Freethought 101- Argument From Miracles

Miracles have been around since the dawn of time…or should I say the dawn of religion.  The sight of the face of Jesus in a napkin?  It’s a miracle!  Blood coming out of the eyes and hands of the Virgin Mary?  It’s a miracle!  Water turning into wine?  It’s a miracle!  Miracles have always been the extra “proof” that God exists…somewhere.  It seems as though miracles have “calmed” down a bit.  Hundreds and even thousands of years ago they were quite common place.  Where did all the miracles go?

I don’t think they went anywhere.  I just think they got a little more “arrogant”.  For example, all the earthquake survivors in Haiti who are now talking about how god saved “them” and how it was a miracle that they survived (to hell with all the other people who died).  The same with the people who said it was a miracle that “they” survived the World Trade Center attacks (again, to hell with everybody else who died).  A miracle indeed!  If you think about it this way, I can not think of something so vain and egotistical than to believe oneself worthy of one of God’s “miracles”, while a tornado rips across Mississippi and kills 3 children.

But, with all this talk about miracles, there is NEVER any talk about the logical aspect of miracles.  If you think about it, miracles require two things:

1. The existence of an all-powerful God and/or angels and/or spirits who have the power to perform miracles.

2. A selection process by the miracle worker(s) that include, for example, helping a basketball player make a last minute free throw, but will exclude the cries of a 6 year old girl praying for her uncle to stop molesting her.

No one has a problem with #1.  #2…ouch!  It’s like religion itself.  Accept what is told to you at face value and stop asking questions.  People WANT to believe in miracles because of the warm, fuzzy feelings they create.  But, on the flip side of the coin, people don’t want to understand them.  That’s why it’s important TO ask questions about what you believe.  And I have one that I want to ask.  If a car bomb goes off outside a building and 100 people die while 2 survive, it IS called a miracle.  Should the families of the 100 that died think of it as a miracle also?

Let’s take a look at the definition of “miracle” shall we?

miracle- An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God.

Miracles supposedly happen to people because they have deep and unwavering faith.  Most churches teach you that if you believe HARD enough, and STRONG enough, that God will come and work a miracle in your life.  And I think it’s a fair statement to say that most Christians would agree with that claim.  Most Christians would also agree that miracles are good.  Am I right?  But where’s the rule book that claims all miracles are supposed to be good?  280,000 people killed by a wall of water in Asia is a miracle.  The definition of miracle is an act inexplicable by the laws of nature right?  When it comes to miracles people always talk about time and location.  “If I hadn’t been late getting to the airport, I wouldn’t have missed my flight.  The one that crashed and killed all those people today.  It’s a miracle!”  You can bring that argument back to the tsunami.  The location which caused the killer tsunami was chosen by God to kill all those people, and is therefore a miracle.

Let’s take a look at one of the biggest miracles of all time…the Great Flood found in Genesis 7:4.  This was CLEARLY an act of God because the Good Book said so.  “And I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made I will destroy from off the face of the earth.”  God making it rain for forty days and forty nights ALL over the globe is no small task.  That constitutes as a miracle, does it not?  That certainly qualifies as an event inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is to be supernatural in origin or an act of God.  It caused catastrophic death and destruction, but hey.  It’s a miracle!

If you think about miracles this way, any event throughout history that “appears inexplicable” by the laws of nature can be called a miracle.  Anyone who believes that the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle can not be explained by the laws of nature therefore believes those disappearances constitute as miracles.  Every baby that ever died suddenly in a crib, with no apparent cause, was the recipient of a miracle.  This can go on and on.  If you believe in miracles, you can NOT deny that.  If you believe in miracles you have defined yourself in to that corner with no way out.

So, it seems that we have established that miracles are a double-edged sword indeed.  But, more importantly, how are miracle recipients chosen?  Christians label their god as omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (everywhere at once), and omnibenevolent (all-merciful).  And if you believe that God is all powerful and all merciful, then how do you explain the above?  Not only that, but what kind of god would intervene in something as trivial as you making an A on a test or for that Grammy award (which supposedly he does a lot), yet ignore the cries and prayers of millions of children who ask him for his help daily?  Especially when it comes to innocent children, how can God not work miracles for them if he’s perfectly willing and capable to do them at all?  There are only TWO answers to that question.

1.  God has never, or ever will perform miracles on earth.

2.  God has a sadistic streak.

Case in point.  The Catholic Church is in a crisis right now from all of the hundreds of people coming forth claiming they were raped or molested by their priest.  Many of these people’s lives are damaged beyond repair.  Some of them commit suicide.  Many others have bouts of depression that last their whole lives.  Please tell me how an innocent child…a child of God at that…can pray STRONG and HARD for their priest to stop molesting them.  And how this God, being the miracle-worker that he is, can sit back and do nothing but yet slip a little magic on the soccer ball so it can go through the goal?  Miracle-believers say this all makes perfect sense.  God “works in mysterious ways” is typically the answer.  That excuse has been so worked to death, but it still does not excuse the cruelty of a god that would not intervene in the molestation of a child, while choosing to help the Yankees win the World Series.  If a human were to do something like that, he or she would be put to death.  But not God…oh no.  He works in mysterious ways…

Miracles can be dangerous as well.  There is something powerful to be said about blind faith.  Case in point.  A woman in her 40’s with breast cancer attended a Benny Hinn faith healing service one night.  Benny got on the mike and said to the audience, “There is a woman out there with cancer who needs to be delivered!  I command you in the name of Jesus to come forth and get your healing!”  The woman with breast cancer IMMEDIATELY jumped up, and ran down the isle to the stage.  Benny placed his hand on her head and told her that if she BELIEVED with all of her might, God would heal her.  She immediately started  crying and shouting “thank you Jesus!” before Benny finally “knocked” her out with the spirit.  But what happened after the service was the real shocker.  This lady TRULY believed that she had been healed.  She felt fine, and she felt like she didn’t have to take her medicine anymore.  To take her medicine would be her not believing as STRONG and as HARD as she possibly could so she could receive her “miracle”.  She received a “miracle” alright…she was dead in 6 months.

When it comes to miracles, the supernatural has to take over.  And anytime you start dabbling in the supernatural, nonsense and foolishness usually occur.  Miracles ARE nonsense.  They defy logic, common sense, compassion, and fairness.  In the words of Adam Lambert, “Baby it’s time for miracles,” indeed!

© 2010 TheBlackGayInfidel

~ by theblackgayinfidel on May 11, 2010.