Questions for non-believers

[Jeff V]

I posed this question in response in another thread. I'm re-posting the questions here to see what some non-believers think.

However I wonder- if I were to give an eyewitness account to a genuine bonafide miracle would any non-believer come to belief? Not a "hey look at that it's Mary in a potato chip" but something that couldn't be explained by science, math, physics etc? What then? Well I must be a religious kook then because obviously that can't happen right?

Who if anyone would be credible enough to give such an account? Is there any chance in your opinion that a miracle can occur?

[ QUOTE ]
I posed this question in response in another thread. I'm re-posting the questions here to see what some non-believers think.

However I wonder- if I were to give an eyewitness account to a genuine bonafide miracle would any non-believer come to belief? Not a "hey look at that it's Mary in a potato chip" but something that couldn't be explained by science, math, physics etc? What then? Well I must be a religious kook then because obviously that can't happen right?

Who if anyone would be credible enough to give such an account? Is there any chance in your opinion that a miracle can occur?

[/ QUOTE ]

The problem is in defining "miracle". What is a miracle to the layperson may not be a miracle to another. So for one, for somebody to claim that an event is beyond the known laws of science means they must first understand the known laws of science, and even then maybe a change in the laws is necessary rather than deducing a god exists. Think UFO believers. How many of them know anything about aeronautical engineering? Yet they sit around Nevada and make claims that the flying thing they saw was beyond anything that could be built by humans. Well, the stealth fighter sure looked alien when it was built in the 1970s, but it was hardly an alien spacecraft.

Also, it is too easy to abuse the term miracle to things which are just improbable. A tornado comes through and wipes out everything but the preacher's home. Is this a miracle? Not likely.

And one more point, one could go to a David Copperfield show and witness dozens of bona fide miracles (or so they thought). Your witness to something beyond the laws of science are far more likely to be a hoax then a real miracle, as evidenced by the fact that magicians, hoax artists, and charlatans have used the technique for hundreds of years.

"The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails." -- H.L. Mencken

[chezlaw]

[ QUOTE ]
I posed this question in response in another thread. I'm re-posting the questions here to see what some non-believers think.

However I wonder- if I were to give an eyewitness account to a genuine bonafide miracle would any non-believer come to belief? Not a "hey look at that it's Mary in a potato chip" but something that couldn't be explained by science, math, physics etc? What then? Well I must be a religious kook then because obviously that can't happen right?

Who if anyone would be credible enough to give such an account? Is there any chance in your opinion that a miracle can occur?

[/ QUOTE ]

A miracle is not something you witness, its an explanation of something you witness but cannot explain.

All you could relate to me is what event you witnessed. If credible enough I will tend to believe you (although it is always possible you've gone mad) but may interpret the event differently.

chez