GOD or NOT #3: Miracles
I’ve been waiting night and day.
I didn’t see the time,
I waited half my life away.
There were lots of invitations
and I know you sent me some,
but I was waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.”
Well, the wait is finally over. It’s time once again for the only blog carnival that brings together the best of theist and atheist thought:
This edition features 16 posts about miracles, evenly split between theist and atheist contributors. Prepare for some really excellent reading and more reference to David Hume than you can shake a stick at.
We start off with a post from UberKuh: The Artistic Atheist, entitled “Castles in the Air.” UberKuh starts with the definition of a miracle by David Hume (who I’ve heard could out-consume Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel) and concludes that the concept is self-contradictory, and therefore impossible. Ochuk, from 20 Times Around the Block, anticipates this type of argument, and attempts to defuse it by altering the definition in “On Miracles.”
Next, we have a string of posts, starting with “Miracles and the Peculiarities of Human Psychology” by Tim at Challies. Again starting with David Hume, Tim contradicts his definition by questioning whether there are true laws of nature or simply “regularities,” which free god’s hand to perform miracles. Chad, from Eternal Revolution, comments on Tim’s ideas, expanding and refining some of his points in “Miracles.” Aaron Kinney, from Kill the Afterlife, challenges the validity of Tim and Chad’s definitions in “It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! No, it’s a Miracle!.” Seeing this kind of interaction taking place before the carnival even occurs makes me feel like GOD or NOT has really had an effect in opening the lines of communication.
In “Violating the Laws of Nature,” Macht from Prosthesis also deals with the definitional difficulties associated with miracles, citing Augustine, Calvin and others to support his beliefs. Francois Tremblay, from Goosing the Antithesis, offers our final word on this particular argument in “Miracles and Materialism.”
Our next batch of posts deals with modern-day miracles. From Equus Nom Veritas, we have “Miracles: Are They Still Happening?“, which seeks to demonstrate that miracles are still a part of daily life in the modern day. Addie, from Musings of a Liberatheist, talks about one specific “miracle” she witnessed as a child in “Staging a Miracle: The Exorcism of Alvin.” Finally, Morgaine from The-Goddess tells us about the miracle that saved her mother’s life.
Chris Hallquist, from The Uncredible Hallq, gives us “Why I am Not a Naturalist“, in which he expands his disbelief beyond the supernatural and explains how the reliance on testimony also leads him to reject UFO claims. Speaking of testimony, the miraculous origins of Christian scripture are the subject of “Can The New Testament Be Both Influenced By Plato and Inspired by God?” by Kenny Pearce.
British evangelical Adrian Warnock offers his belief in the necessity of miracles to an understanding of Christianity in “All I Need is a Miracle.” On the other hand, Pyro_Shark from Excelsior expresses incredulity that anyone is able to differentiate between miracles and happenstance in “The Absence of Miracles.”
Most of these posts have been pretty heavy, so let’s close with a couple of laughs. First, in an apparent homage to David Letterman, we have “Top 10 List: Reasons Mary Can’t Stop Blubbering,” in which we learn what the weeping statues and paintings are so sad about. This is from Darren at Godless Wonder, which is one of the best-kept secrets in the atheist blogosphere. Next we have an account of a real-life miracle from PopeBenedictXVI (no relation) at Cyber-Pope. “Free Soundgarden CDs for Everyone!” shows us all that Amazon works in mysterious ways.
That about wraps it up for this edition. GOD or NOT 4 (Morality) will be held on December 19 at The-Goddess. The deadline is December 16. That’s less than two weeks from now, so get those submissions in pronto.
Also, we are in need of theist hosts, since we’re currently four short. If you are a Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Pagan, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. believer and would like to host an upcoming edition of GOD or NOT, you can find the rules and application instructions here.
~I AM~
December 5th, 2005 at at 12:42 am
Excellent! Lots of reading.
December 5th, 2005 at at 12:59 am
Cool. Lots o’ posts.
December 5th, 2005 at at 4:12 am
Damn – talk about setting the bar! How am I going to follow this act?! Hee. Nicely done!
