Christian motives to lie.

[Jenny A]

I think there's a whole variety of stuff going on with miracles that aren't.

People do all kinds of stuff just to seek attention. And I suspect that the bus driver is a real attention seeker. Many truly faked miracles are probably as much about getting attention as they are about converting anyone. Priests and churches, whether Christian or otherwise, have a financial motive for faking that's really obvious. These people are obviously lying.

But mostly, I think people fool themselves. We humans have very associate minds. I briefly mistake something in the yard at twilight for a dog or a person about once a week. Were I inclined to see angels I probably would. The people who have near death experiences of heaven have drunk the cool aide. Ditto people who say, see I survived the plane crash it's a miracle. Or who see the Virgin Mary in a potato chip.

Dan Barker, former evangelist preacher now atheist says he belied God performed healing miracles for him. Looking back rationally, he knows better.

I served for a while as librarian for Kathryn Kuhlman’s Los Angeles choir, observing the “miracles” first-hand. I was even instrumental in a few healings myself.

Losing Faith

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I've spoken before about a couple of hobby-xtian friends of mine, who used to belong to some local church thing before they decided the pastor was getting too preachy and catty. Anyway, in one of their misguided and doomed convert-the-heathen phases, they related to me one of these 'miracle' stories told them by this pastor.

Apparently, she was walking home one evening and was about to enter the obligatory dark alley, when she was set upon by a cookie-cutter gang of youths intent on doing her harm. All of a sudden, they stopped in their tracks, staring above her head with a look of terror, then fled as if chased by old Herbert from Family Guy. Since the laws of narrative imperative require satisfying closure, one of the gang was collared by a policeman who, remembering the script, asked what was going on 'ere then. It turns out that the ne'er-do-wells had seen a fiery angel standing in mid air over their intended victim's head, possibly with a sword or some other illegal weapon, and obviously this had scared them so badly they immediately turned to the lord etc etc.

Yes. I was impressed too.

Doesn't surprise. People see the darnedest things. It's just that they see that reflect their belief system. If they were Hindu thuglets, they'd see something else.