On Religious Testimonies.
Hello everyone. My name is Mr Seun. I came to this gathering this evening with an intense throbbing pain in my stomach. The pain was so intense that I could barely stand up strainght. I crouched as I walked into this our gathering today.
During our meeting, our religious leader instructed us all to place our hands on whatever part of our body was in need of divine healing. I did as he instructed and placed my hand over my stomach. And then I prayed as instructed by our leader.
And to the glory of God!! The intense pain in my stomach is gone! It is gone! I can now stand up straight without feeling any pain!! Praise the Lord everyone!! Praise the Lord!!
On the Placebo Effect.
Hello. My name is Mr Dayo. I came to the doctor’s office today with a sharp pain in my left leg. The pain was so intense that I could not walk properly. I limped into the doctor’s office this morning.
During the meeting with the doctor, I explained my predicament to him and requested that he give me some drugs for the pain. I explained to him that I needed drugs to deal with the severe pain that I was experiencing.
The doctor agreed with me and gave me a number of capsules to take. Unknown to me however, the capsules had no medicinal benefit whatsoever, as they they contained nothing but sugar. They were simply sugar pills- placebos, with no medicinal effect whatsoever.
However my belief that I needed drugs to rid me of the pain was so strong that despite the fact that all I was given was sugar, my psychological standpoint helped facilitate an obviation of the pain I was feeling. I believed I needed drugs, and my belief caused me to no longer feel any pain after ingesting what I believed to be medicine.
Conclusion:
Here I’m putting forward the perspective that a considerable fraction of religious testimonies involve instances of the placebo effect: People believe that prayers are going to relieve them of some sort of discomfort, and it ends up doing so- regardless of whether the prayers in themselves have any empirical effect. People are essentially attributing the beneficial implications of the placebo effect to some divine being.
On Religious Testimonies and the Placebo Effect.
PS: I’ve found myself in a situation where I am being coerced into participating in religious activities (and I will be in this situation for some time). This series of posts about religion are I believe, simply an attempt to clean myself of all of the religious balderdash I find myself constantly surrounded with.
Hopefully all of these annoyances go away soon.
Image Source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/306437.php
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