The Reality of Religion: Implications of the Placebo Effect

     Mind and matter are two sides of the dualistic nature of mankind. Sometimes a given ailment has a physical origin from matter, sometimes it has a mental one from mind. We often don't see the ailment as depending on both mental and physical states, but the placebo effect- along with its corollary "nocebo" effect- proves that the mind can impact the course of a physical disease. 

    The placebo effect has been shown to improve a number of ailments, including depression, asthma, gastro-intestinal diseases, swelling, fever, sexual dysfunction, and anxiety. It may not improve serious ones like cancer or a bone fracture, but it cannot be denied that the mind has tremendous power over neurotransmitters and the immune system. This creates an interplay with the body during an illness, where the parameters of one side can impact the other.
    When people are ill, many will turn to religion for relief. They may try chakra healing, yoga, dream incubation, ritual, meditation, prayer, or worship at the local temple. Religion has a way of creating the same kind of positive thinking as the placebo effect. The obverse can also happen with the nocebo effect, where fears of demons, witchcraft, or sorcery will negatively influence the mind, possibly worsening a disease through its harmful impact on the brain or immune system.

    Most atheists would probably use the placebo effect to illustrate how religion is a fabrication, that like a fake medication it doesn't actually do anything, being merely a set of beliefs without any impact on reality. That it is only the positive mindset that you are believing you are healing that induces your body to improve. But if the atheist is correct, it only strengthens the power of belief. The atheist unwittingly commits the error of signing off on the fact that the mind, being an immaterial object, has more influence on reality than physical instruments are capable of measuring for scientific purposes. By extension, the power of a religion to intervene in human affairs seems more plausible.

    Even if organized religion is a facade, the power of the mind in its beliefs transcends any collective opinion about religious cosmology, including atheism. Religion as a placebo implies that everyone has their own version of the religion they believe in, and that it is just as true to them as anyone else. No orthodoxy should ever persuade them otherwise, and no atheist can use this to dismantle the power of their beliefs.

    If you are finding that the placebo effect weakens your religion, try using it to empower a belief in your own spiritual cosmology. We don't need to all share the same cosmology for there to be one that is true to yourself. This is the closest to a reality of the afterworld that you will ever get. Even if it isn't "real" in the way the rest of world shares the same physical environment, it is "real" in your own way. Such an outlook will serve to improve your health, independence, and state of mind.