and medicine have never been able to completely explain how our body fought a disease or sickness. So any unexplained recovery from sickness where the previous medical diagnostic said was incurable does not prove that a benevolent entity has intervened to introduce the miracle. Anyone taken a statistic of believers who prayed for miraculous cure, and their prayer are actually answered? How many athiests without resorting to prayer (including theist praying on their behalf) also may experience miraculous cure?