Q&A: Athiest : Your opinion on past miracles ?

Question by doug: Athiest : Your opinion on past miracles ?
I beleive these are real, but if you had an opportunity to see these by chance, im interested in your belief.

Say, for example like in Portugal 1917. A few kids had visions from the Virgin Mary. Mary said at a certain time and date, she would perform a miracle in a certain location.
So say, like the 70,000 pilgrims like in Portugal, started traveling to the location and you follow too and see out of curiosity. Theres heavy rain, but your clothes aren’t getting wet.
Suddenly you reach the location, then the rain stops and the Sun dances in front of everyone, then flashes brightly and settle back to normal.
Keep in mind technology isnt around to create such an effect in that time.

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/apparitions/pr00011.htm
Google for non biased sites if your interested

Or say your in Jerusalem. Its the Orthodox Christian Easter.
Your with a religious friend.
Your dragged to the service.
Your holding a candle, and suddenly the church is flashing and your candle lights in front of you eyes. the priest exits the tomb with the holy light too, but everyone around you jumps for a piece of the flame. You put you flesh over the flame, but its not burning. Cool effect.
Later after 33 minutes you put flesh over the flame again, but it painfully burns you.

Or say your with a friend with chronic pain without a cure.
There a crying Virgin Mary Icon.
Your friend visits it and has a church member collect the myrth coming out of marys eyes and collect it on a cloth then perform the sign of the cross over the area in pain.
A week later your friend is cured.

In real life would you show interest to Christianity?
Im not forcing you to believe in these events, fully like i do.
Just if you witnessed these HYPOTHETICALY.
Put the number of ones that would interest you, in your answer.
Please, im just asking a hypothetical out of curiosity. I want an honest answer and no abuse at me please.
Your saying hoax come to mind straight away.
Is that how you approach it, Fair enough then.
Stop asking for proof. Its a hypothetical.
Look for proof in google if your into it.
Glen123- your a champ. Your the first to answer it properly. At 17th .

Best answer:

Answer by neil s
Look up “argument from incredulity”. That’s what every miracle claim seems to be.

Add your own answer in the comments!

20 Responses to “Q&A: Athiest : Your opinion on past miracles ?”

  1. O'baaahhhma says:

    How do you know it wasnt Janice Joplin?

  2. "Wee" Joe Citizen says:

    Hoaxes, lies, or some other misunderstanding.

    That’s my final answer.

  3. Paul B says:

    Look at it this way: in a crowd, or at the pub afterwards, the first person to say “I didn’t see it” gets the snot beaten out of him for being an unbeliever. Of course everybody will say they witnessed a miracle. Look at me, aren’t I devout etc?

    Stories of “miracles” persist due to the “Emperor’s New Clothes” syndrome – nobody wants to be the first to suggest that the miracle never happened.

  4. L.H.O.O.Q. says:

    Coincidence . No abuse but dont breed

  5. Jaysus says:

    Personally, I’m sure everything could be explained if given enough time to really investigate it. It would take more than ALL those things plus 400000000 more for me to believe.

  6. Abyss Of My Mind says:

    The simplest answer is usually the correct one.

    Most of the above you describe would more likely to be a natural phenomena than a miracle.

    Lets do the Proof dance…..
    Where is the evidence. (Peoples testimonial’s is not evidence as they can lie and cheat)

  7. Captain Bunkum says:

    Miracle – something that the observer cannot explain. It does not prove god; just lack of understanding. Striking a match to light a fire would have been viewed as a miracle by Bronze Age peasants

  8. Desiree says:

    So they saw a strange light in the sky and they automatically assume it’s a miracle from the virgin Mary? They’re like the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi when C3PO suddenly appeared amongst them.

  9. Crimson_Crisis says:

    first, prove these things happened.

    if i did witness this i would check myself into a hospital and ask for a CAT scan

  10. Loquacious Atheist says:

    Kids lie. When I was 5 I had conversations with the rats that “lived” under the couch.

  11. Paladin says:

    It’s a fair question fairly asked.

    > Theres heavy rain, but your clothes aren’t getting wet.

    I’ll admit that I would be impressed by that, if the rain were falling fully upon me and my clothes were clearly bone dry.

    The other examples you give could have other simple explanations.

