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Just because people think prayer will help them doesn't mean it actually will. Psychologists have a duty not to lie to their patients. Having a psychologist off

Just because people think prayer will help them doesn't mean it actually will. Psychologists have a duty not to lie to their patients. Having a psychologist offer a lie that may make people feel better in the short term does nothing to actually fix their long term problems. Psychological or otherwise. And further more, many psychologists do this already. There are many psychologists that specialize in patients of a particular religion. The LDS church comes to mind. They have no better success record than any other treatment. "Scientific" American, my ass.

dang 5y ago
Please do not take HN threads into religious flamewar. That's a circle of hell we badly need to avoid here, and which also is particularly easy to avoid. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- ggggtez 5y ago
  I disagree, this comment is on topic. The author presents an opinion that conflicts with the reality of the world. Psychologists are not merely trying to make people feel better with temporary solutions, but to help that person solve what is actually bothering them. Furthermore, psychologists already do this. They already recommend taking to family, friends, pastors, etc.
  - dang 5y ago
    The issue isn't the topic, it's comment quality.
    - ggggtez 5y ago
      You are saying the response had low quality but don't cite what about it is wrong. If anything, I find this response to my comment as lacking quality. The author is lying. I stand by the statement that he is lying. He is presenting an imaginary situation where doctors ignore solutions that demonstrate results. That simply isn't the case. If the results were there, it would be done. And it is done. The author isn't asking for doctors to suggest people talk out their problems with religious figures, he's advocating for religion instead of scientifically backed care. I don't care how many articles he publish in some non-peer reviewed junk source like Psychology Today.
      - dang 5y ago
        I'm not arguing with you about religion; I'm asking you to stop posting tedious flamewar comments to HN. Nothing good can come of this sort of rhetoric - it's just repetitive and is guaranteed to provoke somebody into fighting back in kind.
        ggggtez 5y ago
        I'm not arguing with you about religion, I'm arguing about medicine. If you choose to conflate the two, that's on you.
    - ganzuul 5y ago
      "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."

dang 5y ago

Please do not take HN threads into religious flamewar. That's a circle of hell we badly need to avoid here, and which also is particularly easy to avoid. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

ggggtez 5y ago
I disagree, this comment is on topic. The author presents an opinion that conflicts with the reality of the world. Psychologists are not merely trying to make people feel better with temporary solutions, but to help that person solve what is actually bothering them. Furthermore, psychologists already do this. They already recommend taking to family, friends, pastors, etc.
- dang 5y ago
  The issue isn't the topic, it's comment quality.
  - ggggtez 5y ago
    You are saying the response had low quality but don't cite what about it is wrong. If anything, I find this response to my comment as lacking quality. The author is lying. I stand by the statement that he is lying. He is presenting an imaginary situation where doctors ignore solutions that demonstrate results. That simply isn't the case. If the results were there, it would be done. And it is done. The author isn't asking for doctors to suggest people talk out their problems with religious figures, he's advocating for religion instead of scientifically backed care. I don't care how many articles he publish in some non-peer reviewed junk source like Psychology Today.
    - dang 5y ago
      I'm not arguing with you about religion; I'm asking you to stop posting tedious flamewar comments to HN. Nothing good can come of this sort of rhetoric - it's just repetitive and is guaranteed to provoke somebody into fighting back in kind.
      - ggggtez 5y ago
        I'm not arguing with you about religion, I'm arguing about medicine. If you choose to conflate the two, that's on you.
  - ganzuul 5y ago
    "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."