The Bible does use words like "chance" and "accident". This doesn't challenge the sovereignty of God. Time and chance happen to all men (Eccl.9:11). The priest and Levite happened to come down the road to Jericho by chance (Lk.10:31,32). But, they didn't help the suffering man. The Law had provision for those who accidentally (unintentionally) commit a crime (Num.35:11). Such accidents are not necessarily preordained by God. God's sovereignty is not a doctrine that has no room for chance and accidents. Man is called to be careful and wise.
A placebo is a non-therapeutic substance administered under the camouflage of medication to deceive patients into believing that they are receiving medications; this done solely for psychological and not for physiological effects. Placebo may usually be used to compare its effects with the effects of other drugs in drug research. Let's take the case of an experiment that tries to establish whether a particular drug, say to treat weariness, is genuine or merely has the effects of a placebo. Suppose 20 candidates are chosen for this experiment. 10 are given the drug and the rest are put on a placebo while they are told that the placebo is a genuine medication. They need to make sure that the deception is well carried on for the success of the experiment. If both the groups make similar improvements after taking the treatments, the new drug seems to only function as a placebo in effect. The basic hypothesis of the placebo raises the question of mind over matter. Of course, this pushes...
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