Religion explains away miracles.

Religion does a great job of explaining itself away.

I was reading a fascinating biblical rebutting to the question of "Why doesn't god heal amputees". The question is an oldie but a goodie and succinctly displays the logical flaws in many religious arguments. In this case why does god only perform miracles that can have natural explanations, but never heals an amputee or do anything that would be truly miraculous by the standards of somebody living outside of the middle ages.


The author of the rebuke concludes the question makes seven false assertions and goes on to address these. In a brilliant display all seven counter claims are just as equally proof that god and miracles do not exist as the question itself. I assume this to be unintentional.


The conclusions made were as such;
1. God may have healed amputees before and it's just that nobody noted it down - no evidence.
2. God doesn't have to heal everyone because then people would live forever - not testable.
3. Even when miracles were relatively common in scripture it was still very rare - unreliable testimony.
4. God doesn't have to answer prayers - so you should never expect him to. 
5. Everything will be cool in the afterlife anyway so chill for now - none of this matters anyway.
6. Repeat of #6.


You'll have noticed by this point that this conveniently proves nothing, but it exactly what we might be able to deduce in either case of god existing but doing nothing, or not existing at all. Logically interesting but the part that caught my attention was in the detail of point #2, it's a take on the tired old "he works in mysterious ways" lark. 


You know the drill, "you are suffering because god has a plan for you", or "your child was run over by that car because god is testing your faith", or, "somebody killed your cat because god wants you to get a dog". The case discussed as a modern day example is that of Joni Eareckson Tada.


If you were alive in the 70s you probably heard about Joni, the book(s), the movie, and the talk show appearances. Joni Eareckson Tada was at the beach one day and dove into shallow waters, a bad dive that left her paralyzed from the shoulders down and then her subsequent miraculous acceptance.


Joni spent time and presumably money on faith healers and prayer. Whereas a normal person would have skipped the faith feelers bit and gone through grieving into acceptance her denial stage was extended and grown into a massive case of cognitive dissonance. We are told in the article that she concluded, "I’m convinced that God doesn’t want everyone well. He uses our problems for His glory and our good". 


I've done the exact same thing actually as a teenager. One afternoon just after dusk and I had been drinking with friends and was spurred to dive into the shallows thus showing how big and clever I was, I landed right on my head and felt my neck compress. I lay there stunned for a few seconds, it hurt, but it was ok. My neck was stiff for a couple of days but it didn't break and I realised I was quite lucky and have not done it since. 


Nor though have I ever felt the need to ask god why he didn't break my neck. Perhaps through the miracle of not turning me into a quadriplegic I can see god's plan for me is to spread the word that it is indeed big and clever to drunk-dive. After all, it couldn't be natural chance at all could it.


At least when eclipses we're being used as proof of miracles and gods it was an impressive show. Going about saying god doesn't have to do any really fails in showmanship.