Readers have pointed me toward two interesting web sites recently – one on each side of the God-or-not question.
One site contains a video clip that explains how 100% of the prophecies in the Bible have come true. And since 25% of the entire Bible is prophecy (according to this video), that’s proof of God’s existence. It’s a long video, so don’t fire it up unless you have some time.
http://www.christjesus.tv/onlinevideos.html [no longer available]
I’m reasonably sure there must be a skeptical web site somewhere that reaches the opposite conclusion, and I’m sure you’ll tell me.
Speaking of skeptics, a reader pointed me to a web site titled Why Won’t God Heal Amputees? The rhetorical point of the question is that God only heals the sort of people that might have gotten better on their own, such as cancer patients and the like. That always leaves some ambiguity as to whether it’s a true miracle or a routine remission. Why are there no clear miracles such as God making an arm grow back? That’s just one argument of many on the site:
http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/ [no longer available]
The interesting thing about these two sites is that they both suggest testable hypotheses. If science could validate that the prophecies in the Bible are all true, or scientifically validate the effectiveness of prayer, I’ll convert to Christianity. Or Islam. Whichever has the best prophecies.
I know someone is going to read this and point out that the Bible predicts the creation of the nation of Israel. By that standard, I have a cookbook in the kitchen that has predicted a lot of my meals. So you’ll have to do better than that.
I know there have been studies that purport to show the link between prayer and healing. But skeptics spoil all of that fun by pointing out that every one of those studies was flawed. All of the unflawed studies show no correlation whatsoever between praying and healing.
The questions of the day are these:
1. Why does God refuse to perform miracles that can be validated?
2. Are all of those prophecies in the Bible true?