Prayer or Placebo?

[For_Narniaaa]

I stumbled across an article on another Christian website that was explaining why, if Christianity was the true religion, some people who believe in magic or practice occult practices are sometimes healed. They then went on to talk about placebo, and how any kind of faith can result in healing, simply because of that hope. They even added at the end that sometimes placebos work if the patient doubts the treatment method. I don't understand; how could a placebo work if you doubted it? Doesn't that go against the definition? And how can we know that the many miraculous healings in the Bible, and in the Church today aren't just placebo?

I never questioned this before, because I knew a story of an atheist who was healed by intercessory prayer and then believed, but then the line about placebo working even in doubt made me wonder...

Any thoughts, rebuttals, etc.?

[ageofknowledge]

Nicky Cruz, a world famous Christian evangelist today, was baptized and dedicated as a son of the devil by his witch mother and warlock father in Puerto Rico upon his birth and recounts occassionally his father's occult magic would heal someone of a physical malady (not usually though). He explained that the devil would sometimes let this happen to further his reach on those who heard of it. The person who was "healed" inevitably suffered spiritually as a result through either demonic oppression or possession for putting himself under that authority. Check out Nicky's testimony. It's powerful.

There are both good and evil spiritual forces at work. God=good. Devil=bad.

[Gabrielman]

In the Bible it talks about both God's miricels and the devil's. He can use those to decive you and make you think that you don't need Christ when something else works.

[waynepii]

The "placebo effect" is a well-known and documented effect. It shows up in most double blind clinical trials of new drugs etc.

There is also a tendency among "believers" (in most anything) to find "proofs" of their belief. Add in a bit of enhancement and/or elaboration and you have made a "miracle" from what is usually a fairly "normal" event. Certainly, not all miracles can be so easily explained, but many can be.