Faith healing

==Criticism==
{{blockquote|I have visited Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal, healing shrines of the Christian Virgin Mary. I have also visited Epidaurus in Greece and Pergamum in Turkey, healing shrines of the pagan god Asklepios. The miraculous healings recorded in both places were remarkably the same. There are, for example, many crutches hanging in the grotto of Lourdes, mute witness to those who arrived lame and left whole. There are, however, no prosthetic limbs among them, no witnesses to paraplegics whose lost limbs were restored.|author=[[John Dominic Crossan]]<ref>{{cite book |title= Who is Jesus?: Answers to Your Questions About the Historical Jesus |editor1-first= John Dominic |editor1-last= Crossan |editor1-link= John Dominic Crossan |editor2-first= Richard G. |editor2-last= Watts |page= [https://archive.org/details/whoisjesusanswer00cros/page/64&#91;https://books.google.com/books?id=XNkKf5htZq4C&pg=PA64 64&#93;] |year= 1999 |edition= reprint |publisher= [[Westminster John Knox]] |location= Louisville, KY |orig-year= c. 1996 |isbn= 978-0664258429 |url= https://archive.org/details/whoisjesusanswer00cros/page/64 }}</ref>}}

Skeptics of faith healing offer primarily two explanations for anecdotes of cures or improvements, relieving any need to appeal to the supernatural.{{efn|"Benefits may result because of the natural progression of the illness, rarely but regularly occurring spontaneous remission or through the placebo effect." [[UC San Diego Health#UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center|UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center]]<ref name='USDMoores1'>{{cite web |title= Complementary and Alternative Therapies for Cancer Patients: Faith Healing |publisher=[[UC San Diego Health System#UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center|UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center]], [[UC San Diego Health System]], [[University of California, San Diego]] |url= http://cancer.ucsd.edu/Outreach/PublicEducation/CAMs/faith.asp |access-date= 2008-01-17 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081006212016/http://cancer.ucsd.edu/Outreach/PublicEducation/CAMs/faith.asp |archive-date= 2008-10-06}}</ref>}}<ref name='skepdic'>{{cite book |chapter-url= http://skepdic.com/faithhealing.html |chapter=Faith Healing |date= January 8, 2014 |last= Carroll |first= Robert Todd |author-link= Robert Todd Carroll |title= The Skeptic's Dictionary|title-link=The Skeptic's Dictionary }}</ref> The first is ''[[post hoc ergo propter hoc]]'', meaning that a genuine improvement or [[spontaneous remission]] may have been experienced coincidental with but independent from anything the faith healer or patient did or said. These patients would have improved just as well even had they done nothing. The second is the [[placebo]] effect, through which a person may experience genuine pain relief and other symptomatic alleviation. In this case, the patient genuinely has been helped by the faith healer or faith-based remedy, not through any mysterious or numinous function, but by the power of their own belief that they would be healed.<ref name="Park">{{cite book |last= Park |first= Robert L. |author-link= Robert L. Park |title= Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 2000 |location= New York |pages= [https://archive.org/details/voodooscienceroa00park/page/50 50–51] |isbn= 978-0195135152 |title-link= Voodoo Science }}</ref>{{efn|"Patients who seek the assistance of a faith healer must believe strongly in the healer's divine gifts and ability to focus them on the ill." [[UC San Diego Health System#UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center|UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center]]<ref name='USDMoores1'/>}}<ref name="Humphrey2002">{{cite book|last1=Humphrey|first1=Nicholas|title=The Mind Made Flesh: Essays from the Frontiers of Psychology and Evolution|date=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0192802279|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mindmadefleshess00hump/page/255 255–285]|chapter-url=http://www.humphrey.org.uk/papers/2002GreatExpectations.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050529040254/http://www.humphrey.org.uk/papers/2002GreatExpectations.pdf |archive-date=2005-05-29 |url-status=live|chapter=Chapter 19: Great Expectations: The Evolutionary Psychology of Faith-Healing and the Placebo Effect|url=https://archive.org/details/mindmadefleshess00hump/page/255}}</ref> In both cases the patient may experience a real reduction in symptoms, though in neither case has anything miraculous or inexplicable occurred. Both cases, however, are strictly limited to the body's natural abilities.

