all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love,
I am nothing.
Creating a relationship with a supernatural other takes effort that can lead to meaningful change, says Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann. People who believe their God or gods are real, even if the existence of those supernatural beings can’t be empirically proven, have long fascinated and confounded scientists.
In her book., Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann explores the intersection of religion and science, linking profound religious faith to beneficial, scientifically proven practices like mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy
In How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others
(Princeton University Press, 2020), Luhrmann explains that religious practices and narratives can create deep, positive changes for the people who engage in them. “Prayer is a lot like cognitive behavioral therapy,” Luhrmann said. “It’s a way you attend to your own inner experience, let go of distracting thoughts and focus on more positive thoughts.
By expressing gratitude, you shift attention from the way that things are going wrong to the ways they are going right.”
In the introduction to her book,
Luhrmann explains how her scholarship is inspired by two straightforward, but often overlooked, features of religion. “First, religion is a practice in which people go to effort
to make contact with an invisible other. Second, people who are religious want change.
They want to feel differently than they do,” she writes. “Yet instead of exploring these features, most theories of religion begin by treating belief in an invisible other both as taken for granted and as a cognitive mistake.”
Luhrmann argues that individuals of faith often have to work hard to make supernatural beings real and that those who are able to do so experience helpful changes. “If they’re lucky, they’re able to attend differently to their thoughts, feel calmer and more beloved,” she said. And these positive outcomes reinforce religious practices, encouraging sustained commitment to ritual and observance.
Image credit: Courtesy Princeton University Press
Relying on ethnographic studies of what she calls “active believers,” including evangelical Christians, pagans, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann found that it takes considerable effort and regular practice to create worlds where supernatural others feel present and real. That’s because most people make a clear distinction in their lives between real and unreal.
For instance, Luhrmann writes, most people, even those with deep faith, do not ask God to feed the dog or write their term paper. And religious traditions address this dichotomy. Referencing a famous Islamic hadith, or saying of the prophet Muhammad, Luhrmann writes: “Anas ibn Malik reported: A man said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, should I tie my camel and trust in Allah, or should I leave her untied and trust in Allah?’ The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings upon him, said, ‘Tie her and trust in Allah.’”
For Luhrmann, the story is an example of how human beings instinctively understand the difference between the demands of the real, mundane world and the world of the spirit. Therefore, the puzzle of religion is not the problem of false belief, but rather of what Luhrmann calls “real-making” – how gods and spirits become real for people and what that does for those who engage in the practice.
Rather than presume that people worship because they believe, or build cathedrals because the belief is already present, Luhrmann flips the equation. She argues instead that people believe because they worship. In other words, the process of “real-making” and engaging fully in rituals and practices that bring one closer to God is so satisfying to practitioners that their faith endures.
Research has repeatedly shown that people of faith report feeling better and healthier.
One of the most striking findings in social epidemiology, Luhrmann notes, is that religious involvement with God is better for your body in terms of immune functions and reducing loneliness. One explanation for this, Luhrmann writes, is that for those with an intense faith, God becomes a social relationship. MRI results indicate that in terms of brain function, talking to God resembles conversing with a friend.
But the nature of that relationship is also key in terms of health.
The more that God is seen as judgmental and negative, the more mental health symptoms are reported. In contrast, people who represent their relationship with God as being loving and satisfying pray more and report fewer mental health symptoms. “The data suggest that when it’s a good relationship, it’s better for the body,” Luhrmann said. “Religious faith can lead to positive mental benefits, writes Stanford anthropologist.”
Even if one is inclined to cultivate that type of relationship with an unseen being, Luhrmann notes that it takes intense work and that some people may be more likely to be successful than others – namely those who are more comfortable using their imaginations. “People who have an Enlightenment mindset – focused on rational, scientific thought – those people often discount these things and don’t trust their imaginations as much,” she said.
But it is precisely imagination, or as Luhrmann writes, “the human ability to conceive of that which is not available to the senses,” that makes possible a close relationship with a supernatural other.
5 Ways Faith Can Heal the Body
People Prayer Group
Recent research indicates that having faith and attending a church service weekly is good for the mind and body. Attending religious services could boost the immune system, and help improve moods among those depressed. Among those who attended religious services were the elderly and had better health. This could be from attending church services, less social isolation, and finding peace of mind. This topic remains provocative, but there is a growing body of research from Harvard and Yeshiva University that faith plays a role in our health, happiness and well-being.
