[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by driveway

I think that what you are thinking was a 'miracle' is almost certainly in fact another shining example of 'the power of positive thinking'. Your grandmother is spiritual, she believes in her God, she believes that prayer to her God will be answered, this belief leads to her physiological improvement.

This is also known as the 'Placebo effect' - the litle understood phenomenon where people who suffer from real phisiological disorders improve when given a pill they believe will help them - even if the pill contains no actual medicine.

Agreed, I alluded to that earlier. This is why I think that people should do whatever works best for them. Certainly organized religion has had its issues throughout history and there will always be aspects and elements of it or derived from it that have negative affects on humanity, but those should be dealt with seperately and if 'being a good Christian' or a 'good Muslim' lead folks to a better life I'm all for it. I know there are folks here that totally disagree with that and would like nothing more than to see an atheistic world.