According to the [[American Cancer Society]]:<ref name=ACS />
{{blockquote|... available scientific evidence does not support claims that faith healing can actually cure physical ailments... One review published in 1998 looked at 172 cases of deaths among children treated by faith healing instead of conventional methods. These researchers estimated that if conventional treatment had been given, the survival rate for most of these children would have been more than 90 percent, with the remainder of the children also having a good chance of survival. A more recent study found that more than 200 children had died of treatable illnesses in the United States over the past thirty years because their parents relied on spiritual healing rather than conventional medical treatment.}}

The [[American Medical Association]] considers that prayer as therapy should not be a medically reimbursable or deductible expense.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|url=http://www.ama-assn.org/apps/pf_new/pf_online?f_n=browse&doc=policyfiles/HnE/H-185.987.HTM|title=H-185.987 Prayer Fees Reimbursed As Medical Expenses|access-date=2008-01-17|publisher=American Medical Association}} {{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref>

Belgian [[philosopher]] and [[skeptic]] [[Etienne Vermeersch]] coined the term [[Lourdes effect]] as a criticism of the [[magical thinking]] and [[placebo effect]] possibilities for the claimed miraculous cures as there are no documented events where a severed arm has been reattached through faith healing at Lourdes. Vermeersch identifies ambiguity and equivocal nature of the miraculous cures as a key feature of miraculous events.<ref>[http://www.etiennevermeersch.be/artikels/pseudo_wet/wetenschappelijke-aprioris-tegen-het-paranormale ''Scientific apriori's against the paranormal''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619054947/http://www.etiennevermeersch.be/artikels/pseudo_wet/wetenschappelijke-aprioris-tegen-het-paranormale |date=2009-06-19 }} by Prof. Etienne Vermeersch.</ref><ref>Vermeersch, E., ''Het paranormale ter discussie'', Studiumgenerale, nr 9107, [[Utrecht University]], 1992, pp. 81–93 (English title: ''The paranormal questioned'').</ref><ref>Vermeersch, E., ''Epistemologische Inleiding tot een Wetenschap van de Mens'', Brugge, De Tempel, 1966.</ref>

===Negative impact on public health===
Reliance on faith healing to the exclusion of other forms of treatment can have a public health impact when it reduces or eliminates access to modern medical techniques.{{efn|"Faith healing can cause patients to shun effective medical care". Bruce Flamm<ref name='SRAM_Flamm'>{{cite journal|title=Inherent Dangers of Faith Healing Studies|journal=Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine|date=2004|first=Bruce L.|last=Flamm|volume=8|issue=2|url=http://www.sram.org/0802/faith-healing.html|access-date=2008-01-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070816154915/http://www.sram.org/0802/faith-healing.html|archive-date=2007-08-16|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}{{efn|"It is often claimed that faith healing may not work but at least does no harm. In fact, reliance on faith healing can cause serious harm and even death." Bruce Flamm<ref name= "Flamm2004"/>}}{{efn|"Faith-healers take from their subjects any hope of managing on their own. And they may very well take them away from legitimate treatments that could really help them." [[James Randi]]{{sfn|Randi|1989|page=141}}}} This is evident in both higher mortality rates for children<ref name="AsserSwan1998"/> and in reduced life expectancy for adults.<ref name='JAMA longevity' /> Critics have also made note of serious injury that has resulted from falsely labelled "healings", where patients erroneously consider themselves cured and cease or withdraw from treatment.<ref name= "Barrett2009"/>{{efn|"These [discarded medications] are substances without which those people might well die."[[James Randi]]{{sfn|Randi|1989|page=141}}}} For example, at least six people have died after faith healing by their church and being told they had been healed of HIV and could stop taking their medications.<ref>{{cite news|date=November 25, 2011|url=http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16117269|title=Church tells HIV patients to stop treatment|first=Liz|last=Lane|publisher=[[Sky News]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111126145744/http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16117269|archive-date=November 26, 2011}}</ref> It is the stated position of the AMA that "prayer as therapy should not delay access to traditional medical care".<ref name="autogenerated1" /> Choosing faith healing while rejecting [[modern medicine]] can and does cause people to die needlessly.<ref name=Cogan1998>{{cite book|author=Robert Cogan|title=Critical Thinking: Step by Step|url=https://archive.org/details/criticalthinking0000coga|url-access=registration|year=1998|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=978-0761810674|page=[https://archive.org/details/criticalthinking0000coga/page/217 217]}}</ref>

===Christian theological criticism of faith healing===
Christian theological criticism of faith healing broadly falls into two distinct levels of disagreement.

