 | Criticisms of Charismatic and Pentecostal belief: Encyclopedia II - Criticisms of Charismatic and Pentecostal belief - Medical/Scientific Criticisms
Criticisms of Charismatic and Pentecostal belief - Medical/Scientific Criticisms
Criticisms of Charismatic and Pentecostal belief - Faith Healing
The following articles are useful in examining the possible reasons why Faith Healing in Charismatic churches continues to be popular.
- Faith Healing
- Correlation implies causation (logical fallacy)
- Post hoc ergo propter hoc
- Regressive fallacy
Criticisms of Charismatic and Pentecostal belief - Prosperity and Faith
Many Charismatic and Pentecostal churches champion the idea that God will materially bless those who love and serve him. In order to prove this assertion, many examples and testimonies exist within these churches that appear to validate this belief.
Since Charismatic and Pentecostal churches exist within growing market economies, the belief that God will bless you if you "go out" in faith simply produces an environment of entreprenurial risk-taking. If this environment develops enough, the church community will eventually produce successful businessmen and -women (not to mention a number of business failures). The presence of these people within the church therefore only validates the assumption. Thus the belief that God blesses certain people materially could actually be a logical fallacy.
Criticisms of Charismatic and Pentecostal belief - Religious ecstasy as a psychological phenomenon
See also: Religious ecstasy
The stereotypical worship service that is prevalent amongst many Charismatic and Pentecostal churches involves repetitious phrases uttered during emotionally uplifting music, the raising of hands and the closing of eyes, an open and willing attitude to the "presence of God", a dependence and focus upon the preacher or worship leader who himself/herself is acting and speaking in an emotionally charged way. This sort of experience is common amongst many non-Christian religious adherents and has been described as Religious ecstasy.
Therefore, it could be argued that Charismatic and Pentecostal churches that exhibit these features are only reproducing a psychological phenomena that is common to humanity regardless of their religion, rather than engaging in an entirely unique Christian activity where a supernatural force is present in the gathering. That this phenomena can be exhibited in a group of people engaging in a common religious activity actually makes this explanation more likely.
Charismatic and Pentecostal manifestations such as Speaking in Tongues, being Slain in the Spirit, the laughing and crying caused by the Toronto blessing and the placebo effect of Faith healing can all be explained by the prevalence of Religious ecstasy in these gatherings.
Criticisms of Charismatic and Pentecostal belief - Word of Faith theology
An examination of Word-Faith theology seems to match the experience of those who advocate Neuro-linguistic programming as a form of behaviour modification. Thus Charismatics and Pentecostals who "succeed in life" due to this brand of theology may only be replicating the efforts of secular proponents like Anthony Robbins.
See also
- Suggestibility
- Visualization
Other related archives1 Corinthians, 1958, Anthony Robbins, Assemblies of God, Autosuggestion, Baptism of the Holy Spirit, Benny Hinn, Bible, Born-again, Brainwashing, C. Peter Wagner, Cambridge Declaration, Catholic Church, Charismatic, Christians, Chrysostom, Church of God (Cleveland), Communal reinforcement, Consensus reality, Correlation implies causation (logical fallacy), Discernment Ministries, Dispensationalist, Eusebius, Evangelical, Evangelicals, Exegesis, Expository preaching, Faith Healing, Faith healing, Firmilian, Five-fold ministry, Fundamentalist, Gordon Fee, Gospel music, Group-serving bias, Groupthink, Herd behavior, Hillsong Church, Holiness Movement, Holy Spirit, Image:Bible old.jpg, Informational cascade, Irenaeus, Jesus, Jesus Movement, Jesus-only doctrines, Kenneth Copeland, Kingdom Now theology, Latter Rain Movement, Love bombing, Marilyn Hickey, Mind control, National Association of Evangelicals, Neocharismatic, Neocharismatics, Neuro-linguistic programming, New Testament, Oneness Pentecostal, Oneness Pentecostalism, Origen, Pentecostal, Pentecostalism, Peoples Temple, Post hoc ergo propter hoc, Post-modernist, Post-structuralist, Prophecy, Protestant, Psychological abuse, Rapture, Reformed, Regressive fallacy, Religious ecstasy, Renewal Theologians, Revivalism, Roman Catholic Church, Sabellianism, Second Great Awakening, Signs and Wonders, Slain in the Spirit, Sola scriptura, Speaking in Tongues, Structuralist, Suggestibility, Tertullian, The Children of God, Third Wave, Toronto blessing, Transformationalism, Vineyard Movement, Visualization, William M. Branham, Word of faith, Word-Faith theology, Worship, Xenoglossia, dispensation, empirical evidence, evangelical, ex cathedra, exegesis, glossolalia, healing, heresy, heretical, house churches, legalism, miracles, modalism, omnipotence, omnipresence, ostracized, parishes, placebo effect, prophecy, providence, sacraments, saints, satanically, spiral of silence, subjective, tongue speaking, trinity
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Medical/Scientific Criticisms", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