Peace
Do you know the feeling when you are at true peace? Faith, prayer or meditation can take us to this relaxed state. Faith does the same thing to our minds by giving us peace that we don’t have to be in control. This allows the body to go into a more restful state where it can ward off infections better. Stress depletes the body of vitamins, and lowers the immune system, so use your faith and hope to aid the healing process.
Heart Conditions Improved
People with heart conditions who prayed more were reported to heal quicker than those who didn’t pray.
Time Magazine did a piece on the “Biology of Religion” in 2009 that looked at meditation, prayer, and faith. A “1988 study by cardiologist Randolph Byrd of San Francisco General Hospital found that heart patients who were prayed for fared better than those who were not.”
The Psychology of Hope: How to Build Hope and a Better Future | HealthyPsych.com
Scripture can benefit your health when confessing God’s word regarding healing, as it ushers in hope and encouragement. Without hope we perish, and become sicker physically and mentally.
Dale Archer, M.D. wrote about The Power of Hope | Psychology Today
“It did not take long to realize that my primary responsibility was to turn the victim mindset into a survivor mindset, and that meant restoring or instilling hope. To have hope is to empower yourself in order to face the toughest of times and emerge a survivor.”
Gratitude
Thankfulness boosts the immune system that combats sickness and encourages the body to heal itself. Gratitude also gets your mind off yourself, and allows you to focus on the good. This gives us a solid foundation when facing sickness.
Brain Injuries and Faith
Wayne State University found that there was a correlation between people suffering from brain injuries and faith. People who held a religious belief, and were connected to a higher power had a better success rate in physical therapy, and were less depressed. “Among healthy adults, religion and spirituality have shown strong association with improved life satisfaction and physical and mental health outcomes,” Dr. Brigid Waldron-Perrine said, who conducted the study in 2011 with professor of psychology Lisa J. Rapport.
Faith Overcomes Fear: with FEAR being opposite of Loving life.
What Is Faith Healing And How Does It Work?
Written by: Alyssa Castillo
During a faith-healing session, people with health-related problems gather in hopes of one thing- Getting healed. In this crowd, people are suffering from bone diseases, respiratory ailments, mobility problems, and more. Faith healing is healing not by medicine but by faith. Now, how this works is, a charismatic person lays his or her hands on the person with the illness and prays by faith for the illness to be gone. They pray in faith and believe that the intervention of God will heal those who have faith. But what takes place? Is it a miracle by faith or healing by coincidence?
Also known as “divine healing” or “miracle healing”, this process pertains to the removal
of any existing physical illnesses or discomforts through the use of divine intervention.
This includes the usage of powerful prayers or pray-overs that seek the Miracle of God.
Faith healing is an inheritance we have received from Jesus.
In the year 2000, Newsweek Magazine revealed the results of a survey regarding this matter. The results showed that 54 percent of adult Americans with different faith structures believed in faith healing and the ability of the mind to heal the body.
So, what is faith healing, and how does this work? More importantly, what does the Bible say about this?
How Faith Healing Works
Faith healing is an important part of every Christian’s life. It has been around for decades and was especially seen in action during the time when Jesus was on earth. The Bible has a record of forty healings done by Jesus during his ministry. Aside from Him, faith healing was also done by His Apostles in the various missions they set out for. Not just that, faith healing such as anointing and healing through hand contact has been associated numerously with pastors, anointed preachers, and church leaders. However, today, anyone can be a mediator of faith to the sick for prayer is power. If you believe and have faith in God’s healing and claim it, you will receive it.
The Works of the Faith Healers
With these guidelines, faith healers can work on eliminating diseases. To clarify, the process of faith healing through prayer is not done as a result of prayer. Instead, it’s the declaration of how God heals the body of any sickness in full understanding and absolute confidence. As clarified by faith healers, this process announces the successful healing of God even before He starts. Therefore, we can say that this method takes a big leap in faith for it to work.
As for these “faith healers”, unlike the common misconceptions, their abilities do not really stem from their magical or supernatural powers to heal people. Just like anyone, these faith healers are just humans. But, what makes them faith healers is the blessing of how God used their bodies as a vessel for healing. Their ability is a hundred percent dependent on God, they do not control the results of God’s Will. To clarify, they are instruments by God, and by no means can they heal anyone with their raw powers.
