Faith in Miracles is just faith in men - it's not about God

A miracle is what is not naturally possible. It is a supernatural occurrence. It is paranormal.

Miracles are acts contrary to the usual workings of natural law or acts according to some definitions that are natural but beyond our understanding of nature. In other words, an event like blood coming from the eyes of a statue without trickery would be a miracle or a statue coming to life.

The Church says God is all-powerful and he does miracles so that we might learn his message directly or indirectly from them. They are for teaching the truth and promoting it.

So a miracle is important because it is supernatural and also because of the divine message.  It is obvious that no miracle should be accepted lightly. Miracle reporters who have not been cross-examined have no right to invite you to believe their tales.

A God who wants me to accept the word of men about what he reveals is asking me to trust them rather than him. Does that explain why religions of miracles are always hunting for converts?

God wants us to listen to him not men but when it is men who decide if a miracle really came from him it is clear that they get the benefit and the power and they can filter the word of God. If men for example wanted to promulgate a false revelation that Muhammad was the real saviour they could cover up undesired facts and get a dubious miracle authenticated to seem to verify that. This is as bad in effect then as listening to them and not God. Belief in miracles is just belief in the people who say they have seen them or checked them and found them believable and not in God just as belief in a document probably written by Napoleon is not the same as belief in Napoleon for you did not see Napoleon write it. Miracles imply then that you should be the slave of religious leaders and cranks and see God the way they want you to see him as if he does not matter and they do. Miracles destroy spirituality and though they might speak of God they oppose him. We agree with them that God should be opposed and his wishes trampled on like pearls before swine.

The revealer is always more valuable than the revealed for you see the revealed through their eyes. When you worship God you are really worshipping the revealers instead of God by proxy and they love it. There is a great ego buzz when people believe your stupid lies - it's a great compliment to you.

Using miracles as pointers to the true gospel results only in chaos for competing miracle claims can and do cancel each other out. Anybody could fake a few books that they perhaps said they transcribed from an angel in visions that speak of another dying and resurrecting saviour who condemns Jesus as a fake and seem credible for the same reasons that religious nuts say they find the gospels credible. All they need then is a few sworn affidavits from two or three others who are generally trusted but who have a crafty side to say the angelic visitations occurred. It is not overly hard to authenticate false miracles for we authenticate loads of non-miracle things that are not true. Those who say miracles authenticate their religion are simply telling you to trust them and nobody else which is thoroughly nasty.

Miracles pull people into religion not by reason but by appealing to their feelings.  Faith based on feelings not evidence is the stuff from which religious bloodshed is made.  The fact that the vast majority of people would not have the skills necessary to avoid being duped or misled is proof of that.  Even the Catholic Church will admit that most devotees of miracles inside the Church have been misled for the Church only accepts a small number compared to the total of reported miracles and visions as being of divine origin.  The Devil then could do a miracle exactly like how God would do one and even draw some people to eternal salvation in order to block the progress of a larger number.  The Church claims to be reasonable and to be the true expression of rationalism.  The Church says that we rationalists are not really rational.  Therefore the Church will have to say that anybody who follows feelings not faith or feelings more than faith is being manipulated by the Devil. The Church says that if you do not believe in people who testified to miracles you cannot believe in any human testimony. Others add that if you reject the testimony of people to miracles you are committing a great sin and are opposing the message of God.

Let us get this straight. It is only because of the testimony that you will be able to believe that God has spoken. So the sin is really in disbelieving the testimony. Clearly it cannot be anything else. So all poor religion is really worried about is its testimony not being believed and tries to lay guilt on people who ignore or dispute it. Miracles give man power not God. Nobody believes every testimony and everybody will be sceptical of some testimonies though they look watertight and that is fair enough. Therefore if you want to reject a testimony even if you think you see the Virgin Mary and she is giving you the testimony that is your right and it is no sin to do that. Miracles then are not calls to conversion and repentance for they cannot succeed for we have the right to ignore them. They are just bizarre or hoaxes. The Church itself teaches that bizarre miracles are hoaxes or freaks of nature for if something irrational is doing miracles then miracles cannot be considered to be signs from God or evidence that religion is true. If the Church argument that you must believe no testimony if you reject miracle testimony is true, then we should listen to any testimonies and especially to what most testimonies say. And yet this same Church will say we should disbelieve in the nearly universal testimony against Jesus being the Son of God that we find in the Bible! The Psalms have the prophets supposedly speaking the words of God complaining about nobody liking them. Most miracle testimonies speak of miracles that do not defend any religious system of doctrine. For example, alien abductions, Ouija Boards and ghosts. Most miracle testimonies defend religions that deny that dogma matters (for example, Hinduism) or religions and beliefs which are obviously wrong and harmful. We can live perfectly normal lives and believe that human testimony is always to be taken seriously except for miracles for miracles are too fantastic. That is all that matters. Religion wants a place it is not entitled to.

Miracles and sectarianism are married. They will never divorce.