# If you saw a miracle tomorrow **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 11, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792 "2010-06-11T13:19:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/41 "2010-06-11T17:35:59Z")
I have a plan: 1. I’d wonder if it were real or a stunt, and conclude most likely a stunt. 2. I’d try to catch a glimpse of **Der Trihs** in the background of the coverage, as he’s on record as being willing to try to bump off God using the patented _ **SDMB Spear of Destiny mistletoe sabot bazooka** _. Then I’d say to **Ms. Attack** : “Hey, I know that guy! I helped design that widget!” 3. I’d be glad that I’m a buddhist. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/42 "2010-06-11T17:39:34Z")
> [@Marmite\_Lover](#): > > Just interested in hearing how people would view it all. > > What would everyone do in the next few minutes? I’d say “Wow, this is really fucking weird.” There is no other plausible reaction. ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/43 "2010-06-11T17:43:44Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > What if, just what if, hypothetically now, a person who believed in God took some biology classes. Standing ovation! ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/44 "2010-06-11T17:56:59Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > It would depend on the leading of the Holy Spirit who is God living in me. Scripture speaks of such deception at the end times. He is a impostor by definition (though the miracles are visible), no one but God is able to judge the human heart. Let this man be judged by God as he judges. How do you tell the difference between the leading of the Holy Spirit and the leading of your fallen sinful nature (and/or Satan)? ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/45 "2010-06-11T18:03:28Z")
> [@Marmite\_Lover](#): > > I am wondering if you were at the stadium and saw it. Would you not believe what you were seeing? Night before last, I went to see the Cirque de Soleil show _KA_. So if I were to see this stadium thing you described first-hand, I’d probably think it was cool engineering of the special effects, almost as good as the _KA_ show. Let me ask you something: how much time do you spend thinking about the possibility that Zeus will appear out of the clouds and strike you with a thunderbolt? Well, that’s probably more than we atheists spend thinking about the Jesus story actually being true. It’s just not on our radar. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/46 "2010-06-11T18:37:08Z")
Oddly enough, **kanicbird** ’s got the best answer. Just because someone shows up claiming that they’re God, and able to exhibit what appears to be god-like abilities, it does not automatically follow that they’re the deity mentioned in the Bible. Even if we are able to completely rule out human charlatans, there’s still the possibility that we’re dealing with A) aliens running some sort of scam B) supernatural, but not deific, entities misrepresenting their nature, C) actual gods, but not the god of the New Testament, trying to mislead us about the nature of the NT god, or D) the actual God of the New Testament, trying to mislead us about the nature of the universe. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/47 "2010-06-11T18:59:56Z")
> [@Marmite\_Lover](#): > > seriously?? > > You’d come here to post when it was happening live on TV? Sure. There might be people online who would be interested in watching. Or in discussing it while it unfolds. I can see the TV from the computer, if that’s what you’re worried about. Althought, really, I’d assume it was some sort of scam and that it would eventually get worked out without my help. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/48 "2010-06-11T19:23:01Z")
> [@Marmite\_Lover](#): > > I was just thinking about if this happened and you were an athiest. What would be going through your mind. What would you be thinking when you looked at the screen and saw that in fact there is a God and Jesus was a prophet and now you were going to burn in hell for eternity. I just cannot get my head around anyone who doesn’t believe in God and am wondering if they actually ever think this might happen and what they would do if it did. Well, I don’t watch soccer and neither does anybody else I know, and I don’t watch the news or any broadcast TV at all, so either I’d hear it secondhand (possibly the next day, believe it or not), or judgement would kick in before I found out. If I heard it second hand, I wouldn’t believe it at first, for obvious reasons. It probably wouldn’t take too long to convince me though, making reasonable assumptions about this making the internet news. Given that I would have necessarily had time to get used to the idea as I was being convinced of it, I would be shocked, but not scream and run. I mean, what’s the point? There’s nowhere to run _to_, after all. As the first blush of shock wore off, I would start to settle into a grim fatalism - “Dammit, the evil god of the christians _is_ real, and is coming in with his barbaric stone-age mockery of justice to pointlessly destroy everying”, basically. I wouldn’t feel any guilt or regret over the way I’d lived my life; all that would happen to me would be God’s fault alone, very similarly to the situation if terrorists stormed into my house and shot me for not keeping the right brand of mustard in the refridgerator. Of course, if I didn’t find out all this was happening until I was suddenly teleported to hell or something, my first response would be _ **“what the fuck!?!”** _, followed by the above, assuming I wasn’t too busy being tortured into insanity by that sadistic bastard God. (Or his minion Satan; same thing.) ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/49 "2010-06-11T19:31:27Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > 1. I’d try to catch a glimpse of **Der Trihs** in the background of the coverage, as he’s on record as being willing to try to bump off God using the patented _ **SDMB Spear of Destiny mistletoe sabot bazooka** _. Then I’d say to **Ms. Attack** : “Hey, I know that guy! I helped design that widget!” Man, that’d make an awesome premise for a book. Chapter 1: Jesus rises again, tells us the rapture is upon us, asserts that he can lead us to heaven…and an angry atheist kills him before he can finish. Now what? Or they could make it a disaster movie–sort of a Christian _2012_. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/50 "2010-06-11T19:32:35Z")
