Faith the ultimate Placebo

The human brain is a great mystery and phenomenon, right now if everything is working as it should, my brain is regulating my heart beat, my sugar levels in my pancreas, my digestive system, the amount of oxygen in my blood, and I am not even conscious of what else my brain is controlling, even the processes I briefly mention is not consciously controlled by me, these are all unconscious processes. I have read an interesting article in the skeptic dictionary called the placebo effect. The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health not attributable to treatment. (1) From the article there have been various theories as to why the placebo is sometimes just as effective as actual treatment. They all come down to what we perceive or think, if a person feel that the treatment is making them feel better, the brain will make it happen. This is what faith is, faith is the major placebo effect, because what a person believe not only affect their mental state it also affects their action. Religious faith is a big placebo pill. Go to your typical church especially evangelical churches, the music sets the atmosphere, it's soothing, people are literal hypnotized by the atmosphere, and so a person believe that they are going to get healed or feel better compared to the way they felt before they arrived, and so endorphins kick in and they feel better. Look at televangelists who are faith healers, they have soothing organ music playing in the background, the televangelist give people attention i.e. one on one attention, they offer suggestions of healing or health, they perceive that this is a place for getting better and they see others allegedly being healed, just like a person who visits a physician. In fact, there was a report on WUNC on health issues in eastern North Carolina in which diabetes patients who get more one on one time with a health professional will do better than those who don't, in fact in the report that aired this morning the hospitals and health clinic who are partnering together that is offering health counseling to their diabetes patients has shown a decrease in diabetes related hospitalizations compare other area health facilities that do not offer the extended health counseling. Faith is the heart of all Placebo effects this brought up another thought about a recent had a discussion with devout Christian about skepticism and about using common sense. We were discussing a church we both use to attend and how they were hung up on raising money and the pressure tactics they used on the laypeople like having lines when raising "special offering" and lines for tithes and offering, in which if you didn't pay any money, you were left sitting all by yourself, thus making the non-giver feel isolated. This person thinking was skeptical about the church leadership's motivation and I ask them why don't they use the same skepticism or critical thinking with the bible and I gave an example of how, I was listening to a speech in which I had a transcript and how even the transcription did not have word for word what the speaker said, and I asked how it is that scripture which was passed down orally is going to be perfectly transcribed? I brought up that I am like Thomas, I not going to believe unless I have some solid evidence and this person brought up the old "it's a faith thing". What is faith? Is it as Mark Twain said that “faith is believing in something you know aint true”? The bible says that faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen, but the contradiction is there is no evidence for something not seen; how can something that is not seen have evidence? Because if there is evidence for something, then their must be a way of experiencing it, because if there is no evidence there is no way I prove that the thing not seen exist. In fact evidence comes from the Latin evidentia which means “that which is obvious”. What is meant by obvious? Obvious comes from the Latin obvius “That which is in the way, presenting itself readily, commonplace, plain to see”. It seems that maybe faith is more about psychology and not reality, although psychology is a field of science about the mind and it 's function and what I mean that faith is about psychology is there is such a thing as placebos, in which people in a test show signs of wellness even though it nothing being administered and so the thinking that something is being made better releases endorphins in the brain and gives the illusion of wellness and I see faith as a placebo, which I don't have nothing against, but we should see that it is nothing more than psychology. I don’t have faith the earth will revolve around the sun there is evidence that is doing it as I write this. I know there are things that my senses cannot sense, like an atom but with the right equipment and knowledge of how to use that equipment I can see an atom even though it is invisible to the naked eye. This is how science works. Think about it...