Faith healing: Encyclopedia II - Faith healing - Criticism

Faith healing - Criticism

Some would point out that faith healing has not scientifically been proven effective, since its practitioners can only cite anecdotal evidence of cases where it has been successful. Skeptics point out that proponents of faith healing ignore the far more numerous cases where the patient dies despite the efforts of faith healing. Doctors often ascribe any success to the placebo effect or to spontaneous remission: some people will heal with or without treatment, and it is generally natural to credit the most recent treatment for the cure (this form of reasoning is called post hoc ergo propter hoc).

Prominent 1980's-era faith healer and televangelist Peter Popoff was publicly exposed by noted skeptic James Randi working together with popular TV host Johnny Carson, when it was discovered that the apparent healing miracles and prophetic acts performed by Popoff were in fact part of an elaborately stage-managed setup including planting of audience members and broadcasts to an in-ear radio receiver. Other faith healers such as Benny Hinn have also been hit by reports of fraudulent activity.

Many people who resort to faith healing do so in cases of otherwise incurable disease. However, there are groups that believe in faith healing as the sole remedy for any health problem.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Criticism", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki