Skip to main content

Nuggets McMiracles

By Carl S ~

The feeding of the five thousand men using five loaves of bread and two fishes. The parting of the Red Sea. Raising Lazarus from death. Why aren't there any more of those fantastic miracles to prove the truthfulness of a faith? In their beginnings, all faiths have astounding miracles and, it is claimed, these went on for centuries. What happened since then? Why are there no more big miracles to keep proving God or Allah or any of the other deities exists, if for no other reason?

What about the last Big miracle on record, in the 20th century, the alleged "Miracle of Fatima"? Thousands of believers “witnessed” the sun falling to the earth. They were the only ones who saw the sun move thus. Mass hallucination? There’s been nothing since then to make any headlines. In our time, all the miracles will eventually be attributed to natural causes. They're mc-miracles, bite-sized junk food which leave cravings for more, for those who partake of them. They're far from being satisfying, unlike the Big Convincing Miracles in the old time religion days. Obviously, something changed when "miracles” came to be researched/explained.

You'd think a god would really take serious efforts to now and then prove, through occasional Big Miracles, that he/ she is still around. If that "divinely enacted" system really worked before, then keep it up, right? And why would any self-respecting deity stoop to answering prayers by mini-miracle "signs" via selling a very un-sellable house, or by having an anonymous donor drop a large wad of money into a church's coffers, and other such trivia? Why not make one single disease disappear, since millions of believers plead for it to do so? Praise to a deity for selling an unsellable house, or even for spontaneous remission of a cancer, even if beyond the wildest expectations of the petitioners - now isn’t that undeserved to any deity claiming to be almighty?

What about those "Witnesses to miracles"? All historical eyewitness reports of miracles are hearsay. In every instance of miracle claims, shouldn't we be asking the question: Are they not "reported," but rather, "reputed," to have taken place? Aren't they rather, tricks of the senses, the brain, therefore, the imagination? Are they due to trauma, mass hysteria, temporary brain damage, or a myriad of other possible natural explanations?

What about those "Witnesses to miracles"? All historical eyewitness reports of miracles are hearsay. What about pre-Fatima, 20th century sightings by witnesses? Are they possibilities? William Manchester is highly regarded as one of America's finest historians. In his book, "The Arms of Krupp,” he details the lives of Germany's powerful family dynasty of arms manufacturers and dealers. When one of the sons, Friedrich A. Krupp (1854-1902), died, his death was not investigated, since it was likely a suicide. At the time, this would have caused a scandal. About this, the author writes, "Even the conservative press... engaged in what briefly became a necrophilic obsession throughout the empire - guessing the whereabouts of Friedrich Alfred Krupp. Encouraged by the sealed coffin and the absence of an autopsy, rumor spread that Fritz hadn't died at all, that he had slipped away quietly. Over the next four years, newspapers periodically published interviews with travelers who reported having seen him in America, South America, Jerusalem and the Far East."

Fritz sightings were long before Elvis sightings, and much longer after the "sightings" of a risen Jesus. Are any of these sightings "credible," as in "creed, credo, believable?" And what of all those saints who, while they lived, are the subjects of "bi-location," as eyewitnesses claimed to see them in two places, far apart, at the same time?

Whether speaking of the past or present regarding "miraculous" reports by believers, we might refer to their expectation of something "miraculous" happening in the future, and coming to pass (or not, which is a "Never mind" moment). Consider that the results of the expectation, of a “gut feeling" or intuition, usually don't pan out; believers don't think about those things. Is the expectation of a miraculous intervention and its result convincing to anyone other than themselves?

The age of Big Time miracles is gone. There's no evidence pointing to a possible reason to even slightly be inclined to believe in some kind of deity. Why should we have to take the words of delusional people or clerics with products to sell, that miracles exist? Is this all they have to offer us: some itsy-bitsy-mini crummy miracles to appease their followers and leaving them hungry for more? ‘Tis a pity. How about some old-time resurrections? You know, having some individuals come back from the dead even for a short period of time, just to go back to their families or friends before they die again? (Remember, you've read about this happening before, in one of the gospels.) Sure, they’d be no miracles on the magnitude of the earth swallowing up a huge gathering of enemies, or of manna falling from heaven for years. On the subject of manna alone - how about some bread from heaven falling on the famished millions, say, just a day’s worth? Now, any of those things would go viral. Nope.

Some people can't wait till they can die so they can get a new body free of pain and suffering, and see their deceased relatives once again. They expect a Really Big Miracle to happen to them personally. Meanwhile, as they accept such an impossibility, they keep telling themselves miracles happen all the time, even as they scrape the bottom of the barrel of incredibility to find them.

How long will it be before people realize that miraculous explanations are wishful thinking? Progress in medicine alone is delayed any time a miracle is accepted in place of pursuing natural and rational explanations; through investigation and discovery the mechanisms leading to cures are found and are repeatable.

If "Big miracles" are claimed to prove a deity exists to cause them, what do those lauded trite miracles tell us? If no one can conjure up a miracle promised by a man telling his followers: "even greater works than I have done, you will do," (walking on water, feeding five thou, raising the dead, etc.), what does that prove?

And so we have it. Let's stick with the current definitions of "miracles," such as : Amazing rescues, medical and military operations with improbable possibilities of ever succeeding, and of the remissions of cancer. Prescription drug results. Household cleaning products and wrinkle-removing skin creams. Miracle Whip in sandwiches, etc., etc.. Let's not quit investigating reputed, rather than reported, testimonies of miracles, nor those alleged rather than actual, claims. And everyone should start dealing with the "miracle" of our existing, at all. Now that's an amazing and awesome realization.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Are You an Atheist Success Story?

By Avangelism Project ~ F acts don’t spread. Stories do. It’s how (good) marketing works, it’s how elections (unfortunately) are won and lost, and it’s how (all) religion spreads. Proselytization isn’t accomplished with better arguments. It’s accomplished with better stories and it’s time we atheists catch up. It’s not like atheists don’t love a good story. Head over to the atheist reddit and take a look if you don’t believe me. We’re all over stories painting religion in a bad light. Nothing wrong with that, but we ignore the value of a story or a testimonial when we’re dealing with Christians. We can’t be so proud to argue the semantics of whether atheism is a belief or deconversion is actually proselytization. When we become more interested in defining our terms than in affecting people, we’ve relegated ourselves to irrelevance preferring to be smug in our minority, but semantically correct, nonbelief. Results Determine Reality The thing is when we opt to bury our

So Just How Dumb Were Jesus’ Disciples? The Resurrection, Part VII.

By Robert Conner ~ T he first mention of Jesus’ resurrection comes from a letter written by Paul of Tarsus. Paul appears to have had no interest whatsoever in the “historical” Jesus: “even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, we know him so no longer.” ( 2 Corinthians 5:16 ) Paul’s surviving letters never once mention any of Jesus’ many exorcisms and healings, the raising of Lazarus, or Jesus’ virgin birth, and barely allude to Jesus’ teaching. For Paul, Jesus only gets interesting after he’s dead, but even here Paul’s attention to detail is sketchy at best. For instance, Paul says Jesus “was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” ( 1 Corinthians 15:4 ), but there are no scriptures that foretell the Jewish Messiah would at long last appear only to die at the hands of Gentiles, much less that the Messiah would then be raised from the dead after three days. After his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus—an event Paul never mentions in his lette

Christian TV presenter reads out Star Wars plot as story of salvation

An email prankster tricked the host of a Christian TV show into reading out the plots of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Star Wars in the belief they were stories of personal salvation. The unsuspecting host read out most of the opening rap to The Fresh Prince, a 1990s US sitcom starring Will Smith , apparently unaware that it was not a genuine testimony of faith. The prankster had slightly adapted the lyrics but the references to a misspent youth playing basketball in West Philadelphia would have been instantly familiar to most viewers. The lines read out by the DJ included: "One day a couple of guys who were up to no good starting making trouble in my living area. I ended up getting into a fight, which terrified my mother." The presenter on Genesis TV , a British Christian channel, eventually realised that he was being pranked and cut the story short – only to move on to another spoof email based on the plot of the Star Wars films. It began: &quo

ACTS OF GOD

By David Andrew Dugle ~   S ettle down now children, here's the story from the Book of David called The Parable of the Bent Cross. In the land Southeast of Eden –  Eden, Minnesota that is – between two rivers called the Big Miami and the Little Miami, in the name of Saint Gertrude there was once built a church. Here next to it was also built a fine parochial school. The congregation thrived and after a multitude of years, a new, bigger church was erected, well made with clean straight lines and a high steeple topped with a tall, thin cross of gold. The faithful felt proud, but now very low was their money. Their Sunday offerings and school fees did not suffice. Anon, they decided to raise money in an unclean way. One fine summer day the faithful erected tents in the chariot lot between the two buildings. In the tents they set up all manner of games – ring toss, bingo, little mechanical racing horses and roulette wheels – then all who lived in the land between the two rivers we

Morality is not a Good Argument for Christianity

By austinrohm ~ I wrote this article as I was deconverting in my own head: I never talked with anyone about it, but it was a letter I wrote as if I was writing to all the Christians in my life who constantly brought up how morality was the best argument for Christianity. No Christian has read this so far, but it is written from the point of view of a frustrated closeted atheist whose only outlet was organizing his thoughts on the keyboard. A common phrase used with non-Christians is: “Well without God, there isn’t a foundation of morality. If God is not real, then you could go around killing and raping.” There are a few things which must be addressed. 1. Show me objective morality. Define it and show me an example. Different Christians have different moral standards depending on how they interpret the Bible. Often times, they will just find what they believe, then go back into scripture and find a way to validate it. Conversely, many feel a particular action is not

On Living Virtuously

By Webmdave ~  A s a Christian, living virtuously meant living in a manner that pleased God. Pleasing god (or living virtuously) was explained as: Praying for forgiveness for sins  Accepting Christ as Savior  Frequently reading the Bible  Memorizing Bible verses Being baptized (subject to church rules)  Attending church services  Partaking of the Lord’s Supper  Tithing  Resisting temptations to lie, steal, smoke, drink, party, have lustful thoughts, have sex (outside of marriage) masturbate, etc.  Boldly sharing the Gospel of Salvation with unbelievers The list of virtuous values and expectations grew over time. Once the initial foundational values were safely under the belt, “more virtues'' were introduced. Newer introductions included (among others) harsh condemnation of “worldly” music, homosexuality and abortion Eventually the list of values grew ponderous, and these ideals were not just personal for us Christians. These virtues were used to condemn and disrespect fro