Biblical miracles and what faith could do by having it are plentiful to read from in the Bible. Some of my favorites are the three men in Daniel when they were put in a fiery furnace and came out unharmed because they believed in their God, and not of Nebuchadnezzar’s. Moses parts the Red Sea and does other wonders. Samson grows his hair long and receives amazing strength. In the NT believers are supposed to be able to pick up deadly snakes, and drink of poisons with no harm coming upon them. Some southern churches try to emulate this aspect. Jesus is said to have done many wonders by just laying upon the hands or saying a few words. The word “faith” is used hundreds of times throughout the Bible, and it is stressed in quite a few places how important this is in order to do such things.
When I read of such miracle stories either then or hear of them occurring now, I apply Hume’s scale of which is more likely to have occurred. Has science and what we know about nature’s laws really gone cuckoo? Or has man embellished or mistakenly or knowingly distorted the facts? This seems like a reasonable way of going about such a thing, and the reason it would need an extraordinary amount of proof in its favor before it should be accepted as actual fact.
Today’s miracles are not of the biblical kind, so not sure how one obtained their faith, it must mean different things to different believers. Invoking God or Jesus name is pretty much all drama and done for show (see Benny Hinn). Today if believers want miracles, they have to settle for the watered down variety along these lines: Aunt Betty had cancer, prayed, and went into remission. Billy Ray Bob had one leg longer than another, but a faith healer healed him. A person temporarily gets out of their wheelchair and walks around a little bit. Our football team won. One prays for rain and it does; a week later mind you, but it did rain. A lone survivor of a horrible plane crash says he is evidence of special providence, but on the flip side of that coin, nobody gets to ask the dead how they feel about that.
Isn’t one of the things that separates believers from the non-believers is what each group considers good evidence? Believers appear easily swayed by their emotions and wishful thinking, and are more readily acceptable to anecdotes, a good story teller, power of suggestion, personal testimonies, fallacious arguments, hearsay, and peer pressure all seem to help persuade believers. Even geography plays a role. Faith, I suppose gives believers sort of a placebo effect of some sorts, but not sure how adults convince themselves of such beliefs, and set their logic aside. An afterlife of eternal bliss and seeing loved ones again is a very comforting thought. And if this hope and promise in an afterlife doesn’t persuade one, others might try another of fear and eternal damnation which has the same exact lack of evidence going for it as does the afterlife of eternal bliss. It was Lucian that wrote many centuries ago that said life was swayed by two great tyrants, hope and fear. Religion has exploited both to the fullest, has it not?
I remember as a teenager being in the church for five years, and there I was still passing the communion plate at age 16, my last year in the church, I still wasn’t baptized. I remember a few of the stares I would get, and one particular Elder who always made it a habit of giving me this disgruntled look each time the communion plate had just come to me because I had to pass and not partake since I wasn’t baptized. Before I took the plunge, I wanted to get the faith first. I kept hearing about how others read the Bible, and it somehow helped in their faith. It honestly had the opposite effect on me. I was also taken a bit back of just how the Bible had many of God’s favorites that were brutal and immoral people, and many a times this particular God looked the other way on often serious offenses such as genocide, murder and rape, but would huff and puff for the most petty of offenses, such as building or making a fire on the Sabbath which carried the death penalty. When religious people tell me the very same story I just read, I’m often amazed how much spin one could put on it, and how they always will give this God a free pass each and every time. I paid particular attention to the faith and miracle stories, figuring this would be a sure-fire way of me getting the faith if only it was true. Don’t most of the believers, at least on this board at least recognize the miracles stories as seriously doubtful? But even if I found the stories to be true, I would have still had the problem of how the Bible seemed to describe a Demon more than a God, and why would anyone find such a Being worthy of admiration such as that?
I remember when my brothers, both younger and older were baptized, how they especially received all of these adulations from the church, and I was happy for them. I actually have many fond memories while I was in the church, overall I felt like they were good people who were seriously mistaken for all of the wrong reasons, much of what I gave earlier. I didn’t think those reasons were good enough evidence to believe, and perhaps they really knew it too, but maybe good evidence wasn’t what they were really after. I seriously doubt anyone actually has the kind of faith I am thinking of. I wanted my faith to be as strong as the three men in Daniel.
Maybe believers can recall exactly how they obtained their faith, and give other insights on how one can still sustain it in this day and age. Often today I hear believers going through some ordeal, and plenty of time one says “only my faith in God got me through it.” I’m not sure I understand what that means to them, but I suspect they don’t give themselves enough credit. I believe it was Bishop Spong that said, even if God does exist, you had better live your life as if He doesn’t. I think what he was saying was that there is no personal God of any kind that is going to intervene on your behalf, you truly are on your own.
How does reading about such miracles carry any weight with believers today and does this still do anything for your faith? Hasn’t most of our present understanding of how this modern world works put some serious dampers on your faith, or do you honestly feel like it is as strong as it has ever been? Why doesn’t anyone today have faith as strong as the three men in Daniel? Every person of faith I’ve ever came across today aren’t remotely like the ones I used to read about in the Bible; not a one.