  12. truth says:

    All that you have written are nothing but claims made up by the church, all for the purpose to further confuse and dumb down its members. Reality is the thing not silly miracles which do not exist.

  13. ?i¢?y!³ says:

    There are just as many, if not more, miracles claimed and cited by Hindu priests and holymen, but I won’t be converting to Hinduism any time soon, either.

    Search it out – virtually every religion or mythology has them.

  14. Liberal Asskickers Nightmare says:

    There is no such thing as “non biased sites” when it comes to propogating anecdotes purported to be “miracles”.

  15. glenn123 says:

    If I witnessed those events, I would think I was witnessing something outside of my understanding and it would probably frighten me until I could make sense of things….especially at that level of evolvement.

  16. chipotle says:

    ok if God created those miracles and saved a bunch of people…

    Why didnt he save Haile Selasi?
    Why didnt he save JFK?
    Why didnt he save MLK?
    why didnt he save Gandhi?
    Why didnt he kill Hitler and Pol Pot before they murdered millions of people?
    Why didnt he save those millions of people?
    Why didnt he save Hendrix, and Janice Joplin, and Jim Morrison?
    Why didnt he save that familiar brave soldier from dying from a car bomb?
    Why didnt he save the thousands of people that died on 9/11?

    And in these “miracles” of yours, lets say a dude was the only survivor of a plane crash, then why didnt he save the other passengers? were all of these passengers homosexual atheists?? And what did their families do to deserve the grief befallen upon them?? What did we do to deserve the loss of our society’s great leaders and geniuses??

  17. SkepDoc 2.0 says:

    Hypothetically, if I had actually witnessed any of those events I would first look for a more prosaic explanation that fits within what I know about the laws of physics, and science generally.

    If I couldn’t figure it out myself, I would turn to smarter or more learned people to see if they could figure it out. I would not go to your apparent default answer of “godidit” All three of your examples are based on Catholic interpretations/expectations of the Bible, and aren’t convincing stories to Protestant Christians either. I guarantee if 10,000 Southern Baptists had been at Fatima, there would not have been a single vision of the Virgin Mary.
    Of pink Cadillacs, maybe.

    I have always enjoyed magic tricks and illusions, and have a drawer full of them at my desk. I love being fooled, and that sense of “that’s impossible!!” But yet…there is always an explanation, and once you learn how to DO the trick, it is a little sad that you don’t get that sense of wonder about it anymore, but I enjoy seeing it in other peoples faces.

    My point to that is, that I do know that “sense of wonder” that people describe about seeing what they interpret are divine miracles, or UFO’s or Bigfoot etc.I understand why people like that feeling, the addictive quality. And so I know that things other than religion can create that feeling, and I also know that it can be created artificially. Peoples senses can be easily fooled by the silliest things. The senses DON’T see everything, the brain is NOT a video-recorder, the brain fills in missing details with self generated information and memory is not reliable.

    It’s a good question, but one that is actually not as convincing as you think it is.

    EDIT SHMULFER. I like your answer. Please visit the Alternative Medicine board with that experience. My altie ‘friends’ only believe personal anecdotes.

  18. racing_boo says:

    If I witnessed one or all of these miracles, I’d be really curious as to the source. However, I believe supernatural events, or ‘miracles’, are merely things science has not yet explained.

    I would not be interested in Christianity as a result, as I am an ex-Christian. I had the point of view that if my faith is worth believing in, it should stand up to any scrutiny. It didn’t. No amount of miracles can ever erase the facts I discovered which led to me concluding the bible is not what all bible-based religions claim it is.

  19. shmulfer says:

    I will only answer one because there are no miracles. I have had friends with chronic pain (myself included) and guess what, it goes away on it’s own. No need for myth, oh I mean myrth. Why did it take a WHOLE week, it’s a miracle isn’t it? Magical crap should happen instantly, because it is magical. Just like prayer doesn’t do squat. People who aren’t prayed for recover or DIE at the exact same rate. Rather than just believing superstitious crap, try putting it to the test, because it FAILS every time. Science has a better method of knowing or seeing what is really there than you could ever hope for. Blindly believe something or apply the scientific method to discern if it is real, it your choice, but don’t expect me to blindly believe in anything. I have yet to see any miracles whatsoever.

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