The importance of sunlight exposure for overall health.
1 Corinthians 12:28 tells us about this topic; Paul lists the power of healing as one of the gifts available to the human body. This clears up the misconception about faith healers having powers. They don’t have special powers. However, they are being used by the Holy Spirit to heal people depending on the Will of God. This is like how some people are gifted with the ability to effectively preach the Word of God. They can touch the lives and heal the hearts of many through the presence of the Holy Spirit in their words. Still, these two abilities rely on God and God alone.
The History Of Faith Healing
Although the act of healing is usually associated with the time of Jesus in the New Testament, faith healing was already around before He was born! Even during the era of Ancient Egypt, evidence of its popularity was found in the Ebers Papyrus around 1552 BC. But, faith healing wasn’t found just in Egypt. The Greeks were also known for using therapeutic touch therapy in their Asklepian temples for healing the sick.
Today, faith healing is still used in many cultures and faith-based practices. In fact, its platform is growing bigger. There are now faith healers on content sharing and social media sites, and preachers who preach on the works of faith healing. Since there isn’t really a single method in the process of faith healing, the people who are genuinely gifted in healing can practice their gifts from God on easier grounds unlike before. But the main thing is, faith healing is given to all Christians. All they need to do is have faith, and believe in the power of prayer.
Faith Healing in A Scientific Perspective
While it is true that faith healing is recognized by large groups of people, it also shares a great portion of doubts and disbelief. According to some of the participants in various online platform forums, they say that faith healing is a “scam” or a fraudulent approach done by people who attempt to make a business from faith healing. Most American scientists remain sharply divided on the question of faith healing. Many say it is inconsistent and does not justify bringing religion into medical practice.
In an attempt to fully understand how faith healing works, the people in the field of science published different insights between the connection of the human body and the methods of healing. While there are doubts about how these are performed, the insights created by science can explain what happens inside the body as the process is ongoing. Here are some of the statements regarding this matter.
Faith Healing is a Matter of Adrenaline
Derren Brown, the creator of a Netflix educational show called “Miracle” has always been curious as to how people can heal through these methods. In his show, he was able to experience what it was like to spearhead a similar flow. In a Youtube video from Big Think, he explains that when someone is being healed, their adrenaline rushes and increases greatly.
Adrenaline is a painkiller. He emphasizes that the process of faith healing touches the psychological aspects of high adrenaline presence. He adds that just like how someone can hit their toe to be followed by a lion entering this person’s room, a person can easily ignore the pain of the toe caused by the adrenaline of wanting to escape the room with the lion.
Faith Healing is a Placebo Effect
The concept of the placebo effect has been known for years. Basically, this is the tendency of the mind to dictate the body’s condition as the brain is strong enough to alter what a person thinks he is feeling. The placebo effect is used in experiments like the ones with the weight loss pill. There are two sets of people given a pill, the first set was told that the pill had no effect on weight loss while the second set was told the opposite.
The pill that was given to them actually had no weight loss properties. But at the end of the study, the second set showed results of weight loss. This was because of the affirmations that they are going to lose weight with the pill. Just like this, many people associate faith healing with the placebo effect.
The Truth About Faith Healing
Just like how we can ever explain the vastness of the universe God created or the twist of time God planned, the full effect of God’s grace is immeasurable. Faith healing does exist, it has existed before and it is still existing now. Although the studies can give us a hint of what is happening inside, we can never truly understand the complexity of God’s power – and that’s okay!
Though it might be hard to comprehend how faith healing is possible at first, we should remember God made the world’s foundation (Job 38:4-30 ). But with the presence of faith, everything will come accordingly. Remember, faith is the first and most important step of healing. We can never truly explain the world’s mystery fully but as Galileo Galilei said, science is the language God has written the universe. Everything is possible with God and if we have faith, we know that this sentence is as true as His Love for us.
The Biblical Lessons of Faith Healing
While there are attempts of scientific narratives in explaining how faith healing works, the Bible has a more simplified answer to this. First, the Bible does touch the subject of faith healing. This is seen mostly in the time of Jesus and yes, God can heal anyone anytime. For example, in Matthew 9:18-26, a woman who was bleeding for twelve years had faith that if she could only touch Jesus’ cloak, her healing would be guaranteed. So, when she did touch His cloak, Jesus looked at her and said that she had been healed by her faith. At that very moment, the woman was healed. The lesson taught here is that when we simply reach God in faith, he will respond.
