Do you believe in faith healers? Peter Popoff is an example. Peter Popoff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxqRN5vjDHQ Thought's on this?
Claptrap I worked for two years with 'spiritual healers' in a cancer care centre. A bigger bunch of devious and egotistical souls you would never find. They used cold reading to get personal information then fed it back to the patients, gave false hope, and always laid the blame for failure on the patient themselves. In the centre's 15 year history ( it has had hundreds of residential patients a year) there was not one single case of a cure or remission. All patients died. The only thing that faith healing can provide is the placebo effect, which can account for up to a 23% increse in a sense of well-being. This effect (research has been done)can be generated by the patient simply going to a doctor, without being directly treated, or by waving what the patient believes to be a magic crystal over their chests. MelT
Sure don't, and if those so called Christians that follow people like Popoff truly opened their eyes they wouldn't either. The message of Christ is about life, the healing was merely a component of a greater message. The Apostle Paul summed it up nicely in his letters to the Corinthian Church. Essentially the Corinthians had become decadent and more concerned with spiritual gifts than the most important aspect of their faith, love. Also, and this is the most important point, if anyone and I mean anyone were actually healed today "faith healers" would be treated as gods and their message would resonate over the face of the planet. But that isn't what's happening, instead miracles are being manufactured and substituted as truth. And people hungry for some hope to endure their daily lives believe without question. People know what works for them and they flock to it in droves. 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. ~1 Corinthians 13~ Right now what you have is a fairly pathetic display of people that are so caught up in zeal and fanaticism that the simple truths of Christ go virtually ignored. I would liken it to being in the middle of a swimming pool but being bone dry. If the heart of Christ's message is about love and acceptance but their message about "prosperity" and "faith healing," then something is terribly out of balance and should be open to the highest scrutiny. Christians need to open their eyes to the reality of the modern world and understand that the only thing that's truly useful is their ability to love. I almost forgot to add this; Peter Popoff is a wet puddle of shit. Stay green.
Faith healers are bunk. Even scripturally speaking (if you believe in the Bible - I don't) it's a gift that has been done away with according to 1 Corinthians "when that which is perfect (the Bible) is come, that which is in part (the spiritual gifts) shall be done away". It's convenient that it's soley up to the amount of "faith" that the healEE has to have. That way if it fails, the healer isn't to blame, the patient is... "You didn't have enough faith, that's why you weren't healed" -- BULLSHIT, imho. I used to have a lot of faith. Certainly more than a mustard seed (which supposedly can move mountains)... I was never healed from anything, though... Hmmm... Wonder why
Question: Do you believe in faith healers? Answer: not any more than any other motivational speaker with the exception of a possibly higher success rate with those who don't push religion. I suppose faith healers do provide some form of mental support for those who believe in some form of god. If you're asking ,can some preacher make a cripple walk ? Then no. That is fake. I do not believe psychic readings ,precognition ,or psychokinesis are possible for humans either.
I believe it is all bunk. I believe in coincidences though, and they may be misconstrued as healing by "faith."
Great post as always AK, LOVE that chapter and most of the letters Paul wrote. Gallasians (sp?) and the fruit of the spirit come to mind- just incredibly powerful writing. Gives me the chills everytime I read it, no matter how many times I do. LOL love the way you think Al I cannot add anymore- I agree with AK and Al mostly, faith healers would be world renowned if it was true- and with a name like Popoff he should be doing third rate porno instead of preaching. LOL
I believe that there is much power in positive thought; so if the 'faith healer' is providing that positive inspiration than I have no problem with them. If they have a bad attitude than that is just wrong.
Source: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dawkins06/dawkins06_index.html Templeton Press Release: http://www.templeton.org/newsroom/press_releases/060407step.html So now the question should be reworded: If you believe in faith healers, why do you refuse to accept that they are a sham?
Western culture aka European culture which we have inherited; flavors every aspect of our thought processes and behavior. We are reflections of our environment. Human nature. I can see why people have such a hard time wrapping their minds around the concept of faith healing. I have a different background and point of view. Growing up in New Mexico, I spent most of my life on or near several First Nation nations. The main one being the Navajo Nation. I have Navajo relatives. I grew up with Christian and Navajo spirituality as part of my life. Navajo faith healers are called hand tremblers. They can diagnose illness and in some cases relieve symptoms of illness by touch. I've actually watched this happen. I've seen many other strange and wonderful things while growing up among first nation people. I consider myself very lucky. On the flip side I've seen a lot of terrifying things as well. One of them being skinwalkers :shudder: The human mind is a powerful organ and I believe it's capable of influencing health and healing.
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As long as there is suckers, there will be those that prey upon them. Faith healers might seem an obvious scam. And there are many scams like it. And they all want money. That is the bottom line. Give three cheers hurrah for evidence based medicine. And everything else evidence based as well really Edit: almost forgot: Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! !!!
By the power of faith, I will resurrect this thread, in the name of the gopher, the melt, and the holy zylark and let it bump.......NOW!
Yea AK, I agree man, just take a listen to this also, I found it quite interesting http://richarddawkins.net/article,6...Burton-and-Tinkler,Infidel-Guy?detectqt=false
My husband and I have both received healing of some affllictions which I would term"miraculous" through prayer (our own prayer or that of others) Recently, my husband injured his knee and had to see an orthopedist for it. He received a shot of cortisone and that helped quite a bit etc, but he was still in a substantial amount of pain from it. A couple who are part of our eldership (leadership) at church prayed with him about the knee. He was immediately about 90% better and made a fairly rapid total recovery after that. You could say that it would have gotten better without the prayer, but I personally know that there was that IMMEDIATE dramatic difference after they prayed. Another time some years ago, I had an ailment of a kind of personal nature (which is why I'm not gonna detail it here). I had seen the most reputable gynecologist in our city and he had done his best to treat me without success. One night after about three months of this, I read the scripture in the Bible where the woman with an issue of blood presses forward in the crowd and touches the hem of Jesus' garment and is healed. So I myself just simply prayed and asked Jesus if I could "touch the hem of his garment" like she did (only in the Spirit obviously). Then I kinda forgot I had even prayed about until later I realized that the "problem" had resolved that very night and has never returned after all these years. There are other incidences too but I think of these two right off the bat. And yes, I do believe that certain individuals can indeed have a "gift of healing" if you will. It doesn't emanate from them but rather the Holy Spirit residing in them. Of course, I think all believers can pray for the sick with effective results, but yeah, I think some have a particular anointing from the Lord or ability to do so. I have a llittle more difficulty believing in any particular place having any type of "healing virtue" but I may be wrong. The Bible does mention, was it the Pool of Siloam? where the Jews believed that at certain times an angel troubled the waters and they could be healed then. So who knows...? I don't have any personal testimony or other scripture to support that of a place having healing virtue.
fuckin idiot, what the fuck do you know about God or satan or evil? you havent even the slightest clue as to what the fuck you're on about!