Is God a Placebo?

Abstract

Every treatment, in classical no less than in unorthodox medicine, includes a so-called 'placebo' component. Such ingredients are more accurately described as non-specific factors (NSF), for several reasons, including the fact that they are not invariably pleasing. The purpose of the title of this contribution is to provoke a discussion of NSF, leading to their classification and the description of a quantitative method (based on Judgment Analysis) of estimating the amount of 'placebo-ness', or 'non-specificity', attributable to any treatment, whether surgical or intercessory prayer.