With the help of the
Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) established in 2008 and the recent passing of
HB 116 on May 6, Louisiana lawmakers have proved themselves able to go to great lengths in order to inject creationist propaganda into their state’s public schools. Now, at a recent Senate hearing, they’re really
pulling out all the stops.
Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory testified at this year’s state Senate hearing (which was held primarily to repeal LSEA), voicing his views that faith healing and witch doctors should not be prematurely considered pseudo-science. He argued that if LSEA was repealed, then children would be kept from learning about the “science” behind the experiences individuals have had when it comes to faith healing, including his own.
“If I closed my mind when I saw this man in the dust throwing some bones on the ground, semi-clothed, if I had closed him off and just said, ‘That’s not science, I am not going to see this doctor,’ I would have shut off a very good experience for myself and actually would not have discovered some things that he told me that I had to do when I got home to see my doctor.”
(Watch Guillory's testimony here.)
This may come as a shock, but there has never been any substantiated evidence put forth from the scientific community confirming the validity of faith healing. The American Cancer Institute issued its conclusion of whether faith healing could be considered scientific in this statement made on their website :
“Although it is known that a small percentage of people with cancer experience remissions of their disease that cannot be explained, available scientific evidence does not support claims that faith healing can actually cure physical ailments. When a person believes strongly that a healer can create a cure, a ‘placebo effect’ can occur. The placebo effect can make the person feel better, but it has not been found to induce remission or improve chance of survival from cancer.”
Not only does faith healing lack any scientific credibility, it has also been proven to lead to premature deaths. The American Cancer Society also cited a review with alarming findings, showing what can be often the tragic consequence of putting faith in pseudo-science rather than recognizing the evidence showing that
modern medicine works and saves lives.
“One review published in 1998 looked at 172 cases of deaths among children treated by faith healing instead of conventional methods. These researchers estimated that if conventional treatment had been given, the survival rate for most of these children would have been more than 90 percent, with the remainder of the children also having a good chance of survival. A more recent study found that more than 200 children had died of treatable illnesses in the United States over the past thirty years because their parents relied on spiritual healing rather than conventional medical treatment.”
If politicians and school officials are truly interested in having their state’s public school children “educated” about the practice of faith healing, then there are certainly more appropriate forums in which to open up this area of inquiry other than where they’re being taught now: in science classrooms. Perhaps teach them in a class about comparative religion, or even a class designed to teach about current issues or philosophy. But to teach faith healing in a science classroom gives impressionable young minds the false perception of credibility, doing a grave disservice to these children, potentially putting them, and their families, directly in harm’s way.