Faith Healing

Faith healing is the supposed ability to cure medical issues such as pain with prayer.  It relies on the belief in God for both the healer and the one being healed.  If it doesn't work, then the person trying to receive healing must be considered unworthy by God for whatever reason.  This reasoning makes it hard to prove faith healers wrong because the reason is always God.  The feeling of being healed is said to come from the placebo effect due to the healer wanting to be healed and usually having a strong belief in God.  The practice started when Jesus supposedly cured a sick woman with just his faith.  Faith healing can be dangerous because it may cause people to reject actual medical help when they need it.  There have been cases where a church tells its HIV positive members to stop taking their medications and instead only pray because God will heal them. These people died.  There are other cases where parents don't seek medical treatment for their children for curable every day illnesses and instead pray for them. These children either end up dead or seriously ill.  Using faith healing instead of seeking out professional medical help can actually be considered neglect by some courts.  Faith healing is made popular by Televangelists on shows such as the 700 Club having people "being healed" on TV in exchange for donations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14406818
http://time.com/8750/faith-healing-parents-jailed-after-second-childs-death/