The Placebo Effect

There are so many religions in the world today, the number being estimated around 4000+ by some scholars. A person who wants to choose a religion to follow seem to have a lot of choices, like entering a supermarket to buy a chocolate. Their choice may be determined by many factors, there is the brand factor—which is more well known or trustworthy, then there is the taste factor—what I would like or what someone else said is tasty, there also is the standard choice—dairy milk, snickers—for ones who don’t want to think too much, there is the fancy choice—to look good in front of others, also that one choice which is weird—sour patch or spicy candy, but not many would go there and say “I wonder who created this, I want to get to know them”.

What’s interesting is, the definition of the word religion itself has two contrasting meanings, one talking about a personal commitment towards God, another talking about an organisational system of religious beliefs and practices. If we look at it from the latter perspective, the chocolate becomes more important, rather than the one who created it. Our choices and actions therefrom will then be influenced by our own preferences, desires and feedback of others. Humans, being flawed beings, end up falling short of their expectations from time to time, which makes this choice to ultimately be in vain.

From the former perspective, we see that it enables a person to make a meaningful choice, what ever the choice might be, to commit to a certain type of chocolate and the creator thereof. One might argue about having the freedom to choose from the vast choice presented, without committing to a single one, which each one of us will always have, but nothing purposeful has ever come out of an uncommitted life. This moves us to have a relationship, a bond, an attachment with a specific choice, preferably for life. Just like in the movie Willie Wonka, to know the creator is to want to possess the golden ticket. It’s not about the chocolate, it’s a chance at an adventure, to a path of fascination, wonder and excitement, against all odds!

To possess the golden ticket is to take a chance, to hit and miss, to defy the odds. One who is intensely committed will even shell out what ever little he has left, out of faith. Onlookers must think of it as crazy, but it wouldn’t matter to the person, for he seeks the prize. The Bible speaks about such a situation in the parable of the Pearl, where Jesus says in Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭45‬-‭46 that “.. the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it”. This explains the value of finding a way of life, the one for which you will give all that you have. The process of committing toward a path must be something like this to truly find God. When it is any other way, you have found religion.

The world has done a lot to twist, warp and pervert the precepts and understanding of our Creator, succeeding in driving away people from even thinking about considering it. Be it any religious group, from modern spirituality to major religions today, they tend to have a small set of wicked people who end up destroying the reputation of them all, influencing people to become less and less trusting towards them. But the Bible teaches otherwise, where David writes in Psalms 69:6 that “.. may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me; God of Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me”. Those kind of people have such a drastic impact on society, let alone religion. Law abiding citizens are to go through rigorous checking at traffic stops, they get frisked at airports and malls, they get asked so many questions out of suspicion being innocent and much more, all because a minority of the population decide to play dirty in life. But this doesn’t stop most people, they still carry on with life, even with the many complications.

You could call it hypocrisy when people are not as bothered about the world being difficult to live in, as about the few people who made religion difficult. Perhaps they think of it of no importance, or they value their free will way too much to be surrendering to a God. But who else is there to make life simpler? The leaders of our nation, state, religion, school or organisation have continued to let us down, being humans themselves. Who else do we turn to in this dark hour of societal collapse, where lewdness is at a click of a button and men are claiming to be pregnant—where the wicked minority of the population dictate the rules and security measures for the law abiding citizens? Each and every one of us needs God, despite of our stance on faith, religion and the world.

Not every chocolate has the golden ticket, in the same way, not every religion leads to God, for if you seek the Creator through a creation of man, you will meet a man. Moses, while he was calling the Israelites to claim the land that God had promised them, warns them about being exiled if they end up falling into idolatry and worshipping of false Gods. In Deuteronomy 4:29, he then goes on to say to the people who may end up being exiled that “But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul”. Not every religion is created by God, but if you seek Him with all your heart, He will make your wrong choices right and bring you back to Him.

One might wonder then, how come the major religions of the world continue to thrive successfully, adding more to their numbers even though not every religion is of God? This can be explained with a phenomenon called the Placebo Effect. This happens in clinical trails where experimental medication is used to treat diseases which is yet to have a cure. The trail divides their participants into two groups, one of which will get the actual drug for their disease (experimental group) and the other group gets a placebo/dummy (control group). The control group is used to compare results with the experimental group to prove if the medicine actually works. In these situations, sometimes people have been spontaneously healed even though they have not had the real medicine. This is called the Placebo effect, which is know to be caused by the belief of getting treatment and the hope of getting better. This is not a mystery to believers, for it is faith that heals them, as it is mentioned in ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬ ‭that “.. faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”.

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Faith is exercised by all people and religions to a certain degree, even though their understanding of that faith is misaligned. Faith moves God, for it is written in Hebrews 11:6 that “And without faith it is impossible to please God”. Faith without knowledge and understanding leads to destruction, for it is written in Hosea 4:6 that “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge”. Hence, you may find yourself spiritually growing to a certain extent in any religion, but will hit a road block because the right knowledge and understanding does not find you there. If God moves in your lives, you would give glory not to His name, but to a false God, or you would partake of false Gods and confuse it to be the one true God. If seems fine for the moment, but in the long run it will lead only to destruction, for it is written in Romans 1:21 that “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened”.

People who are healed by the placebo do not know that they are on it, as they keep that information confidential and is revealed to them only after closure of the trail. Your faith may bring you the result, but your understanding of it from the beginning is wrong. This kind of faith may give you what you hoped for in one area of life, but to receive such freedom in all aspects is impossible without placing your faith in the right God, to understand His precepts and to know Him. Wait no longer to know the truth, for the truth has been given to us, He is a person and His name is Jesus, He died for us on the cross so that we may be saved from the penalty of sin, He rose again on the third day and is here with us in the form of the Holy Spirit, and He says to you today from John 14:6 that “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”.