THE PROBLEM OF BELIEVING IN MIRACLES

 An agnostic had written about his common problem of believing in the Biblical accounts:

 

·       I'm an agnostic. I want to believe in God/Jesus but struggle with believing the stories of the Bible (the flood, parting of the red Sea, talking donkeys and snakes, young earth, floating hands writing on walls etc.) I do find historical anomalies -- like the shroud of Turin -- quite interesting, but I find it hard to accept the biblical literalist's version of history and explanation of reality. I have an open mind and hoping one of you can change it, thanks!

 

While these might present an impediment for believing in the God of the Bible, they are nothing compared to the miracle of creation itself. However, we wish to explain this miracle of the beginning of the universe, its fine-tuning, and the immutable laws of science, we need to appeal to the miraculous, to one-time events, which science cannot even begin to answer. Therefore, whatever explanation you choose, you will have to call upon miraculous causation. A natural explanation, before the “natural” even exists, is not a possibility.

 

I think that we need to be skeptical about our skepticism. Interestingly, we are willing to believe weird scientific findings like the indeterminacy of subatomic particles and their mind-dependent behavior. However, I do not hear anyone saying, “I refuse to believe in such weird stuff.” Why don’t we hear people saying this? Because we have been acculturated to believe in these things because of “expert testimony.”

 

In contrast, our secular culture has been overly critical of the Bible. No wonder that people find its miracles unbelievable!