Answering an atheist drinking question?

Question

I am constantly asked by atheists, "Why does god heal people from illnesses, but he doesn't heal amputees"

Because that would be so profound, you would have no choice but to believe in God. God always gives us a choice to believe or disbelieve, God will not force you to believe. That wouldn't be fair, now would it?

Answer 1

Heh that is great.

So god doesn't heal amputees because that would convince too many humans to believe in him, and be saved from eternal damnation.

He is a real jerk.

Answer 2

Not very convincing, sorry. If there are people who believe in god without any shown evidence, then there would be still people who won't believe even if he would heal amputees. The choice would be still there, even if he would show himself once in a while. So what you just said makes a god even less likely :)

Answer 3

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

The truth is that sick people get better throught their immune system. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say, it has very little to do with God and more to do with chemistry and physics.

Secondly, about 80-90% of amputees are amputees for natural causes... That is, there was no traumatic injury that knocked their leg off, but the blood vessels and/or nerve tissue of the leg stopped working, and this led to a choice of them cutting off their leg or dying. Is that fair proof of God or no God?

Answer 4

Do you really think this is more likely than the possibility that God doesn't heal anyone from anything, and that some people are bound to heal from illnesses anyway?

Wouldn't you be more surprised if no one ever healed from anything at all?

Keep playing mind games to convince yourself that God exists in the shadowy corners of doubtful occurances, but you're not convincing me.

Answer 5

True. But then again, God may not have the ability to heal all people. Do we know if He is that great? What else do we know about God? We are only human, so if God is greater than we are, how are we to understand him without killing ourselves? Then again, God may have the ability to speak to us in a smaller form, through, say, Jesus. The God-man.

Hot debate there.

Answer 6

Yours was very funny, but I think Douglas Adams said it better (at least he was ironic), regarding the fictional and amazingly useful Babelfish:

Now, it is such a bizarrely improbable thing that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved in the Universe purely by chance that many thinkers have chosen to see this as a final clinching proof of the NON-existence of God.

The argument goes something like this ... "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"But," says Man, "the Babelfish is a dead give away. It proves you exist, and so therefore you don't. QED." "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

Answer 7

i have also heard it said that god heals people more in a spiritual manner. the mind has some control over your immune system and if you are optimistic of recovering after cancer you are more likely to heal. some people believes god helps you deal with your illness so you can heal or at least deal with the problem.

Answer 8

"Why does god heal people from illnesses, but he doesn't heal amputees"

-- it's not the physical that needs healing - it's the soul (whether the physical is healed or not) that's of interest to us and God, and that's what gets healed in illnesses and amputees or anyone else when someone starts to believe in God.

Answer 9

So you're saying that not only is there no evidence for God, but He actually goes to great lengths to remove any evidence?

Meaning that the only influence on non-believers to convert is the voices of the faithful, whining and threatening us?

Under the circumstances, I think I'll stick with my current belief system, then.

CD

Answer 10

LOL
So god doesn't heal amputees because he doesn't want people to believe? That is very strange logic.