RE: Atheists, tell me, a Roman Catholic: why should I become an atheist?
November 26, 2016 at 11:29 am
(November 26, 2016 at 5:39 am)robvalue Wrote: Who cares about miracles, anyway?
A legit miracle would be a game-changer, confirming that there are things that can be ascribed to the supernatural. Most religious texts describe stuff that could --if performed today-- be tested to the degree that we should be able to rule out natural causes. A man able to walk on water, or turn water into wine, or restore sight to a blind person or movement to a paralyzed person, or take a few fish and loaves and feed thousands and then recover more left-overs than he started with... someone who did all of these things and could do them in any setting and under any circumstances? That would change the way we view the universe and reality itself.
Most of the miracles that occur today can be ascribed to luck or circumstance, but they don't describe things that do not have natural causes. Those that do cannot be agreed upon even by the devoutly religious; if you read of a miracle occurring to someone who is not of your denomination or faith, you are likely to doubt its veracity or believe that it's an example of the devil trying to mislead people. Many are passed along even when the only witness is the person reporting the event. Others are believed and passed along as miracles even when a natural cause is discovered. There may seem to be an overwhelming preponderance of miracles in today's world, but a closer look indicates a very different definition of the term is being used.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould