"... it could be that correlation is causation. The evidence continues to mount that that is the case.
In other words, despite the mounting evidence that faith does improve health, some people still say there is nothing supernatural about it. So, Time tells us, many researchers and scientists resist the clinical implications of these studies.
For example, they point to studies that show how parts of the brain light up like a Christmas tree during prayer and meditation. We believers believe that it’s God who designed the brain that way, but they say it is nothing more than evolutionary biology and neuro-chemistry. They try to explain away the sense of peace we experience in prayer or worship in purely material terms. So, they reason, why compromise the practice of medicine with so-called “metaphysical mumbo-jumbo”?
Paradoxically, this skepticism helps us to understand what faith truly is. As I wrote in my book The Faith, faith is a complete view of the world and humankind’s place in it. It’s a way of knowing. It is not a feeling. Christians should and do pray even if their brains don’t light up. We entrust our lives to God even if it makes no difference in medical outcomes.
Why? Because of what we know about God—that He Is and that He loves us and rewards those who seek Him.
Likewise, for those who proceed from the assumption that everything in the universe can and must be explained in purely material terms, when it comes to faith and medicine, no amount of “scientific evidence”—powerful though it is—will suffice.
They just can’t get their brains around it."
From John:
Many of you know that I am stage 3A survivor 2.5 years into recovery from lung cancer and a pneumonectomy. Less of you know that I have seven "metabolic diseases" to include lung cancer, diabetes, coronary artery disease (2 stents), hypertension, gout and chemo and diabetic neuropathies. I know that faith and prayer have kept me going and that He never gives us more than we can handle. If there is any way I can help any of you with your health worries, please add a comment to this post and I'll happily come back to you.
Read more of Mr. Colson's article here.
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