This is a question for my dear Atheist friends................................................................

Question

Hello, I hope that you are all doing well today. This is not a question to try to convert. I understand your views well. What I want to know is, *if* there is no God, then what about miracles? What do you think when things happen that are pretty much unexplainable? Also, when people give testimonies about God working in their life and what God has done for them, what do you think about that? *If* there is no God, then how could so many people, a lot of those people very smart, college educated people, have testimonies of God doing things in their lives? God has worked in my life. So what is your opinion about it?


And please do not be rude. This is a serious inquiry meaning to get others opinions, not to antagonize.

Answer 1

Show us the evidence...........

Answer 2

I have never seen a miracle that could not be explained in another, more logical way. Miracles tend to be in the eyes of the beholder, etc. And the fact that they tend to happen when someone WANTS something very much, makes me think that they are blinded to the true nature of what has happened. And I'm very against the way the Churches in Africa are offering "miracles" for conversion. So I'm wary where they are concerned. (BTW, if God of the Gaps was where you were headed with that, it's not a legitimate or even good argument.)

As for people who are good and decent and have God in their live, jolly for them. I'm sure that the center in my brain that is activated during meditation is the same as the center that they activate with heart-felt prayer. The difference is I have no beleif in a deity. I know that that sensation is internal.

I'm glad you have such faith, and apparently a good life. I have a good life too, with no deities. There are plenty of people with different gods than you who also have a good life, and they also see their gods at work in the world.

I also know that smart, educated people often have faith and religion. Heck, I have a religion, even thought it's non-deistic. But I also see the many ways in which people try to use religion as a tool to forcetheir opinions on others, and it makes me sad. As a world, I think that we need to finally see that the personal and highly subjective parts of our lives should not take precedence over the lives of others. We need to remember respect and tolerance.

BB

Answer 3

Just because I personally (or science, etc) cannot explain something does not make it a miracle. To a caveman, electricity would be a miracle. We know how electricty works so it is not a miracle to us.

As far as the testimony of others, that is their opinion and perception. I think it makes people feel better to think that there's someone up there watching and fretting over their every move. It makes them feel important. If something good happens to me, and I am an atheist, was it God? If I turned my back on God why does he do good things for me? Good things just happen. Bad things happen. If you want to call that God, that's fine.

Oh, and I've met a lot of smart, educated people who were pretty dumb!

Answer 4

There are "miracles" as you call them. But remember for every prayer answered, there is a million more that were not answered.

Practically everyone dying in a hospital, has someone praying for them. And believe me, not all survive, or come out rosey.

Miracles are just flukes that happen with a positive outcome, and instead of leaving it at that, people attribute it to God/gods.

Many other religions that exist today and pre-existed, also report miracles, so is there god as good as yours? Which religious miracles are valid? Or is it just a fluke, like all the others?

Answer 5

Just because something is unexplained doesn't mean it is the work of your god. Just because someone is smart or educated doesn't mean they cannot hold beliefs and attribute events in their lives according to those beliefs.

Have you ever seen "good will hunting"? It is about a genius who was abused as a child and made to feel worthless. He acts as though he is worthless his entire life until someone takes the time to turn him around. Intelligence has nothing to do with belief. Belief comes from experiences and we use our minds to justify it.

People who have "testimonials" have been made to believe that they can only do great things when god is working through them. Therefor, when they do these things, they believe it is the work of god.

Answer 6

...[I hope you won't think this agnostic too rude for posting an answer to your question which was directed solely at atheists]...

There are MANY mysteries about our existence that logic and science have not yet been able to explain,...
... and nothing says that ANY of them ever will be.

However, - that these mysteries remain as such does not substantiate the existence of a god or gods, - nor can science absolutely refute the existence of a god or gods on grounds which are not based in the rigors of scientific method.

My question is, then:
Why is it that we feel that we need to know everything?

In his book 'The Gay Science', Nietzsche wrote:
---"LIFE NO ARGUMENT. -
We have arranged for ourselves a world in which we are able to live - with the postulation of bodies, lines, surfaces, causes and effects, motion and rest, form and content: without these articles of faith nobody could now endure to live! But that does not yet mean they are something proved and demonstrated. Life is no argument; among the conditions of life there could be error."---

I agree wholeheartedly with this view;... for it calls into question whether or not we, as humans in a human world, - really know any 'absolute' truths about anything.
-

Answer 7

I see absolutely no evidence for miracles. I see plenty of evidence for ignorance and lies however. Thor believers attributed lightning to Thor with the same zeal that Christians attribute an image of Mary on a Grilled Cheese Sandwich to God. Today we attribute lightning to well understood physics.

The fact a Grilled Cheese sandwich has a vague resemblence to a 2000 year old legend is only a miracle in the mind of the devout believer.

Answer 8

Religious people see what they want to see-the human mind is very manipulatable.Anyone outside the religous delusion can see this but you cannot.Anything good happens and you attribute it to god, where as we just see it as something good. On the other hand, something bad happens and you possibly blame i on satan. It is not satan it is simply 'something bad has happened. Nothing more nothing less. God has not worked in anyone's life-YOU HAVE WORKED in your life! If you got a college degree it is because you are clever or worked hard-there are millions of people who have the same life as you but are atheist!!! Maybe one day you'll see this but I don't think you want to.

Answer 9

You would need to prove that your "gods" interference produced results that would not have happened without it. For example any amputees ever grow their limbs back......ever?

Personally if good things have happened to you it was down to either luck, your own perseverance/skill, someone elses skill (eg a doctor).

Besides if your god is interferring in your probably already not too shabby life why doesn't he interfere in the lives of people who you know.....starve to death. I mean there are people out there who have absolutely horrendous lives full of pain and suffering (and if you're a particular type of believer they're then going to be summarily tortured for the rest of eternity for not believing in your god). Why not interfere in that instead of helping you pass a test or whatever it was?

and why is it god only gets the credit for good things but not for bad things. Very strange that.

I'm also assuming you don't believe that your god gave us freewill otherwise he/she/it wouldn't be interfering in the first place

Answer 10

Self fulfilling prophesy, placebo effect, and odds are that sometimes miraculously appearing good as well as bad things just happen.

But I've paid for too many funerals of children (of parents who prayed for a miracle) who have suffered and died from malaria to believe in the existence of miracles.

Answer 11

I'm a religion hater and i can answer your question ...

there are no such things as miracles.. almost everything can be explain by science and every day you can see and learn new discoveries..

science is stranger than myth ( I saw it in animal planet )

so girl.. try to watch documentary channels and listen to some news... the world is on the way to a shi t ball..

some suggestions to get your bolts tighten -
National geography special read and watch
Discovery channel
Animal Planet
BBC news