As Christians, a sick person should also offer their prayers in faith so they can be healed (James 5:13-16). In the New Testament alone, faith healing has been done numerous times by Jesus. He lived and healed, addressing different severe ailments from different people. But, if we take a good look at all these people Jesus healed, their process all began with faith and none of them failed in getting healed by Jesus. Still, there are some other clarifications about how the Bible describes faith healing:
Humans Hinder Healing
Of course, no human would want to have a lifetime illness. But sometimes, we don’t even notice that we do not heal because we didn’t allow God to heal us in the first place. In John 5:6-7, Jesus asked a lame man if he wanted to get well. Who wouldn’t, right? Considering the man was lame for 38 years, it was an odd question to ask. Perhaps the question given by Jesus was to address why the man isn’t seeking the Lord’s healing. Probably, Jesus saw the man’s liking for the attention and charity he receives from other people.
James 4:2 addresses our tendency to want something but we don’t receive it because we don’t ask God. This doesn’t go only for the subject of healing, all our desires can be acquired, all our pains will be succored – only if we ask God. We need to seek Him and that’s the first step. From there, God will start working on our lives and heal whatever’s taking up our bodies and souls.
God Can Say “No”
Faith healing involves the vessel which is our body and the blessing which is God. As great as being healed through faith may be, God can say “no” sometimes. God’s approval works, but He does not always give us everything we want, including healing (Romans 8:32). For some, this can be a little concerning but, it’s for the best.
God has His unfailing plan for our lives. As early as the world was made, He already knows what to do with every second of our lives and the good news is, He has destined greatness for us in the end if we choose to follow and accept Him. So when God says no to healing despite our high levels of faith, it is because He has greater plans for us or higher healings for us.
We Need to Confess
The concept of faith healing revolves around accepting and announcing that God is going to get rid of our sickness. With that in mind, we cannot do this if we have sins we choose to hide from God. Of course, God knows all our sins but He wants us to confess it. Healing demands confession (James 5:16). It is easy to say that we want God to heal us and therefore, we believe that He will. But we need to release ourselves from the sins we carry. And until then, God can start working His ways. God wants more than simply proclamation, for faith healing, He needs our full submission!
God Can Do Everything
Another important lesson faith healing tells us is how God can do anything. It doesn’t just go for healing, He can change, create, and remove anything in a split second. But as the Bible reveals to us the miracles and the wonderful blessings done by God, the recipients of His blessings are actually those who believed in Him.
Experiencing a successful faith healing cannot be done without acknowledging that God is bigger than whatever barrier and burden we carry in our lives. Sometimes, people can overestimate their problems while underestimating the Lord’s immense power. But really, it should not be this way. We have to know deep in our hearts that the Lord can do everything.
We Will All Experience Ultimate Healing
Yes, all of us are bound to experience the ultimate healing in the Heavens called death. For others, this might sound like an eerie topic and that’s normal, death can sound terrifying at first. But death is the ultimate healing (Revelation 21:4). When we die, we will no longer experience sorrow, sickness, or pain. This is why it’s the ultimate healing we cannot run away from.
No person would want sickness or even death but, if we open our minds to what really happens in the big picture, we can understand. This doesn’t mean that we should just give up and embrace our deaths. Instead, we just need to accept the concept of death as it is inevitable.
Just like Lazarus, Jesus brought him back to life (John 11:1-45) because Jesus still had a mission for him to do in his life for God’s grace. Still, this does not eliminate the truth that humans are destined to reunite with their Creator after their lives on Earth. Faith healing does not cancel a person’s death because everyone is bound to die. Instead, faith healing expands only the time before a person dies in perfect sync of God’s Will.
Be careful:
Throughout history, there are people who claim to practice the kinds of healing only God can do. Again, faith healing does not come from the supernatural powers of the faith healers, they are mere vessels of the Spirit blessed to heal people. This does not make them in any way dependent on their own power. However, now, there are people out there who claim to be faith healers when they are actually not.
There have been numerous instances of people using the concept of faith healing for business. They trick sick people into buying their services or products and use the idea of a false faith to give an illusion of healing. This is an insult to God and therefore, should not be avoided at all costs. If anyone is planning to contact a faith healer, start with your faith first. Why? Remember, the best person to contact at times when we are desperate for healing is God Himself. He’s just there and He’s waiting for us to call His Name.
