Christians. Could you be wrong?

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Also doesn't hold any weight in scientific inquiry too. Recorded observations repeated over a given time period > one eyewitness testimony.

I was giving Thumpalumpacus time to provide a rebuttal, it's apparant that after almost a week he's got nothing.

Thumpalumpacus clearly asserted that faith healing doesn't exist. I posted an article from the Scientific American which would disagree.

Err, I think you've fundamentally misunderstood what the placebo effect actually is.

Evidence of a placebo in the absence of a physical effect from stimuli/treatment/drug x is actually fundamental evidence that there is no effect.

If you can replicate that placebo by giving someone saline, or a yellow pill (both of which have also been scientifically proven to induce a placebo) then what does that say for 'faith healing'?

Double blind testing in scientific trials is designed purely to factor out (or in) the placebo effect for this very reason.

How well do you think that faith healing would do when submitted to a double blind trial to determine its actual physical effect?

Or, if you object to that, how well do you think faith healing would do when done in tandem with another trial that offers a yellow pill or a saline injection into the patient that promises the same effect as the faith healing trial? You can even say that the injection or the pill has been blessed by god.

Care to hazard a guess?

---

I see you have conveniently ignored the definitions of the "placebo effect" being attributed to ones belief (faith). That would make "faith healing" (one being healed by their faith) and the "placebo effect" (one being healed by their faith) one and the same.

If God was doing the healing, then healing would be instantaneous, and that would be called a miracle, not faith healing.

The bolded is a lie and results for your misunderstanding of what a placebo actually is. As above, anyone can replicate a placebo with any given treatment if the patient believes that it will help them. You can call it 'faith healing' of fuzzyfakewumba. The result is the same. This is evidence against there being an actual effect from the treatment.

Also, to reverse your logic on you, please see this:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo

I'm sure I don't have to explain how this proves that you're wrong, do I? Or will it be countered with special pleading?