Cyphermage
Critical Thinker
- Joined
- May 13, 2006
- Messages
- 358
I switched on my TV the other day, and the TiVo, for some unexplained reason, had switched the channel to TBN. Benny Hinn was interviewing a very elderly looking Oral Roberts, and they were talking about their experiences in the faith healing business. Benny said that Oral was his mentor, and the person his own ministry most emulated, and that he had always looked up to him.
Now the impression I got from watching them, is that most of the people they touched had nothing happen to them, but sometimes, a healing took place that no one could explain. They did not come across as a pair of professional hucksters, such as Robert Tilton or Peter Popoff, who spend endless hours thinking up ways to bilk people out of their money. Oral related one tale of a boy who followed him after the service, wearing a leg brace, as he was leaving the building, and asked to be healed. Oral touched him, and didn't think anything had happened, but the next day, the boy threw away his brace, and walked normally. The ministry has followed his case through the years, and he is now in his 30's, and apparently still healthy.
Now we can't subject most such stories to the scientific method, because they are anecdotal, and the people weren't followed closely though the entire process by doctors and tested in a way which generated an airtight paper trail. Many of the illnesses were things that could spontaneously remit on their own, so there's no way to tell if "woo" had anything to do with it.
I think, however, that there's another interesting question we can ask about such healers, and that takes us to the topic of UFO Abductions.
Years ago, people who related stories of UFO Abduction and contact with extraterrestrials, were accused of lying to get attention, and of having fabricated their stories. Since clearly, someone telling a story of such an experience is usually relating something which could not possibly have happened, it is natural to assume that some form of deliberate deception is at work.
In recent years, starting with the publication of Whitley Streiber's book, this viewpoint has undergone a certain evolution. Studies of "abductees" have demonstrated that aside from their alien experiences, most of them are unremarkable individuals, and function quite normally in every day life. They do not commit other kinds of fraud, and don't seem particularly dishonest in other respects. So we are left with individuals who are relating things which could not possibly have happened, but from their perspective, they are not lying, nor engaging in any form of deliberate deception. Some people feel this is a interesting phenomena worth studying in and of itself, regardless of the reality of outer space aliens or abduction experiences.
Now back to faith healing.
Skeptics often attack faith healers by attempting to portray them as money grubbing con artists with camel-sized balls, who know full well what they are doing, and when the cameras are turned off, crack jokes about the poor idiots they have scammed. Sometimes this is an accurate characterization. eg Robert Tilton, who learned his trade while in college and visiting tent revival meetings, coming to the conclusion that this was a far too easy way to make lots of tax-free money.
Other healers, like Oral Roberts, whom I've seen perform since I was a small child, give no indication at all that they are doing anything they believe to be dishonest. Sure they ask for money, and publicly embarrass themselves. But there is no indication that when the cameras are turned off, and they don't think anyone is listening, that they don't still believe they have been called by God to the ministry, that healing by the laying on of hands is a real phenomena, and that sometimes, perhaps rarely, something unexplainable happens when they touch a sick person, and God heals that person through them.
So the questions I'd like to pose are the following ones. Do skeptics, in general, view all faith healers as deliberate con artists.
Or, like the UFO thing, are some of them honest people, normal in every other respect, relating things that could not possibly have happened, but not viewing themselves as engaging in any deception while doing so.
If true believers exist, who aren't engaging in deliberate deception, what is the best way to debunk them? It is fair to portray them as crooks to put them out of business?
Is Oral Roberts a crook, or a man who sincerely wants to help people who are hurting? Is Benny Hinn a crook?
Now the impression I got from watching them, is that most of the people they touched had nothing happen to them, but sometimes, a healing took place that no one could explain. They did not come across as a pair of professional hucksters, such as Robert Tilton or Peter Popoff, who spend endless hours thinking up ways to bilk people out of their money. Oral related one tale of a boy who followed him after the service, wearing a leg brace, as he was leaving the building, and asked to be healed. Oral touched him, and didn't think anything had happened, but the next day, the boy threw away his brace, and walked normally. The ministry has followed his case through the years, and he is now in his 30's, and apparently still healthy.
Now we can't subject most such stories to the scientific method, because they are anecdotal, and the people weren't followed closely though the entire process by doctors and tested in a way which generated an airtight paper trail. Many of the illnesses were things that could spontaneously remit on their own, so there's no way to tell if "woo" had anything to do with it.
I think, however, that there's another interesting question we can ask about such healers, and that takes us to the topic of UFO Abductions.
Years ago, people who related stories of UFO Abduction and contact with extraterrestrials, were accused of lying to get attention, and of having fabricated their stories. Since clearly, someone telling a story of such an experience is usually relating something which could not possibly have happened, it is natural to assume that some form of deliberate deception is at work.
In recent years, starting with the publication of Whitley Streiber's book, this viewpoint has undergone a certain evolution. Studies of "abductees" have demonstrated that aside from their alien experiences, most of them are unremarkable individuals, and function quite normally in every day life. They do not commit other kinds of fraud, and don't seem particularly dishonest in other respects. So we are left with individuals who are relating things which could not possibly have happened, but from their perspective, they are not lying, nor engaging in any form of deliberate deception. Some people feel this is a interesting phenomena worth studying in and of itself, regardless of the reality of outer space aliens or abduction experiences.
Now back to faith healing.
Skeptics often attack faith healers by attempting to portray them as money grubbing con artists with camel-sized balls, who know full well what they are doing, and when the cameras are turned off, crack jokes about the poor idiots they have scammed. Sometimes this is an accurate characterization. eg Robert Tilton, who learned his trade while in college and visiting tent revival meetings, coming to the conclusion that this was a far too easy way to make lots of tax-free money.
Other healers, like Oral Roberts, whom I've seen perform since I was a small child, give no indication at all that they are doing anything they believe to be dishonest. Sure they ask for money, and publicly embarrass themselves. But there is no indication that when the cameras are turned off, and they don't think anyone is listening, that they don't still believe they have been called by God to the ministry, that healing by the laying on of hands is a real phenomena, and that sometimes, perhaps rarely, something unexplainable happens when they touch a sick person, and God heals that person through them.
So the questions I'd like to pose are the following ones. Do skeptics, in general, view all faith healers as deliberate con artists.
Or, like the UFO thing, are some of them honest people, normal in every other respect, relating things that could not possibly have happened, but not viewing themselves as engaging in any deception while doing so.
If true believers exist, who aren't engaging in deliberate deception, what is the best way to debunk them? It is fair to portray them as crooks to put them out of business?
Is Oral Roberts a crook, or a man who sincerely wants to help people who are hurting? Is Benny Hinn a crook?