December 5th, 2005 at at 4:22 am
I wonder if that Jesus Sandwich tastes different from a regular grilled cheese…
I’m hungry now.
December 5th, 2005 at at 5:59 am
God or Not: Miracles
The 3rd God or Not Carnival is up – and the topic is miracles. There are 16 posts from Christians and atheists which you can read at The Evangelical Atheist. (Should I point out evangel is the Greek word for…
December 5th, 2005 at at 6:39 am
Good job! Thanks!
December 5th, 2005 at at 7:31 am
Thanks, Bill. Sorry I couldn’t get you in there. The theist shortage I had just a few days ago turned into a surplus, and I had to leave some people out.
December 5th, 2005 at at 8:12 am
[...] re invited to write on a bi-month topic. This week’s carvaval is being hosted by the Evangelical Atheist. A typical argument against miracles put forward by athei [...]
December 5th, 2005 at at 8:20 am
This was a great post. I especially liked the pictures of “Miracle Whip”—that made me laugh.
December 5th, 2005 at at 9:24 am
Great article! The miraculous is definitely of interest to every human being, whether theist or athiest! I’ve been dealing with this topic for the last three weeks on my site and I will continue to deal with it for the weeks to come. It’s being featured on Blogs4God and I believe it will be beneficial to all interested. My article series is entitled, “Why don’t we see major miracles in the Western Church?”
December 5th, 2005 at at 10:57 am
[...] Church
God Or Not Carnival – 3rd Edition
05 Dec 2005 09:53 am
GOD or NOT #3 is up at The Evangelical Atheist and the topic is “Miracles&# [...]
December 5th, 2005 at at 11:13 am
Great presentation I AM!
December 5th, 2005 at at 11:21 am
I liked the picture of the American Olympic Hockey team. The movie Miracle is pretty good. Great job on God or Not!
December 5th, 2005 at at 1:07 pm
Miracle Whip! Miracle Gro! Too freakin’ funny! Nice job.
December 5th, 2005 at at 1:44 pm
Great job with your presentation, I AM. I’m sorry that I missed out on the deadline this week. The story of my life. Anyway, my take on miracles is still on my blog for anyone who wants to see — if you haven’t all been overstuffed with Hume by now.
Sweet delicious Hume.
Good work, everybody!
December 6th, 2005 at at 1:18 pm
I wonder if that Jesus Sandwich tastes different from a regular grilled cheese…
I’m hungry now.
It’s like ten years old. I’m gonna go with yes.
December 6th, 2005 at at 7:23 pm
Awesome, I Am. Thanks for putting me in.
December 7th, 2005 at at 3:17 am
For future reference, I sent an e-mail with a submission. Did it get lost or did something else go wrong?
December 7th, 2005 at at 10:29 am
For future reference, I sent an e-mail with a submission. Did it get lost or did something else go wrong?
Sorry, Mark. I never received a submission from you. There were several people I had to cut to make the numbers even, but you weren’t one of them. You probably fell victim to the spam trap. The submission instructions say in bold letters that the subject must be “GOD or NOT.” Anyone who sends an email with a different subject receives an automatic reply telling them to change the subject and resend. Was this the problem?
December 8th, 2005 at at 10:15 am
This Carnival is really taking off. Beautiful job of hosting, I Am. I especially enjoyed the illustrations.
Since I didn’t have time to submit a post, here’s my 2 cents worth from what will come to be knowns as the “OR” perspective.
Miracles were believed in by people who took the laws of nature for granted and were therefore only amazed when they were apparently violated. Science has now shown and continues to show us that the laws of nature themselves, and what they have wrought, are the real miracles. Being in a constant state of awe at nature — despite its imperfections — who needs supernatural miracles?
In fact, Intelligent Design may largely be a stalking horse for the Biblical Jehovah, but I was thinking there must be some kind of intelligence permeating nature before I ever heard of ID. Natural selection, OK, but if random mutation could produce the intricate mechanisms we see in nature, well, if you ask me, that would be a super-natural miracle.
November 10th, 2006 at at 11:12 pm
sex story post…
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