Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Car Keys are not a miracle.

I could go over a very long and exhaustive list over what does not count as a miracle and why but that would seriously inhibit my productivity at work(moreso than it is now).
I'll go over a list of the most common things, and explain them, and then I'll define a miracle and explain why if one were to ever happen most Freethinkers would convert on the spot.

Finding something that was lost
Misplacing something is the act of putting it somewhere and forgetting where you put it, or having someone else come along behind you and move that object, and failing to update you on where they moved it to. God does not update your brain on where the location is, you simply start looking in likely places or are looking for another thing when you come across it.

Overcoming a disease
People overcome diseases every day. They also die horribly from completely preventable diseases every day. The act of going to a doctor for something else and finding out you have caught something early enough to treat it is also not a miracle, as many people die from things that, if caught early, can be easily treated(meningitis, tuberculosis).
Many of these people are devout Christians, of all sects and faiths, and you had better believe that many of them believe the same thing you do- they just didn't have the fortune you did.

Babies

Animals are born every day- are they miracles? And so are bugs- are they? Bacteria split in your intestinal tract every second- is that a miracle? Where do you draw the line that new life is or is not a miracle? How about the baby that dies in childbirth? Or the mother? What about the baby that is born to an eleven year old child who was not ready for this to happen to her?

Surviving A Natural Disaster

Obviously, surviving a natural disaster is not a miracle, as if it were a true miracle, no one would have died. Or, only the sinful would have died(which is everyone) or only non-Christians(or the saved, or those who go to church every day, or people of a particular sect) would have died(which is horribly hypocritical) and that would render it not a natural disaster, but a super-natural one.
Point being, why did you(or the subject) survive while others did not.


Needless to say, many people attribute these occurrences as miracles when they are simply not. Or, you bring up the problem of evil/god's great plan. This of course brings up chaos theory which I will address in a later post.

However, miracles are defined neatly for us and it is easy to put any thing to the test if we are simply consistent in our definition. From the great Wikipedia: "A miracle is a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker."
Being that all of the things in this list and many, many others attributed to god or miracles are very explainable and occur in nature frequently we can conclude that miracles DO(not) happen every day and we (don't) need to be thankful for them.

Freethinkers however, upon being presented with evidence of a departure from the laws of nature or something that is unexplainable(not "hasn't been explained" and not "once this happened to me...") by anyone, they will convert to whatever religious explanation actually fits. Here is a video that really explains that, and why.

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