A Serious Question About "Priesthood Power"

[keith_brian]

No, it could just as easily be that there is no money to be made by prescribing crystals, just as there is little money to be made in prescribing vitamins and Noni fruit.

Lehi

Doctors dedicate their lives to searching for cures for patients. You are telling me that, if there there was some crystal out there that would cure people of terminal cancer that a doctor would be heartless enough not to prescribe it, just because they want to take home a bigger paycheck? I mean, don't these doctors have any human empathy at all, or are they all just overrun by Satan?

I think you lack faith in humanity.

[keith_brian]

Huh?

Had you simply referred to God (assuming that he exists) as a “loving God,” you might have a point. However, you also described God as omnipotent and omniscient. Then you said, in effect, that you “can’t imagine” that an all-knowing God would do things differently than you think he should.

Yes, I am sure that god/gods have some good reason for being a jerk. I am really sure that he/she/it does. And, perhaps if god/gods would explain it to me, I might have more of a reason to have faith in said god/gods.

As I see it now, we have a morally bankrupt and capricious dictator running the universe -- certainly not someone I am interested in worshiping.

[bookofmormontruth]

I respect that opinion. And it is one I have shared for most my life. I guess I've started to think that my experience and belief in Priesthood blessings isn't very different from Crystal Therapy Practitioners belief in crystal healings. I have my personal anecdotal experience that support it and they have there's, both without having any scientific studies to back either up. Trying to be completely objective about it I would think an outsider would look at both having the same amount of merit (priesthood blessings vs. crystal healings) and that would probably be no merit. And in thinking about that way, I better be careful because whatever criticism I feel I want to level against something like crystal healings, I better be able to apply that same criteria to priesthood blessings and be comfortable about it.

Thankfully I've never heard of someone using Priesthood blessings in place of medical treatment, so thankfully that criticism cannot be level against it (the same cannot be said for other alternative medicine practitioners).

The thing is, I think crystal healing to be a bunch of non-scientific bogus filled with practitioners using a very large amount of confirmation bias. And my reasons for thinking such things often could be said if I turned those same reason against blessings.

I started down this when I got really frustrated with evangelicals bashing Mormonism with a set of criteria that if they applied to their own faith would discredit them as well. I've tried really hard to make sure I'm applying the same criteria to others as I am to myself.

Where I see we differ is that I see no problems being subjective in priesthood blessings. Your foundational faith should cover you on this point and we really shouldn't be concerned how the world views us when we have no studies to back up priesthood blessings.

For me it is interesting to see double standards are everywhere, even in the Lord's Church. Faithful members can easily believe in priesthood blessings, seer stones, healing prayers, fasting, the 3 Nephites, but have a hard time believing in the benefits of acupuncture, botanical medicine, clinical nutrition & etc... To each their own.

I have little familiarity with "crystal healings", but I don't discount any type of so called therapies unless of course the practitioner is completely negligent with claims that it will "cure" everything.

I fully believe there are beneficial therapies out there (that are questionable to today's medical standards) that "tap" into the bigger picture (G-d). In perspective, priesthood blessings are on top of the "healing-chain" followed by......fill in the blank_____ therapies.

I feel that it was designed that way because not all of G-d's children have access to the blessings of the priesthood, hence why I believe there are therapies (orthodox and alternative/natural) in the world to benefit from.

[bookofmormontruth]

Yes, I am sure that god/gods have some good reason for being a jerk. I am really sure that he/she/it does. And, perhaps if god/gods would explain it to me, I might have more of a reason to have faith in said god/gods.

As I see it now, we have a morally bankrupt and capricious dictator running the universe -- certainly not someone I am interested in worshiping.

There are other avenues to vent your anger towards G-d. This wouldn't be that avenue for no one will be interested in hearing your whine.

[keith_brian]

There are other avenues to vent your anger towards G-d. This wouldn't be that avenue for no one will be interested in hearing your whine.

I am not angry at God any more than I am angry at Santa Claus. I don't believe either exist.

[Log]

Doctors dedicate their lives to searching for cures for patients. You are telling me that, if there there was some crystal out there that would cure people of terminal cancer that a doctor would be heartless enough not to prescribe it, just because they want to take home a bigger paycheck?

That's one of three potentially overriding motivations for bypassing crystals (continuing your example).

Possibility #2: a "scientifically" unexplained cure would be bypassed simply for being "scientifically" unexplained - that is, lacking a causal description of the "mechanism" by which it works, it would not even be considered as a treatment.

Possibility #3: a doctor using "scientifically" unexplained or "scientifically" unjustified treatments would be ostracized from the medical community.

Both of these things occur with treatments which are not crystals. Your opponent doesn't suffer from a lack of faith in humanity; rather, you apparently suffer from a case of polemical naïveté.