(May 6, 2015 at 10:29 am)alpha male Wrote: ...
(May 5, 2015 at 6:09 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: The first problem with your idea can be explained quite simply. Imagine the world, exactly as it is, but with this difference: One man, who lives forever, goes around healing people with lost limbs. He just touches the stump and it instantly grows back, perfectly recovered. He does this publicly, and lets scientists and others examine everything carefully beforehand and while he is doing it. This man tells you he is god.
Well, we would certainly know that something was very special about this man, even though him healing people was an everyday occurrence. So your idea that miracles have to be rare to be recognized as miracles is just wrong.
One man out of all of humanity is indeed rare. You haven't removed rarity, you've just changed the nature of it.
I have demonstrated that if there were a god who wanted to convince people of its existence, it would be possible to do a vastly better job of it than any god has done. The fact that stories of miracles are typically done in remote regions, or in private, or among primitive savages, strongly suggests that the stories are just bullshit. And so when we conclude that the miracle stories of the Bible are bullshit, we are reasoning well. And we are reasoning as you do for other religions, as you dismiss their miracles and do not regard their miracle stories as proving that Islam is true or that Hinduism is true or etc. The simple fact is, you are inconsistent about these matters, which means that you are not only wrong, but are necessarily wrong.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
