Woolwich Incident

[NotAllThere]

You do know cancers can go into remission without any intervention?
Rare,...

It's not that rare. I was talking to an oncologist recently. He pointed out that the body has a wonderful capacity to heal itself. It's getting cancer all the time and dealing with it. We only notice it when the body's response fails.

Much of faith is a matter of choice. Which story do you prefer (ref: Life of Pi)? The one where a child is miraculously healed by God, or the one where after prayer he coincidentally goes into spontaneous remission? Neither scientifically describes a cause, so it's a matter of what you choose. If God is not a live choice to you, then obviously you'll choose spontaneous remission. If both God and spontaneous remission are live choices, then either is rational. It's only irrational to you because you know that miracles don't happen.

There are far harder subjects to beat believers around the head with than healing - whether of amputees or not. I know - I've been studying the philosophy of religion for the past year.

[sasguru]

Amputation isn't a disease so why should it be healed anyway?

So god only heals diseases? Is it because he can't heal anything else or because he thinks people in car crashes, say, deserve it?

[sasguru]

So your argument against miraculous healings is that sometimes diseases miraculously get better?

Great argument.

Jesus wept. At your stupidity.
So your definition of "miracle" doesn't require God, since diseases sometimes get better without intervention?
Good we're getting somewhere.

[sasguru]

There are far harder subjects to beat believers around the head with than healing - whether of amputees or not. I know - I've been studying the philosophy of religion for the past year.

I think studying the psychology of religion would be more useful.

[d000hg]

Jesus wept. At your stupidity.
So your definition of "miracle" doesn't require God, since diseases sometimes get better without intervention?
Good we're getting somewhere.

Without human intervention, you mean. Which is the very definition of a miraculous healing. We even have the phrase "medical miracle".

Your incredibly closed-minded question asserts that there is no intervention but since medical science has no idea how this can happen, it is an entirely valid suggestion that there is indeed intervention of some kind.

And then let's focus not on the general cases that people sometimes spontaneously recover, but the timing. Are you claiming that the body is able to instantly recover? How about the coincidence that someone has spontaneously got better at just the same time they are prayed for... they suddenly feel better (a psychological response) when prayed for and it just so happens that they were better but hadn't gone to the doctor to check.

The whole "medical science knows people sometimes just get better" argument as an attempt to encapsulate spontaneous recover inside the reach of scientific understanding is ludicrous.

The Sherlock Holmes and Occam's Razor approach to seeing someone who was crippled or dying of cancer suddenly restored would be that something had intervened in their life. What is a simpler explanation, that against everything you believe about the way the universe works, they just got better, or that something caused them to get better?

Or do we only use those principles to find the simplest thing that fits our preconceptions... you believe the universe has to work a certain way according to a basic knowledge of A-level physics so you'd rather find a convoluted way to force everything into framework.

[proggy]

Lets get this thread back on topic eh? Why does every thread descend into religious argument?

[d000hg]

Also perhaps we should address Sas' obsession with what university people went to... bit of an inferiority complex there methinks.

[Mich the Tester]

Lets get this thread back on topic eh? Why does every thread descend into religious argument?

http://forums.contractoruk.com/gener...ml#post1748494

[proggy]

http://forums.contractoruk.com/gener...ml#post1748494

Was on topic though as it referenced the murder which was indeed motivated by religion. Does that mean we trample the same old ground as the Gay Marriage threads?

[d000hg]

Hang on isn't this the gay marriage thread? It seemed all the threads were gay marriage threads a few days back.