The comments are still going strong on last week’s Is there a God? – The Problem of an Evil SOB called GOD, if you haven’t already, join in the discussion.

A very popular argument for the existence of God is the occurrence of miracles. I’ve seen people in church claim miracles ranging from being healed of cancer to God helping them find their keys. Generally a miracle is seen as an event where God breaks the laws of nature to intervene on a person’s behalf, thus if it has a natural explanation then it refutes the miracle claim. However, there are some who prefer to view it as God working within the laws of nature, sometimes even through human agents (i.e. doctors, engineers, etc) to intervene, the problem with this view is that it waters down the definition to the point of being worthless.

Recently an Adventist Pastor in Peru, Carlos Parra Diaz, claimed that God worked through him to rescue the trapped miners, saying “God has spoken to me clearly and guided my hand each step of the rescue. He wanted the miners to be rescued and I am his instrument.” This miracle claim is easy to refute since the miners were rescued through a feat of engineering that took several months and the collaboration of scientists and engineers from around the world, even from NASA. It would be different if Pastor Diaz had prayed and the ground split open allowing the miners to walk out.

The mere fact that I was born has been viewed as a miracle by some. My mom had Lymphoma several years before having me and the high doses of radiation and chemotherapy had left her infertile. The doctors told her that she would not be able to have any more children, yet here I am. In 1980 they had not been successfully treating Lymphoma for very long and I really wouldn’t be surprised if no other survivor up to that point had given birth after treatment.

Coincidentally, I have a friend with almost the same exact story, just a few years later. The main difference is that the doctors told her mom that she might be able to have a child, while the doctors had told my mom that she couldn’t. I wonder if it had something to do with the the doctors checking me out when I was a few months old, which would be right about the time my friend’s mom was being treated at the same facility.

A quick Google search for “fertility after cancer treatment” yields numerous sources that will tell you such things as:

• Fertility levels are lower after cancer treatment than they are for the general population.
• The part of the body treated and the doses effect the impact on fertility. With Lymphoma they treat the entire body in high doses, so it would follow that it would have a large impact.
• The risk of birth defects and other complications are about double what you find in the general population.
• Fertility may change after treatment, such as resuming a few years after treatment or not being effected until a few years after treatment.

My birth in 1984 seemed to break all the rules of medicine. Now, it’s understood to be quite common and natural, hardly a miracle.

Who’s Miracles?

Even more problematic than determining what is a miracle and what isn’t, is who’s miracles to accept. Christians reject Muslim miracles. Muslims reject Hindu miracles. Atheists reject them all.

Hindu Milk Miracle

The best documented and most repeated miracle of modern times is the Hindu Milk Miracle. On September 21, 1995 hundreds of thousands of people across the world (of course mostly in India) witnessed statues of the Hindu gods and goddesses drinking milk offered to them. In some shrines the statues had consumed many gallons of milk, yet the floors were dry.

This was repeated on August 20-21, 2006 and again on September 22, 2010. There is video footage. Western journalists witnessed it and reported on it. Scientists have even studied it and tried to find natural explanations for it (capillary action).

Below you can watch a short video of one such statue enjoying a spoonful of milk:

I highly doubt that the best documented and repeated miracle would convert any Christians to Hinduism, so why do Christians think that alleged miracles with little or no documentation; few, if any, witnesses; and very easy natural explanations will convince anyone else that their god was at work?