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Just when you thought that religion couldn’t appear any more ludicrous:
CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS, who don’t believe in conventional medicine, are nonetheless keen to grab some of the cash the government will soon be splurging on health reform.
Church leaders want health insurers to reimburse “spiritual health” practitioners who pray for the sick, reports the Washington Post.
A proposal to that effect was stripped out of the House health bill, but the Church is lobbying to have it re-inserted into the Senate version.
Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, taught that sickness is a delusion. Rather than consulting a doctor when you are ill, you should pray, she advised. Her modern-day followers sometimes take this literally.
Their children occasionally die of preventable or treatable diseases. The Church would like taxpayers to subsidise this sort of nonsense. And Senators John Kerry and Orrin Hatch apparently agree.
The great thing about this sort of logic is that it can be applied to anything. If I “educate” my children by praying that they will one day get into Harvard, may I please have a subsidy from the Department of Education? And I understand that there’s a lot of money in the defence budget. If I pray for victory in Afghanistan, perhaps Congress will give me some of it.
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Fast Food
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DOWN THE VINE
Syndication
There is rampant greed in all of society, and the wackos want their share.
Why dangerous drugs with well-known to everyone side effects should be subsided by the Government but effective and harmless prayerful treatment not? The harm of lots of pharmaceutical drugs were proved but they are still allowed and the insurances cover all those so-called treatments. It's time to investigate all medical system and to decide which are effective and which are just mere mesmeric or hypnotic without any good results.
Simple. Scientific research backs the effectiveness of drugs. Nonsensebacks faith healing.
We are not talking about Drugs companies which try to mesmerize the people with extremely dangerous side effects written on their so-called instructions. If some drugs played some positive role to alienate condition at the beginning of their era so often now they are often useless. People die more from the so-called treatments. Christian Science treatment is effective and often bring relief immediately. It is not faith healing method it is method based on deep understanding of God's laws and apply them correctly. You can believe or not he truth about that stays with all who (as myself) experienced lots of healing and could not be healed for many years by medical authorities. Please read my testimonies in my website.
well, it must be lovely to have faith in nonsense. when i get sick, i will be sure to look to voodoo, spirit crystals, magnets, blood sacrifice and pyramids (oh, and christian science and other evidence-free methods) to heal me, rather than the big bad doctors and Drugs (with their side effects!)
I wish you stay healthy and have an open mind as I was in your boat so many times.
Be interesting to see a scientific study based on your claims, but of course none exists.
Actually the Harvard Medical School with other prominent Universities in USA did some research about 10 years ago claiming in their study that there are a few spiritual religions (including Christian Science) which do apply God's laws for the healing practices and successfully. You might look for those symposiums which they provided online (IIve read it in Christian Science Sentinel).
Also there are lots of studies how just prayer heals (whether people know about that or not). Though perhaps some prayers act as a blind beliefs or placebo effect scientific prayers based on the spiritual understanding and not on a blind faith definitely have definitely positive outcome.
I spent my life as an electronic designer and microcomputer programmer, a very hard science type. In 1995 I was healed of a serious and likely fatal medical condition through the silent prayer of an employee, who was a lifelong Christian Scientist. The healing involved total removal of all symptoms in less than 24 hours, they just were not there anymore, as well as a sense of peace and elevated thought that I would never have believed possible.
I began studying Christian Science as a result of that experience, and have since used it to heal a broken foot with no medical involvement of any kind, allergies, work injuries, and many other conditions.
Christian Science Prayer is different in several subtle ways from what most people think of as prayer. The picture in your post is not representative of the type of silent prayer from the proper basis that heals.
Christian Science taps natural laws that are as real as Ohm's law. Just because most people are not aware of them doesn't mean they are not present and active.
Christian Science is the best kept secret of the age. It really works.
anecdotes are nice and i'm glad you feel better but the body heals itself "miraculously" all the time -- the only difference is that when a non-believer gets healed "miraculously" he does not ascribe it to faith or prayer -- he just says wow, didn't expect that to happen. if your christian "science" was as effective as you say it is, it would be easily revealed in a serious scientific study of the phenomenon. unfortunately for you, every rigorous scientific study of any kind of faith healing has found no evidence of any effect whatsoever
Unfortunately studies involving individuals are very difficult. I would have never believed what can be done, and was a strong skeptic earlier in my life concerning Christian Science.
An example of what can be done through "prayer from the proper basis" is what happened when I accidentally crushed a hornet's nest. I started to run, but realized I could not outrun them. I closed my eyes and started to pray as I had learned by studying CS. After about a minute, I opened my eyes and saw the hornets crawling around on their ruined nest, completely ignoring me. I resumed walking and continued to pray. In less than five minutes, all evidence of the numerous bites, which had swollen and were very painful, had vanished and the pain was gone.
I use medical technology when it seems appropriate, and many Christian Scientists have broken bones set by medical doctors. However, when I broke my foot, I knew from my prayer that I could handle it metaphysically, and I was successful. The bones realigned themselves and healed. I have full use of the foot and never think about it unless I am telling the story.
studies on things like this wouldnt be difficult at all. they've been done. you have a large group of people, some in a control group, some with faith healing applied to them. then you measure the results. simple. and the studies have all shown nada.
While faith is extremely important to the well being of a patient, so is medical treatment. When my son survived cancer it was threw medical treatment and a strong faith that the Lord would help him survive. Both were important. My problem with faith healing alone is the many failures of faith healing without medical treatment, the fault is always on the lack of faith of the patient, who is usually a child, and not on the practice. While I always pray to the Lord for help I do not decline his help if he sends by the way of a doctor and a treatment plan.
Christian Scientists are not opposed to medical treatment, but seek to remove the need for it. There has never been any prohibition in church doctrine against seeking medical treatment.
There seems to be a belief among those opposed to Christian Science that their children are constantly dying. That is not the case. Occasionally one does die, and that is a tragedy, but children also die constantly in spite of the best that medical technology can do.
If our prayer leads us to medical technology we use it. However, those who practice CS routinely remove the need for medical treatment, and we do this by ourselves of with the help of a Christian Science Practitioner when we are having trouble seeing the solution.
CS Practitioners charge from $20 to $40 per day, and usually have several dozen cases at a time. Same day healings are common. They are required to make their entire living from their teaching and healing practice in order to maintain their listing in the Christian Science Journal. Since they spend their lives in prayer, they are an amazingly elevated group of people. Working with one can bring understanding and healing quickly.
The personal practice of CS involves building and maintaining a connection with God. Christian Scientists believe this is their actual life mission. Jesus showed how this should be done, and by studying his teachings, and by invoking the Comforter, which he said he would send after he departed, a wonderful and harmonious life can be had.
However I still have a great deal of difficulty in paying a religious person to pray for a patient from a medical health care provision. If the church, patient, or patient's family wants to pay, find. But it still is not a medical procedure, but a religious one.
amen. i would also not like taxpayer money going to voodoo or blood sacrifice.
Thanks and I hope voodoo and magnetic power crystals save me if I do get sick
Jesus was not religious in a term as a church presents us to be. He was free from any limitations, dogms, theories and so on. However he healed as demanded from all who follow him to do the same. Is something wrong with his demand? Or we do not trust what it is written in the Bible and this is already another question.
Not sure I know what that means.
Some one seems to be lost in his interpretation of the Bible.