On miracles

One of the issues I have encountered numerous times with my discussions with theists is that they believe what they believe on faith, therefore, facts to the contrary are not relevant. The whole idea of faith is basically to accept in this case the alleged writings of the so called prophets and apostles of the bible without any evidence to corroborate their stories.

Another big issue is that of miracles. You simply cannot put the gods or in this case the biblical God to the test. Since miracles and God belong to the realm of the supernatural they are completely outside the reach of the scientific community. There is obviously no way to verify whether Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, walked on water, ascended to heaven like a bird etc. All of these tales in my view are just that tales that completely fall under the classification of myth.

One question that nags me from time to time is why doesn't God do those same kinds of miracles today? Sure there are many amongst the more charismatic branches of Christianity claiming all sorts of miracles but like the bible authors they have no evidence to corroborate their extraordinary claims.

Instead what we see in today's day and age is a bunch of charlatans on television and radio getting rich off of the gullibility of believers. In fact these same charlatans claim that it is a sin to question them most of the time regarding miracles.

Anyone could write a mythological tale and place it in the setting of an actual existing place to give it that feel of authenticity. It's called fiction writing and we have been doing it for at least a few thousand years. I've had Christians try to argue that archeology confirmed that such and such a place existed as evidence that the bible tales in question and the events it claims transpired there must be true! The fact is that all archeology can confirm is that the place existed at one time or another. As to the alleged miraculous events ascribed to that place nothing can be said.

The Bible in its entirety describes some extraordinary miraculous events that defy logic and are an obvious contradiction to what we know about nature and its workings. But as far as today goes we don't tend to see those same kinds of miracles. You never hear about someone who was born blind, death, mute, or missing a limb being completely made whole again. Instead what you see today are a bunch of cheesy so called miraculous occurrences fabricated by the many charlatans calling themselves representatives of God.

Today's churches don't hesitate to label anything a miracle when in fact they are nothing more than coincidences or in some cases of apparent relief from pain etc temporary relief from psychosomatic disorders. Miracles if they ever occurred as described in the bible or today cannot be proven or verified conclusively. it is a matter of acceptance by faith

There is an interesting tale in the gospel of Mark 5:18-20 where Jesus meets a man who was possessed by a legion of demons. The story relates that he was well known in his community for being a lunatic and a violent man who lived in caves and in the cemetary. When Jesus arrived and had cured him of his possession he begged him to allow him to go with him. But Jesus sent him back to town to show and tell the people what God had done for him.

The point here is that this man was known in his entire town by pretty much everyone. He was sent back to testify to those that knew him and would have little doubts regarding the truth of his tale. I have never considered a miracle claim by a stranger without verification. To date there has been none found by objective investigators anywhere. There are occurrences that defy logic from time to time but calling these events miracles in my opinion is a misnomer. I prefer to call them strange occurrences or coincidences.