this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
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I haven't checked it out and I'd be open to review the evidence in its favor, the reason behind my comment was this:
By definition, if something is observed to behave according to logical laws, it is not supernatural, and therefore not magic. Religion by definition requires faith, and if you're using faith specifically for your scientific endeavors, you're doing science wrong.
That's categorically untrue. Science has conclusively demonstrated the existence of the placebo effect, which is powered by faith. People believe they will get better, even when evidence does not exist, even when they know they're in an experiment with a control group, and they get better. That's faith. Faith is such a huge factor that any pharmaceutical trial must control for it with a placebo control group. Scientists spend a great deal of time and money determining which medicines work because of faith, and which ones work because of chemistry.
The effects of faith upon our reality are scientifically quantifiable, predictable, and controllable. Faith is a tool in the scientist's toolbelt, just like instruments, drugs, computers, or anything else. Psychonautics can essentially be viewed as the science of faith, and other such reality-altering mental constructs.
I'm going to be charitable and assume that you're describing faith as something that may be studied by science, which I have no issues with.
If you think faith is required at any point of the methodology of the scientific method, you should go back to middle school.
I'm a degree holding scientist, and I think in drug trials it's absolutely essential that you make the subjects feel faith that your control treatment will heal them. Faith, of course, defined as a belief held without evidence. If you fail to make the control group feel faith, then you're not actually controlling against faith and you cannot predict the effectiveness of your drug in comparison with a placebo. You need to control for faith just like you control for any other physical quality that can act as a variable.