Faith "healing"

I recall hearing someone say, "Prayer is a way of doing nothing while still thinking you're helping." That seems accurate enough. Personal anecdotes about answered prayers which are claimed to be "proof" of the power of prayer always seem to leave out the scores of prayers that went unfulfilled. I'm really not surprised by this, but I am disturbed. If people who think prayer is efficacious actually looked at the results objectively, I'm sure the cognitive dissonance would melt their brain. But, they don't look at prayer objectively. Therein lies the insidious danger, especially when it comes to prayer vs. medical treatment.

Unfortunately, another kid died this week in Oregon from an easily treatable condition. Go to the link below to read the story. To be perfectly honest, stories such as these not only anger and disgust me, they actually frighten me a little bit. They frighten me not only because they occur, but because they seem to occur so much more frequently these days. Maybe it only seems so because information is so much more easily accessed now than 30 years ago. Even if that's the case, I would gain no solace from the fact. It would simply mean that these deaths were more frequent in the past than I'd previously realised. Also, regardless of the seeming increase, the fact that these deaths occur at all is proof positive that some adults in 21st century America believe that wishes can come true by simply communicating telepathically with their favorite imaginary friend. And they are willing to let people die for it. That's what really scares me about these people. They will let children die prolonged, painful deaths rather than admit the possibility they might be wrong.

I can't recall how many times some theist has insisted that I respect their beliefs. More often than not, they don't even have a good reason for the demand. Well, I have plenty of good reasons for their beliefs not being worthy of respect, and the needless death of children is a biggie. Too often I've heard preachers and evangelists praise the power of prayer when they should be saying, "That kid looks sick. You should take him to the doctor." Additionally, I also can't recall the number of times a Christian has claimed, "You've been told the word of god, so you have no excuse for not accepting him." To those folks I say, "You've been told of the wonders of modern medicine, so you've no excuse for not taking your sick child to the hospital." If these people don't mend their ways, we can, sadly, expect to see more needless and preventable death in the future, and I don't see any reason why the cause of such death should be worthy of respect. In fact, it is worthy of nothing better than contempt.


"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect had intended for us to forgo their use."
-Galileo Galilei-

It should be obvious to anyone reading my posts that I'm an atheist. Obviously, Galileo wasn't, but that didn't stop him from recognising the importance of truth. The very same sense, reason, and intellect spoken of by him led to biology, the Theory of Evolution, Germ Theory, and modern medicine, and yet too many people refuse to avail themselves of the benefits of medical science. If you prefer to die as a result of willful ignorance rather than accept medical treatment, that's fine. Good riddance. I'll be sure to nominate you for a Darwin Award. If, however, you allow an innocent child to die because of your delusions, then you should expect to be prosecuted. You deserve nothing less.

People who believe in "faith healing" have chosen nonsense over sense, irrationality over reason, and ignorance over intellect. I will never give them one iota of respect. They don't deserve it. Rather, I'll give my respect to all the men and women throughout history who have done everything in their power to advance quality of life for us all. They actually put some effort into it. What effort have you faith healers made?


http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/19/faith.healer.deaths.ap/index.html