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Christians and other religious people often talk about miracles and some even claim to have witnessed such miracles. Other people believe in healing, ghosts and other phenomena we categorize as supernatural.
In many cases we can call the bluff, other socalled supernatural phenomena can be explained as the result of quite normal events.
But in some cases there is no explanation even though the observed phenomena seems utterly absurd. For a religious person these events can explained in light of their belief and accepted as a natural thing or even a miracle through divine intervention.
Now, if we assume that the atheists are right and there is no God and no system or purpose to life other than what we add ourself, then how do we try to understand such phenomena?
Example from an interesting TV documentary I saw:
A rather famous danish atheist journalist has spent some 25 years critizising religion trying to disprove christianity and other religions. After a car crash some 15 years ago he had developed double vision and a sort of cramp in his eyes that bothered him a lot. So he decided to put "christian healing" to the test to, as he said, call their bluff. He went to a religious meeting where they supposedly healed the sick in Gods name.
Now during this session he suddenly jumps to as if he is hit by electric shock and turns totally pale. He then starts to cry and gets out of the room. The camera crew follow him and ask him what is wrong. The guy answers that his vision suddenly in the blink of a second goes back to normal for the first time in 15 years. You can clearly see that he is deeply shook from this event. They then film him next a couple of weeks later after he has had his eyes checked by a hospital. The hospital tells him that the nerve damage that was not supposed to heal actually has and that his eyesight is perfect.
Now for a christian this would be proof of his/her religious belief. But how do we try to understand this phenomena from an atheists standpoint. This event is documented and it actually happened to someone who tried to disprove that such things could happen. It was observed and documented. The reason why it happened or how it happened however has not.
This is just one example. I am sure that most people have heard of different phenomena that can't be explained through normal science and at the same time can't be written off as hoaxes, delutional observations or erronous observations of normal events.
In many cases we can call the bluff, other socalled supernatural phenomena can be explained as the result of quite normal events.
But in some cases there is no explanation even though the observed phenomena seems utterly absurd. For a religious person these events can explained in light of their belief and accepted as a natural thing or even a miracle through divine intervention.
Now, if we assume that the atheists are right and there is no God and no system or purpose to life other than what we add ourself, then how do we try to understand such phenomena?
Example from an interesting TV documentary I saw:
A rather famous danish atheist journalist has spent some 25 years critizising religion trying to disprove christianity and other religions. After a car crash some 15 years ago he had developed double vision and a sort of cramp in his eyes that bothered him a lot. So he decided to put "christian healing" to the test to, as he said, call their bluff. He went to a religious meeting where they supposedly healed the sick in Gods name.
Now during this session he suddenly jumps to as if he is hit by electric shock and turns totally pale. He then starts to cry and gets out of the room. The camera crew follow him and ask him what is wrong. The guy answers that his vision suddenly in the blink of a second goes back to normal for the first time in 15 years. You can clearly see that he is deeply shook from this event. They then film him next a couple of weeks later after he has had his eyes checked by a hospital. The hospital tells him that the nerve damage that was not supposed to heal actually has and that his eyesight is perfect.
Now for a christian this would be proof of his/her religious belief. But how do we try to understand this phenomena from an atheists standpoint. This event is documented and it actually happened to someone who tried to disprove that such things could happen. It was observed and documented. The reason why it happened or how it happened however has not.
This is just one example. I am sure that most people have heard of different phenomena that can't be explained through normal science and at the same time can't be written off as hoaxes, delutional observations or erronous observations of normal events.
