Is there any good evidence of miracles?

[Radical Hypocrisy]

Oh -Insert god-head figure here- don't get me started on 'miracles.' If there's one thing I absolutely hate with the fury of ten billion suns the size of ten billion solar masses it's miracles.

My Born-Again, holier-than-thou Mor(m)on priest father just loves, loves, loves, loves the stupid things. Everything is a miracle with him. If it's not a miracle, it's the power of prayer. I may vomit in ungodly rage. It seriously makes me want to tear my hair out.

Some things, yeah, granted, there is some freaky stuff out there. I've seen people working on their eighth set of real teeth, but it ain't no miracle. It. just. happens.

My dad's latest 'Miracle, straight from THE LAWD YOUR GAWD, JAY-SUS"' is how a family started going to church again. That's it. Oh, wait, no, the husband stopped drinking. Yup. total miracle, guys. Get Maury Povitch on the phone, we're making the TV talk-show runs with this one!

We mustn't forget my dad's contribution, though. No, see, he prayed that they would go back to church and the husband to stop drinking.

You know, it just bugs me that people want to take credit for helping something they had no hand in. That, or simply removing the credit from the creditable person altogether.

"No, you silly Lush, you didn't stop drinking on your own. GOD made you stop drinking. AND I HELPED! With my magical powers of prayer! You get no credit for making a moral and ethical choice. You have NO CAPABILITY WHATSOEVER when it comes to doing something that is good for you. You need GOD."

I mean, seriously, would this fly in day to day life?

"Hey, you're welcome for dinner."

"You didn't cook. I did."

"Yeah, but I hoped really, really, really hard that you would, so, you know, you're welcome."

Would you hang out with that kind of person? I sure wouldn't. I had to go OUT OF MY WAY to avoid my father on Easter. Why? Miracles. He kept saying about just how much of a miracle it would be if we could all get together. 'We' being his ex-wife (My mother) my sister, his she-demon wife from the SEVENTH LEVEL OF HELL, and their three little demon spawn.

You know what kinda kills that miracle? Like, dead in the bleeding water? I live less than ten blocks from him. I had planned on going, before he pulled out the little 'miracle' speech. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad. He nearly had a heart attack the other week and I damn near destroyed the apartment in my apoplectic rage because his bone-head wife told him to drive himself to the hospital. Seriously, love the man, hate the attitude.

As you can tell, it's kind of a sore issue with me. It's basically a gaping double standard in the Mormon belief system, into which I was raised.

See, Mormon God gives you total and complete free will. You can do anything you like. Anything. Within the laws of physics, I suppose, but within that boundary, go freakin' nuts, right?

Well, if someone comes along and prays that you receive a miracle, guess what? No more free will. You will stop drinking, screwing hookers, doing speedballs in the bathroom of The Viper, and whatever else is sinfully wrong with you.

Of course, the miracles are all B.S. in a flaming sack, but you can't point that out. No, no, no. Prayer has about a ™.99 percent fail rate. Guess what that rate up there is. The will of God. The �.01 percent left? Proof that God exists.

Head, meet wall. Wall, meet head.

...

Sorry, everything just tasted kinda purple there for a second. I may have had a rage-stroke.

Anyway, I'm going to stop ranting now, and go lay down so the room stops spinning.  

[dl1371]

Levis Pennae

dl1371

Levis Pennae

dl1371

Levis Pennae

Like I said, with the naked eye. And that's why these guys only "heal" people who don't show visible symptoms of diseases, such as the early stages of A.I.D.S.

But you also said "of proven withing the time frame of a typical studio audience". It doesn't take much time to take someone's blood and use a microscope to find the HIV.

Unless they have the lab equipment and the personnel at the show I stand by my original statement.

Why shouldn't they?

Because that would make sense to people with any bit of scientific understanding and inquiry.

Thats a pretty bad argument.
If its truly a miracle they should have equipment to show people that it really is a miracle.

And of course, this brings up the point that most things can be faked, unless you actually get every single member of the audience to bring their own equipment and do all the blood draws and all themselves, you can't be sure of anything.  

[Doredia]

I Ain't Laughing, should I call you that? xD

I hate when people talk about miracles myself! And I have a similar situation, except I still live with my religious family. (They are Catholic though). They believe my intelligence is a miracle, the fact that I'm alive is a miracle (I had a fire accident), just everything about me is a miracle! And when I sigh with disaproval at the miracle speeches I always get yelled at!

I am just the one that is different from my family and they constantly remind me of that.

I got off topic a little bit, sorry about that xP  

[Levis Pennae]

dl1371

Levis Pennae

dl1371

Levis Pennae

dl1371

Levis Pennae

Like I said, with the naked eye. And that's why these guys only "heal" people who don't show visible symptoms of diseases, such as the early stages of A.I.D.S.

But you also said "of proven withing the time frame of a typical studio audience". It doesn't take much time to take someone's blood and use a microscope to find the HIV.

Unless they have the lab equipment and the personnel at the show I stand by my original statement.

Why shouldn't they?

Because that would make sense to people with any bit of scientific understanding and inquiry.

Thats a pretty bad argument.
If its truly a miracle they should have equipment to show people that it really is a miracle.

And of course, this brings up the point that most things can be faked, unless you actually get every single member of the audience to bring their own equipment and do all the blood draws and all themselves, you can't be sure of anything.

How is stating that these people are ignorant of scientific processes a bad argument? Yea they should test the validity of all claims of divine intervention, but that would undercut the very base of religion in western society and is, therefore, not an option. Remember these are the people who believe everything poofed into existence, despite an ark load of proof otherwise.  

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

Christians with no knowledge of (or who simply disregard willingly) statistical probability tend to hold up fortunate coincidences as miracles. One person survives a horrible accident? Well, God saved that person! Never mind the scores of other people who may be just as religious or "good" that were allowed to perish in the disaster.

A girl I went to college with recently posted on Facebook about something that God had supposedly done for her. It was a check for around $40 from some company. A refund or rebate or something along those lines. I held my tongue because it's not my preference to start fights on other people's Facebook profiles if I can help it, but a friend of mine commented on it. He said something to the effect of "God ignores all the people in Haiti who are starving and dying in rubble and he chose to send you a meager amount of money through a financial company? Sounds like he needs to get his priorities straight." That's not an exact quote, but it was similar.

She responded in a really patronising way, with that "I'm pretending to be sweet so that I can patronise you even harder" sort of tone. She said she was so sorry that he "didn't understand" how God works (the guy was a ******** hardcore Methodist for 20 years or more), and invited him to watch a video of her preacher if he wished to have it explained to him.

rolleyes Made me sick. I thought about stepping in and telling her that she was incorrect about who "didn't understand," but I took the high road and ignored it.