So what evidence do you have of miracles?
Indeed, why are miracles so rare? They seemed to occur with great regularity just a few thousand years ago. One might explain that God is testing our faith, but the most logical explanation is that they never occurred in the first place.
What conditions changed that suddenly put an end to these miracles? I would suggest it was a greater understanding of the natural world. The more we understand, the fewer miracles manifest.
What is your explanation for that?
You haven't just hit it, C; you've clobbered it-- but not in the way you intended. Your skepticism, which is prevalent throughout the "Christian" world (the West, I mean), is the reason why miracles are few in comparison to times past. Not that God is withholding them from us because he's upset that our society questions him, but rather why would he perform a miracle if the people who experience will in turn busy themselves with trying to manufacture a rational, natural explanation?
An Illustration:
MIDDLE EAST- There was continued debate today over the deaths of several hundred prophets of Baal, who were killed last week during a religious ceremony. Eye witness accounts suggest that fire fell from the sky and consumed the prophets, who had spent the whole morning trying to convince Baal to set fire to an offering they had placed on their altar. Further sources suggest that this fire appeared upon the request of a Hebrew prophet named Elijah.
However, evidence has surfaced today that casts doubt upon the legitimacy of this claim. "The middle east is an oil-rich area," explains soil scientist Benjamin bar Jonah, "and the day in question was very hot. It is quite possible that with the heat of the day and the fervent dancing of the prophets stirred up flammable trace molecules in the soil which, in the dense heat, would have accumulated over the course of the morning and settled upon the area in question. A simple spark could have caused an instantaneous blaze of spontaneous combustion."
Mr. bar Jonah is not the only one who is questioning the so-called miracle. Queen Jezebel herself insists that the tragedy was an act of terrorism.
"My prophets are legitimate," she said in an interview earlier this morning, "and a constant source of jealousy within a rebel faction led by this Elijah, who is nothing more than a terrorist whose weapon of choice is a firebomb. The fact that he challenged my prophets to this competition was not an accident, but rather an act of cold-blooded murder."
Footage of the event was posted on YouTube shortly afterwards, but even it has become the subject of intense scrutiny. "All video can be edited and made to look like it shows something it does not," explains Professor I.M. Natbaleevinit of the Communications Department at the University of Jericho.
"Anybody with a cursory knowledge of video editing could have taken raw footage of a religious ceremony, and then added special effects to make it look as if some bizarre event had happened, such as fire falling from the sky. For all we know, those prophets could have been paid actors.”
When the Pharisees challenged Jesus to perform a sign in order to prove his authority, Jesus told them to go take a hike (loose translation
) How much more a society which demands everything be proven beyond a reasonable doubt before it believes?
