Truth in Advertising Laws Should Apply to Christian Propaganda!
One of my favorite atheist sites is Daylight Atheism, where if you click on the link you'll see one reason why. The question addressed is why truth in advertising laws are not applied to Christian propoganda. A great question!
1 comments:
Come and experience the wonders and miracles of God through the ministry of Dr. Jaerock Lee. Come and be healed from skin diseases, mental illness and all types of diseases.
Not only is this misleading advertising in which people are being ripped-off but this is also a medical claim in which there is the potential for life-threatening consequences if people don't seek medical treatment because they have been "healed" (What if that skin disease is actually skin cancer?)
I'm no expert in the law regarding medical claims, but it seems to me that these types of claims must fall under some government jurisdiction. Why aren't these healers either being shut down or forced to stop making such claims? My guess is "religious correctness". In other words, the "goodness" of religion is taken as a given by such a large majority of the population that to criticize a religious claim would be seen as "religiously incorrect" and a violation of a person's right to their religious beliefs.
I'm somewhat torn on this. A part of me wants to protect these people from their own ignorance (especially when the people that need protecting are not capable of making these types of decisions for themselves, such as children). On the other hand, a part of me says that if grown adults want to believe such nonsense and put themselves at risk then more power to them. We all make mistakes in life and sometimes those mistakes result in terrible consequences, but hey, that's life.
But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be warning the general public that these healers are frauds and the medical claims they make are baseless. I think most people would agree that government can provide a valuable service by trying to protect people from deceptive and harmful practices. In extreme cases, definitely remove the harm. But if you don't want to go that far with a faith healer, then at least give people all the information they need make their own decisions (at the least, maybe a warning label on the healer's poster stating that you could die if you do not consult a real doctor).
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