Mod #4 Discussion

9/21/2013

This week I'm going to leave the blog open. I'm still going to check to make sure you posted according to the deadlines, but I'm not going to hold your posts. They will be posted as you submit them. This is more of a real-world experience in online class discussion, and I want to see how the class handles it.

Suggestion: Read the story "No Witchcraft for Sale" first before creating your blog.

Prompt: What are your thoughts about “magic” herbs or potions and their healing effects? Do you think that powerful thoughts can control the health (or death) of a person? Why? How?
How might these two questions relate to religious beliefs?

Samantha

9/23/2013 09:36:49 am

Personally, I believe magic herbs or potions and their healing powers are non-existent. They are the old witch doctor's imagination, just as the scientist believe in "No Witchcraft for Sale." Although I don't believe in magic potions, I believe that powerful thoughts can control the health of a person. This is because if a person thinks something for long enough, they will end up believing they are cured (even if they are not).
These two questions relate to religious beliefs because just like the powerful thoughts, a person can pray to their God so much and so often that they believe that their God has cured them.

Steven

9/26/2013 05:09:40 am

I am going to disagree with the comment that the powerful thoughts can control the health of a person. The positive thinking may make the person's life easier, but it does not in fact heal the person's actual problem. Therefore, the thoughts of a person cannot control their physical health.

Samantha

9/26/2013 06:56:22 am

I did say I believe that powerful thoughts can control the health of a person, but I added something that sort of contradicts that. I said, 'This is because if a person thinks something for long enough, they will end up believing they are cured (even if they are not)." So, we are in agreement that the positive thinking can make a person's life easier when ill.

Jess

9/27/2013 08:28:43 am

I agree with your response saying that powerful thoughts can control the health of a person. This is true because I've heard of examples of people believing they were cured for a long time and the positiveness actually helps with the healing. Also, I agree that many people pray to God and believe it actually does help with their healing.

Cristina

9/23/2013 12:56:26 pm

I do not believe that magic is real but I do believe that natural herbs do have the ability to heal. The scientists in "No Witchcraft for Sale" did not believe the stories that he heard about the natives using herbs to heal people. I believe that if you put your mind to something you can accomplish it and that 90 percent of a healing process is your will to heal. The mind is a very powerful thing and I do not doubt it. I am a very strong believer of the placebo effect as I have seen it work before. In the story the Farquars are very religious and they believed that God gave them Gidgeon to help them.

Logan

9/27/2013 01:39:21 am

I do agree with your opinion on magic, but I simply do not understand your statistic on healing. Speaking from experience in a hospital, I have seen patients with will like no other succumb to illness. You can believe something all you want, but it will not make a difference in your personal well-being. If you get the flu, believing that you can make it through will do nothing for you; you need treatment. Simple herbs cannot provide this treatment as we can see by the amount of people in the past that have died from simple illnesses we now have the technology to cure. Humans have developed and focused on improving health care because it needed to be done to help us survive. If simple herbs could have cured illness, the human species would not have spent so much time on health care technology.

Steven

9/24/2013 04:39:51 am

Much like the scientist in the story, "No Witchcraft for Sale," I do not believe in magic healing herbs. I also do not believe that powerful thoughts can influence a person's physical well-being because if a person is bitten by a venomous snake, they are going to die, there is no positive thought that can change the outcome of that person's situation. This all ties into religious beliefs because people believe that their god can help them heal and make things better, or in other words, a positive thought. In my opinion the only thing that can truly help cure a person is the medicine or treatments that a professional can give an unhealthy individual. Science makes too much sense to work, and to not work at the same time. If something didn't work for a person it is simply their time to go.

Cristina Haller

9/25/2013 02:29:46 pm

I have to disagree about God being a positive thought. Prayers are not essentially positive thoughts they are more like pleas to make a positive change. It is completely out of the power of who is praying. They are putting their faith and life into Gods hands. If they are religious they will accept whatever happens to them as God's will. I agree that someone can not think a positive thought and be cured but praying to God is not a positive thought at all.

Steven

9/26/2013 05:13:56 am

Can you explain to me how a prayer is not a positive thought? A prayer by definition is a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship. In this case, you don't ask for help in a negative manner. Nor do you thank someone of worship in a sarcastic or negative tone (unless in fact its a sarcastic tone, but for arguments sake lets ignore that). Regardless of how you may think that it works, a prayer is in some way shape or form a positive thought. Personally, I don't know anybody that has ever prayed for anything bad or negative.

Christ

9/27/2013 09:10:10 am

I am going to have to disagree with you. I am a strong believer that a person's thoughts can have a huge effect on their health. With that said I disagree when you say "I also do not believe that powerful thoughts can influence a person's physical well-being." However, I do agree with you when you say you do not believe in magic healing herbs.