The first is widely termed the "open-but-cautious" view of the miraculous in the church today. This term is deliberately used by [[Robert L. Saucy]] in the book ''Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?''.<ref name="grudem et al.">{{cite book |last= Saucy |first= Robert L. |author-link= Robert L. Saucy |title= Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? |editor-last= Grudem |editor-first= Wayne |editor-link= Wayne Grudem |year= 1996 |publisher= Harper Collins |isbn= 978-0310201557 }}{{Full citation needed|date=January 2014}}</ref> [[Don Carson]] is another example of a Christian teacher who has put forward what has been described as an "open-but-cautious" view.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/bio/dacarson.html |title= D.A. Carson: Biographical Sketch |work= Monergism.com |publisher= Christian Publication Resource Foundation |location= Portland, OR |access-date= 2014-01-23}}</ref> In dealing with the claims of [[Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield|Warfield]], particularly "Warfield's insistence that miracles ceased",{{sfn|Carson|1987|page=156}} Carson asserts, "But this argument stands up only if such miraculous gifts are theologically tied exclusively to a role of attestation; and that is demonstrably not so."{{sfn|Carson|1987|page=156}} However, while affirming that he does not expect healing to happen today, Carson is critical of aspects of the faith healing movement, "Another issue is that of immense abuses in healing practises.... The most common form of abuse is the view that since all illness is directly or indirectly attributable to the devil and his works, and since Christ by his cross has defeated the devil, and by his Spirit has given us the power to overcome him, healing is the inheritance right of all true Christians who call upon the Lord with genuine faith."{{sfn|Carson|1987|pages=174–175}}

The second level of theological disagreement with Christian faith healing goes further. Commonly referred to as [[cessationism]], its adherents either claim that faith healing will not happen today at all, or may happen today, but it would be unusual. [[Richard Gaffin]] argues for a form of cessationism in an essay alongside Saucy's in the book ''Are Miraculous Gifts for Today''? In his book ''Perspectives on Pentecost''{{sfn|Gaffin|1979|loc={{Page needed|date=January 2014}}}} Gaffin states of healing and related gifts that "the conclusion to be drawn is that as listed in 1 Corinthians 12(vv. 9f., 29f.) and encountered throughout the narrative in Acts, these gifts,  particularly when exercised regularly by a given individual, are part of the foundational structure of the church... and so have passed out of the life of the church."{{sfn|Gaffin|1979|pages=113–114}} Gaffin qualifies this, however, by saying "At the same time, however, the sovereign will and power of God today to heal the sick, particularly in response to prayer (see e.g. James 5:14, 15), ought to be acknowledged and insisted on."{{sfn|Gaffin|1979|page=114}}

According to the Catholic apologist Trent Horn, while the Bible teaches believers to pray when they are sick, this is not to be viewed as an exclusion of medical care, citing [[Sirach]] 38:9,12-14:

{{blockquote|text="when you are sick do not be negligent, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you...And give the physician his place, for the Lord created him; let him not leave you, for there is need of him. There is a time when success lies in the hands of physicians, for they too will pray to the Lord, that he should grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life."<ref>Catholic Answers (4/2/2015) [https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/does-the-bible-promote-faith-healing ''Does the Bible Promote Faith-Healing?'']</ref> }}

===Fraud===
Skeptics of faith healers point to fraudulent practices either in the healings themselves (such as plants in the audience with fake illnesses), or concurrent with the healing work supposedly taking place and claim that faith healing is a [[quackery|quack]] practice in which the "healers" use well known non-supernatural illusions to exploit credulous people in order to obtain their gratitude, confidence and money.{{sfn|Randi|1989|p=10}} [[James Randi]]'s ''[[The Faith Healers]]'' investigates Christian evangelists such as [[Peter Popoff]], who claimed to heal sick people on stage in front of an audience. Popoff pretended to know private details about participants' lives by receiving radio transmissions from his wife who was off-stage and had gathered information from audience members prior to the show.{{sfn|Randi|1989|p=10}} According to this book, many of the leading modern evangelistic healers have engaged in deception and fraud.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/faith.html|title=Some Thoughts about Faith Healing|website=www.quackwatch.com|date=27 December 2009|access-date=2016-04-07}}</ref> The book also questioned how faith healers use funds that were sent to them for specific purposes.{{efn|"[Some] faith-healers have been less than careful in their use of funds sent to them for specific purposes."[[James Randi]]{{sfn|Randi|1989|page=141}}}} Physicist [[Robert L. Park]]<ref name="Park"/> and doctor and consumer advocate [[Stephen Barrett]]<ref name= "Barrett2009"/> have called into question the ethics of some exorbitant fees.

