Mervin Bitikofer <mrb22667@kansas.net> wrote: Can “positive thinking” or “placebo effect” still be a benefit to somebody who is trying to evaluate it in an objective context? That is… can I ‘choose to believe’ something as opposed to ‘really believing’ it and still enjoy the positive consequences of the believer? This may completely derail the direction you might have intended, Dr. Syme, and I apologize if it does – perhaps I should make my own subject thread. But the research you discuss below seems to me to touch on a rumbling undercurrent of modern thought.
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Many may wish not to tread here – but I’ll raise a question that is openly voiced by critical non-Christians, and may lurk more deeply in the minds of some believers. Is the ‘placebo effect’ a hostile explanation that discredits the testimony of Christian experience, undermining the convictions of would-be followers?
Bill Hamilton:
When I was a new Christian I had trouble with the concept of insanity. Modern medicine seems to view it (or at least some of it) as due to chemical imbalances, while Scripture seems to point the finger at demon possession. I finally concluded that perhaps that's how demons work: by causing chemical imbalances. Could not a similar explanation be applied here? That when we pray for someone to be healed and the individual is healed, it may be due to the placebo effect -- operating under the sovereignty of God. That is, in some instances God specifically ordains the chemical activity normally associated with the placebo effect. In instances where there is no prayer and an individual is helped by a placebo, perhaps this is an example of common grace.
Bill Hamilton
William E. Hamilton, Jr., Ph.D.
586.986.1474 (work) 248.652.4148 (home) 248.303.8651 (mobile)
"...If God is for us, who is against us?" Rom 8:31
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Received on Fri Jan 13 12:33:28 2006
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