Comments on: Believing in magic

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 20:39:31 +0000

Can't blame those who are skeptical on the hidden side of the spirit dimensions-sometimes there are quack doctors & there really are energy & spiritual healers. Please do not criticise as yet, do more search & validate (time to wake up)

By: glenda larke

glenda larke — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:20:00 +0000

What is a crime or not a crime in this country is sometimes baffling.

You can get arrested under a law designed for traitors and terrorists simply because you suggest that a loudspeaker beamed into surrounding houses is a tad too loud. And please don't ask me to elucidate more - I could be arrested.

Pretend you know about medicine and can cure people is fine as long as you don't ASK to be paid but just wait for people to make you filthy rich with donations, and - as an added protection against the law - it is probably advisable to pretend to do it in God's name, and be conspicuously present at the house of worship of the mainstream religion.

The moment there is a whiff of something not quite kosher (to mix up the religious metaphor), you are probably doomed. It is sooooo easy to be a con artist in the land of the gullible, and who is more gullible than the deeply religious? Mess with their health and they will pay you with thanks and praise you to the skies throughout the land; deviate from their religious rites and you are doomed.

Curiously enough, this man is visited by people of all religions and cultural groups.

By: hrugaar

hrugaar — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:19:00 +0000

Illness can be a scary thing, and professional medical help expensive. So I can understand people being willing to give the bomoh a try if he has a good reputation. That of course doesn’t excuse the man for being a charlatan and a crook, exploiting people’s fears and vulnerability.

Is there not some procedure within the religious or cultural system for denouncing false prophets and false bomohs? (given that they appear to have laws for damning just about anybody else that they want to…)

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Trouble is Gynie, wanting to believe and convincing yourself to believe are in fact very dumb things to do when it comes to your health in particular.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:22:00 +0000

May be is it because people wants to believe in things they don't understand, something unusual. Some not rational things wich may balance in their mind the disease they do understand so much. Something of that kind.

gynie

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:39:00 +0000

Hehe I have an AS Level in Critical Thinking, did it alongside my GCSEs 😀

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:39:00 +0000

I agree with Joanna, people are scared of surgery and in many cases lack of education makes that worse. A lot of cures can be effected by these people when they are psychosomatic – if you believe it, it happens. I have always believed many illnesses are caused by oneself.

I’m not explaining this well. Sorry

By: Glenda Larke

Glenda Larke — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:55:00 +0000

Ted - I asked the same thing. She said they looked like bits of worn coral from the beach...

Some kidney stones are made of calcium. Hard corals are calcium carbonate skeletons... hmm - maybe he has some rudimentary science this fella?

Joanny - yep.

Alex - double yep. You and I ought to use that as our mantra.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:41:00 +0000

Again, people need to be taught critical thinking in schools!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:29:00 +0000

Less ideologically based…surgery is scary, and the average person will jump through hoops to avoid it! It isn’t logical, but even otherwise intelligent people can convince themselves of what they WANT to believe.

(yes, I know that’s a convoluted sentence, but I’m tired, ok??)