I have to wonder why in a country so full of ambulance-chasing lawyers these 'faith-healing' charlatans haven't been sued for ever penny they have.
Xotan wrote:
The shrine of the Virgin at Lourdes has panels of doctors permanently there to assess healings. And of the number of healings that occur, they attribute only a miniscule number to Divine intervention. They are very cyinical in their approach. They know that there can be a placebo effect so they are far from your naive acceeptance, and therefore less open to being conned.
Heh, unfortunately for your argument, the 'miracles' were soooooo rare (read, non-existent) that the good doctors have now given up looking for them:
Doctors' Panel Won't Rule on 'Miracles' at Lourdes.
Doctors to stop judging if miracle healing occurs at Catholic shrine in Lourdes
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=6382335
Arggh, how do I make a link work here..?
Anyway,
The church relies on seven criteria devised in 1734 to decide miracle healing, such as the gravity of the ailment, the accuracy of an original medical diagnosis and the suddenness and durability of the healing.
"devised in 1734"? More than a hundred years before the 'germ theory' of disease was proposed?
'Lourdes' is all a sick joke based on the lunatic delusions of a peasant girl and the doctors have finally had the guts to agree so in public.
Things like this give me hope...