There have also been legal controversies. For example, in 1955 at a [[Jack Coe]] revival service in [[Miami]], Florida, Coe told the parents of a three-year-old boy that he healed their son who had polio.<ref name="Courier19561218">{{cite news |url= http://www.newspaperarchive.com/newspapers1/na0040/6776104/33436272_clean.html |archive-url= https://archive.today/20130129191538/http://www.newspaperarchive.com/newspapers1/na0040/6776104/33436272_clean.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= January 29, 2013 |title= Faith healer dies – Victim of bulbar polio |newspaper= [[The Daily Courier (Arizona)|Daily Courier]] |location= Yavapai County, AZ |date= December 18, 1956 |access-date= 2007-11-12 }}</ref><ref name= "Salina19561217">{{cite news |title= 'Faith-healer' dies of polio |date= December 17, 1956 |newspaper= [[The Salina Journal]] |location= Salina, KS |page= 5 |url= https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/40757536/ |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Coe then told the parents to remove the boy's [[leg braces]].<ref name="Courier19561218"/><ref name= "Salina19561217"/> However, their son was not cured of polio and removing the braces left the boy in constant pain.<ref name="Courier19561218"/><ref name= "Salina19561217"/><ref>{{cite news |last= Davis |first= Mike |title= Lost faith: Mother's story of healer |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19560208&id=AJ0yAAAAIBAJ&pg=3001,2779353 |date= February 8, 1956 |page= 7A |newspaper= [[The Miami News|The Miami Daily News]] |location= Miami, FL |access-date= 2014-01-23 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> As a result, through the efforts of [[Joseph L. Lewis]], Coe was arrested and charged on February 6, 1956, with practicing medicine without a license, a felony in the state of Florida.<ref>{{cite news |last= Roberts |first= Jack |title= $10,000 dares Oral Roberts to prove faith healing |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19580119&id=4bwyAAAAIBAJ&pg=631,1236440 |date= January 19, 1958 |newspaper= [[The Miami News]] |location= Miami, FL |access-date= 2014-01-23 }}{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> A Florida [[Justice of the Peace#United States|Justice of the Peace]] dismissed the case on grounds that Florida exempts divine healing from the law.<ref name= "WashPost1956"/><ref>{{cite news |title= The Week In Religion |newspaper=[[Walla Walla Union-Bulletin]] |date= July 1, 1956 }}{{Full citation needed|date=January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=etsOAAAAIBAJ&pg=7419,2676337 |title= Charges against Texas faith healer dismissed |newspaper= [[St. Petersburg Times]] |location= St. Petersburg, FL |date= February 21, 1956 |access-date= 2014-01-23 |page= 9 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Later that year Coe was diagnosed with [[bulbar polio]], and died a few weeks later at Dallas' [[Parkland Hospital]] on December 17, 1956.<ref name= "Courier19561218"/><ref>{{cite news |url= http://interactive.ancestry.com/51212/News-TE-CO_CH_TI.1956_12_17-0015 |title=Faith healer Jack Coe dies |newspaper= [[Corpus Christi Times]] |location= Corpus Christi, TX |date= December 17, 1956 |access-date= 2007-11-12 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/121322882.html?dids=121322882:121322882&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=DEC+17%2C+1956&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=Jack+Coe%2C+Evangelist%2C+Dies+of+Polio&pqatl=google |title= Jack Coe, evangelist, dies of polio |newspaper= [[The Washington Post]] |date= December 17, 1956 |access-date= 2007-11-12 |url-access= subscription |archive-date= 2009-08-26 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090826014435/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/121322882.html?dids=121322882:121322882&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=DEC+17%2C+1956&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=Jack+Coe%2C+Evangelist%2C+Dies+of+Polio&pqatl=google |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00614FB3A54157B93C5A81789D95F428585F9 |title= Jack Coe is dead at 38; Texas evangelist succumbs to bulbar polio |newspaper= [[The New York Times]] |date= December 17, 1956 |access-date= 2007-11-12 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Miracles for sale===
TV personality [[Derren Brown]] produced a show on faith healing entitled ''Miracles for Sale'' which arguably exposed the art of faith healing as a scam. In this show, Derren trained a scuba diver trainer picked from the general public to be a faith healer and took him to Texas to successfully deliver a faith healing session to a congregation.<ref name="metro-derren-brown">{{cite news |url= http://metro.co.uk/2011/04/25/derren-brown-miracles-for-sale-tv-review-653303 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130215041421/http://metro.co.uk/2011/04/25/derren-brown-miracles-for-sale-tv-review-653303/ |url-status= live |archive-date= February 15, 2013 |title= Derren Brown: Miracles For Sale was deceptively entertaining polio |newspaper= [[Metro (British newspaper)|Metro]] |date= April 25, 2011}}</ref>