I stumbled upon this site from doing some technorati searches. At first, I thought the site and its title were a bit ridiculous, but the more I read, the more I was intrigued and disquieted. I thought I'd re-post a video from them here:
Some of you may remember I made my own attempt at posing some questions awhile back, that was poorly received and, to some extent, not very well done. One day soon, I hope to be able to post a follow up that will be deeper, more meaningful, and more challenging.
In the meantime, with regards to this site and with the 10 questions here, as a Christian, I think about 7 of these issues 10 can be addressed without doing too much "rationalizing." Concordantly, I also think that about 70% of the site is not an accurate representation of what Christians believe, or at least that it doesn't adequately or accurately convey what we believe about prayer and about God.
But ultimately, the one question that I can't answer, the one question that is most troubling to me, the one thing they chose to name the site after (i.e. the other 30% that I do agree with), is what haunts me now: Why won't God heal amputees?
Although the site uses pages and pages to explain and elaborate on its point, the simple and inexorable logic is as follows: Many times, people pray over the sick and they are healed. Credit for these "miracles" is given to God, in spite of the fact that other explanations might also be plausible (e.g. perhaps medicine/chemo cured the cancer, and not God). So, if God can be claimed to heal the sick, why hasn't he ever healed amputees and regenerated their limbs? Either He specifically does not like amputees, or He is unable to help amputees specifically, or, as the author's logic goes, God is imaginary.
Not only can I not answer the question, I'm incredibly disturbed by the fact that I can't answer it. I've always been frustrated by people that give credit to God for only the good things, but not the bad things. I don't mind saying that God was NOT responsible for giving so-and-so cancer or leukemia, but that is only if we don't give God credit for healing that person as well.
Anyway, a lot of food for thought. What are your thoughts? Read here and challenge your faith.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Why Won't God Heal Amputees - The Most Important Question Ever?
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2 comments:
It is a good question but I just read your previous post and there is also some good questions that Christians pose to atheists. Sometimes it is ok to say "I don't know," to a certain questions. That doesn't mean I'm delusional.
I can maybe provide some small insight. I would think that should God heal amputees in this day and age, it would remove faith from the equation.
In the modern age, miracles MUST be an article of faith, because slavation is precipitated upon faith, not surety of knowledge. In this way, God is setting aside a special people unto Himself for the Millenium.
IF God regenerated the limbs of amputees, suddenly the miracle would be a surety of knowledge, and NOT faith at all. You would have this 'before' image and this 'after' image where someones amputated limb grew back, and suddenly, faith has been taken out of the equation.
People who would not otherwise qualify themselves for salvation, would begin to believe as a matter of knowledge, rather than as a matter of faith -- and belief would no longer be sufficient for setting aside a people.
Just my 2 cents.
Glen
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