Logan

9/24/2013 06:07:39 am

In my personal opinion, I do not believe in magic potions or their healing effects. As a scientifically minded person, in order to justify things like this in my mind I need real proof of such occurrences. I do not believe that thoughts could have power over someone else's life. Though I do believe that there are things that cannot be explained, I personally would need to see actual proof of this in order to believe it. Religion can often dictate people's thoughts about this topic. Different faiths have opposing beliefs about life after death, and it is easy for a person to succumb to what they are told in a holy setting.

Mrs. Erdman link

9/24/2013 06:16:58 am

After seeing some of your posts, I thought I'd get in on the discussion. Personally, I DO believe in the healing powers of herbs and potions. How do you think that some of our medicines were developed?
Additionally, I hope there is magic out there somewhere because it would explain some of the unexplainable.
Finally, I am a firm believer that thoughts do control a person's body and outlook. I saw myself becoming sickly and miserable when I was friends with people who were negative and unhappy. I started to complain all the time, and eventually, I noticed that I felt horrible physically. Thus, I have distanced myself from people like that, so that now I feel better and I try (very hard some days) to have a positive outlook. This makes me glow some days, while being miserable certainly did not. Therefore, I know that people's thoughts, disposition, and actions can affect their health and well being.

Sam

9/24/2013 08:46:46 am

In my opinion, herbs have their place in the medical field; the healing affects herbs have on patients might give way to new scientific discoveries. Thinking of herbs as "magic", though, is very detrimental. Spreading misinformation gives the idea that herbs are only helpful. In reality, chemicals in certain herbs can be dangerous.
I also do not believe powerful thoughts can control the health or death of a person. If it were true that thoughts could help cure people of illness, wouldn't the same be true if someone wanted to infect someone with a disease? These two ideas tie with religion, because religions around the world feature supernatural health marvels that would be impossible, according to modern medicine. Also, religious believers find ways to communicate with the supernatural world through their thoughts. These two ideas are almost universal characteristics of every religion.

Tori

9/24/2013 09:28:21 am

I personally do not believe in magic healing herbs, I believe that people get better due to how their bodies handle things. Powerful thoughts can't control a persons heath or death either in my own opinion. As in the story "No Witchcraft for Sale" Teddy gets snake venom in his eyes. A persons powerful thoughts would not be able to change the fact that he has gotten poisonous substance in his eyes even if a person does believe he will heal. These questions both tie into religious beliefs because if you believe or pray to God he has the power to heal anyone.

Christine

9/24/2013 10:48:44 am

It's hard for us to believe in things such as "magic" herbs and potions and their healing effects, for the simple fact that there is no hard evidence that prove them to be true. While I do believe that your own person thoughts can have a huge effect on your health and well-being, I do not think that it has anything to do with magic. It is all psychological and scientific. It is a proven fact that if you feel sluggish and depressed, you will constantly feel sickly and lazy. On the other hand, if you are able to always keep a positive outlook on things, you can really reduce your feeling of being sick.
These two questions may relate to religious beliefs because they conflict with the belief of God. As a Christian/Catholic it is condemned to practice witch craft as it conflicts with the beliefs of the Bible and God.

Samantha

9/26/2013 07:00:15 am

I did not make the connection between the questions and religion that you have made. You said, "As a Christian/Catholic it is condemned to practice witch craft as it conflicts with the beliefs of the Bible and God." Thank you for bringing that up for others to make the connection as well as myself.

Christ

9/27/2013 09:10:49 am

You are welcome, thank you for your insight.

Jess

9/24/2013 11:22:02 am

I don’t believe in the word magic, however, there are still many people, specifically in Haiti, who’s culture revolve around potions and herbs that seem to cure people. These beliefs may be, in my opinion, more of a ‘mind-over-matter’ type thing than actually a medicinal cure. I believe powerful thoughts can control the health of a person because thinking positively releases special endorphins that help the mind from going into a depression. These questions may relate to religious beliefs because many religious beliefs are connected upon a group of people that have a common interest and seek a spiritual enlightenment.

Tori

9/27/2013 07:22:41 am

I definitely agree with you where you said that believes may be more of a 'mind over matter' type of thing. People may believe that their thoughts can control their well-being. However, in a way I do disagree with the fact that peoples personal thoughts can control the health only because thoughts don't effect what is actually going on inside the body. I believe that a persons thoughts can convince an individual that there might be a positive outcome. If and or when there is a positive outcome, thats when I believe the thought of personal thoughts can control a persons health formed.

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