Hi Christine,
You asked me what I think about the NY Times article that I posted. I found it very interesting, in that the placebo effect could go a long way towards explaining why a belief in God is beneficial to people. If people follow the scripts they create in their mind, and they have faith that God will heal them, then their belief in God would create a healing script in their mind, causing them to get better. The best part of this, is that it requires no action on God's part, in fact it doesn't even require a God, for this to occur. It only requires faith. So this is a scientific explanation of the power of prayer for atheists. This can explain why born again Christians can believe so strongly in God without any direct evidence of God's existence - the belief itself creates positive outcomes, and then the positive outcomes are used as evidence of God's existence. This is the aspect of the article that I find so fascinating.
For another perspective on the effect of mind, see the following Zen story: kwanumzen.com
I think this Zen story illustrates the same thing: that effort, belief and faith can bring about rewards regardless of the method used. I like the idea that chanting Coca-Cola as a mantra can be as powerful as any other mantra, as long as the chanter believes that it is a powerful mantra. It is the mind of the practitioner that determines the result of practice, more than the practice itself. So the proper mind creates a beneficial practice, and with the wrong attitude any practice can become harmful.
Craig |