Faith healing is just one of the countless blessings God has for us. Truly, it is amazing to the extent that some people doubt it. But as for the believers, we know that this is just one of the many things our faith can do to us. The Bible has many pages explaining how faith saved many people. So, the truth of what faith healing does is not something unfamiliar. Together, let’s keep our faiths high as God sets our burdens and sickness lower. Remember, seeking God is setting up an appointment with the greatest Healer in the world! He will heal you and He will succeed.
Source: What does having faith do to the human body?
FOR religion the world, whether visible or invisible, is the manifestation of God. The real basis of religion lies in our own conscious experience, in our awareness of values which determine the course of our existence and unite us all but cannot be regarded as derived from either individual or collective self-interest. In so far as we realise these values, their objective reality, and their unity, we acknowledge, whether we are aware of it or not, that our universe is a spiritual universe and the manifestation of one God.
The biology of religion
Posted by: TED Staff March 25, 2008 at 4:15 pm EDT
At TED 2006, Dan Dennett spoke out for the unbiased study of religion as a natural, biological phenomenon. His hope may come true. The Economist writes of recent headway made into understanding of religious belief — in particular a new project called Explaining Religion, the “largest-ever scientific study of the subject.” EXREL’s goal is to integrate research on religious faith in biology, anthropology and psychology. It is funded by the European Commission and tethered to the University of Oxford research community.–Matthew Trost
Biology and religion
BY NEIL RICKERT
Is there a biological basis for religion?
There has been some speculation about this, following a recent report:
Evidence of Biological Basis for Religion in Human Evolution
In this post I will express my opinion. I want to be clear that what I write here is my opinion.
First, some comments on the Science Daily report.
Evidence of biological basis for religion in human evolution — ScienceDaily
It says:
“Religious belief is a unique human attribute observed across different cultures in the world, even in those cultures which evolved independently, such as Mayans in Central America and aboriginals in Australia,” said Deshpande, who is also a researcher at Auburn’s Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research Center.
Call me a skeptic. It may be unique to humans. Or maybe not. How can we be sure that there is nothing similar in social bees, social ants or prairie dogs? It seems to me that we would have to get inside their culture and their subjective lives to be able to determine whether there is something similar.
Is religiosity biological?
The problem here is that it is very hard to know what the question is asking. It seems very likely that a capacity for cultural myths would gain biological support. Is that the same thing? Perhaps it is. When we discover a culture that has a mythology, we will probably describe that as a primitive religion. But perhaps it is a capacity for myth, rather than a capacity for religion, that has evolved. And, in that case, religion has been able to make use of that capacity for myth.
Myth and biology
Why do we evolve a capacity for myth?
To me, it seems entirely plausible that we would develop such a capacity. A cultural myth is a kind of memory for the culture. The myth, itself, may be fiction. But the myth is usually wrapped around cultural practice, and so serves as a kind of memory for those practices. For example, it is often suggested that the Jewish dietary laws may have served as a reminder to avoid some types of food that were more likely to carry disease. It has also been suggested that native groups in some places were less affected by the devastating tsunami of 2004. Those groups recognized some signs, and moved inland away from the sea. This kind of recognition can come from the stories told in the cultural myths of those groups.
The idea of myths as cultural memory perhaps seems strange to us. But that’s because we have the printing press, libraries, etc. However, in terms of the history of mankind, those are relatively recent inventions. Before there were such technological innovations, the traditions and myths of a culture would have been the main reservoir of cultural memory.
Given the apparent benefits of such a cultural memory, it seems likely that a capacity for such memory would have been selected in the processes of evolution. And this is why I see it as entirely plausible, that there is an evolved capacity for cultural myths.
Chloe’s Mountain is a story of a purpose driven Grandma who is raising her granddaughter.
(Chloe) who does not understand God and why her parents were taken from her. In her misunderstanding and anger, Chloe abandons her Christian upbringing and joins a rock band who draw her into their misguided ideas. Grandma has her work cut out for her, but she has a plan that could only have been conceived in the heavens.
After Grandma passes away, Chloe finds out how wise she was. To receive her generous estate, Chloe must either attend 4 years at a Christian university or wait until she is 35. Chloe reluctantly ops for the 4 years, not understanding that you cannot fake it that long. Her newfound friends and the Holy Spirit begin to change her heart and teach her how to see the workings of God to level the mountains of doubt and pain in her life.