> [@Marmite\_Lover](#): > > yes but what if you were proved wrong? > > I am wondering if you were at the stadium and saw it. Would you not believe what you were seeing? No, because it’s sufficiently ridiculous that hallucination, special effects or a prank by aliens are all more plausible. What would it take to convince you that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the One True God? And so, no I’m not worried about anything like this happening. Christianity is physically impossible and full of logical contradictions. There’s a better chance my left arm will spontaneously turn into a snake and bite me. > [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > 1. I’d try to catch a glimpse of **Der Trihs** in the background of the coverage, as he’s on record as being willing to try to bump off God using the patented _ **SDMB Spear of Destiny mistletoe sabot bazooka** _. Then I’d say to **Ms. Attack** : “Hey, I know that guy! I helped design that widget!” **lines up crosshairs on the back of God’s head** ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/51 "2010-06-11T19:36:15Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > **lines up crosshairs on the back of God’s head** Ah, you’d only have to do it again three days later. Wait! That’d make one hell of a filibuster (pun intended). We can take bazooka duty in rotating shifts! See how long we can stall the rapture/judgment/Armageddon/whatever. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/52 "2010-06-11T20:03:57Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > “Dammit, the evil god of the christians _is_ real, and is coming in with his barbaric stone-age mockery of justice to pointlessly destroy everying” I’d just like to clarify that I _am_ an atheist - my presumption would be that this God has told a hell of a lot of lies to people, and/or they completely misinterpreted/elaborated on/fanficced up the bulk of the doctorine, such that all the really really impossible stuff God’s supposed to do/have done didn’t happen. Demonstrably starting with omnibenevolence and moving on from there. Of course, this is sort of explicitly the case in the OP when Jesus clarifies that no, he’s _not_ the son of God, so maybe this post went without saying. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/53 "2010-06-11T20:15:36Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > But see, the thing is, as atheists, we absolutely know this isn’t going to happen. At all. Ever. We never think in these fantastical terms. It doesn’t cross our minds. We don’t consider it. At all. Ever. End of story. > > I am a mammal. A mammal with the ability to speak, and to reason. That’s all I am. I’m not part of a grander plan. I’m a hairless ape typing at a keyboard and in 30-odd years, if all goes as planned, I will become a bag of fertilizer. That’s all there is to it. Nothing else. In the mean time I will be kind to my fellow hairless apes and treat them as I would want to be treated. Jesus Christ at a soccer game, I can’t stand it. Good Damn Grief. ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/54 "2010-06-11T20:15:39Z")
Suppose tomorrow a company starts selling tachyon viewers that allow you to see any event in the past. You buy one and set it to observe the life of Jesus/Muhammad/Buddha/etc. Instead of the narrative you have always believed, you see that either a) They didn’t exist, b)They didn’t do any of the things they were supposed to have done, or c)They actually preached something totally at odds with what has come down through history as their message. What do you do then? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/55 "2010-06-11T20:19:36Z")
> [@Nature\_s\_Call](#): > > Ah, you’d only have to do it again three days later. > > Wait! That’d make one hell of a filibuster (pun intended). We can take bazooka duty in rotating shifts! See how long we can stall the rapture/judgment/Armageddon/whatever. “How can you still be an atheist when everyone saw him show up?!” “Wait for it…” **BLAM**"; “OK, now I’m sure there’s no God. For the next three days at least.” ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/56 "2010-06-11T20:21:21Z")
Der Trihs bought us 3 days! I say we party like Babylon! ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/57 "2010-06-11T20:37:15Z")
> [@Strassia](#): > > Suppose tomorrow a company starts selling tachyon viewers that allow you to see any event in the past. You buy one and set it to observe the life of Jesus/Muhammad/Buddha/etc. Instead of the narrative you have always believed, you see that either a) They didn’t exist, b)They didn’t do any of the things they were supposed to have done, or c)They actually preached something totally at odds with what has come down through history as their message. > > What do you do then? Be completely unsurprised? Oh, wait, apparently I’m supposed to believe they existed and did and/or preached the exaxt things people nowadays claim they did, at least in scenarios b and c. I can’t answer this, then. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/58 "2010-06-11T20:51:29Z")
I would have to conclude thst extraterrestrials with a sufficiently advanced technology and an understanding of Earth’s mythology were trying to subdue the world’s population. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/59 "2010-06-11T21:13:21Z")
Guys - it wasn’t _three_ days. Friday afternoon to pre-dawn Sunday morning is more like a day and a half. As Mr. Deity said, “Thirty-six hours tops. Thirty-five if we do it on a weekend when the time changes.” We’re gonna need more bullets. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792/60 "2010-06-11T21:14:33Z")
I want to see the look on Talibaptists’ faces when they realize he’s not caucasian. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-saw-a-miracle-tomorrow/542792.md?page=4)