never trust a 'criticisms' thing on wikipedia -- for all you know it may come from a fat dude who sits behind his computer all day and bit ches about how there's no god. Razz

If no one wants to answer to that, just argue miracles in general.
I don't think I've ever seen someone try to use miracles as proof of God's existence. I've actually never heard of The Miracle of the Sun. I won't pretend to know anything about it, but I'm sure they all have explanations. And like Pseudoprogrammer said, there are criticisms right there in the Wikipedia article itself.

----

Ashbad wrote:
If no one wants to answer to that, just argue miracles in general.


The thing is, Ashbad, you can't simply slap a 'miracle' sticker on everything you can't explain, disregarding for a minute the fact that there are explanations for both 'miracles'.

Gravity was a 'miracle' to a pre-Newtonian world. Keep that in mind. Just because we don't have an explanation for everything now, doesn't mean we won't have an explanation for it tomorrow. Don't be so superstitious.

----

Ashbad wrote:
never trust a 'criticisms' thing on wikipedia -- for all you know it may come from a fat dude who sits behind his computer all day and bit ches about how there's no god. Razz


never trust a 'miracles' thing on wikipedia -- for all you know it may come from a fat dude who sits behind his computer all day and bit ches about how there's a god. Razz

Fix'd. How can you trust the article's accuracy but not the accuracy of a part of the article? Sounds like you're just disregarding all the information you don't want to hear/don't want to be true.
Ashbad... I can't tell if you're just trolling me... but seriously? You see those numbers like this [1] or [2]? They are citations to peer-reviewed work. You can go check it yourself.
First of all:

Quote:
But to us there is but one God, plus or minus one. --1 Corinthians 8:6±2.



Pseudoprogrammer wrote:
http://lhcb-public.web.cern.ch/lhcb-public/

That looks super interesting. I'll have to read into it some more.

Pseudoprogrammer wrote:

See also Matthew 17, Mark 9 and Luke 9 (verse 27 onwards), and 2 Peter 1:16-18. The common understanding is that the transfiguration was a "preview of coming attractions" for the disciples who were present. The Matthew passage you cited is misleading due to some odd choices in the assignation of verse+chapter numbers by Archbishop Stephen Langton in the 13th century.


Pseudoprogrammer wrote:
One, is over the years we have found that various constants are tied to other constants in fundamental ways (similar to how the diameter of a circle is tied to the circumference. The universe is unimaginable without this fundamental relation that we know as pi). I have a creeping suspicion that given enough time we will discover that all of the universal constants are all related to each other and they are not really independent. Perhaps the universe can only exist in one way. But that is just philosophical mumblings.

That would be awfully handy.


Pseudoprogrammer wrote:
But what I want to get at with the whole "things are improbable" argument is this. Take the months of the year's initials, JFMAMJJASOND. You can clearly see "JASON" somewhere in there. The probability that of this is 8/(26^5) which is 6.7*10^-7. A VERY slim probability. What is far more improbable though? The probability of the letters' not spelling a single word. So when talking about "Oh, well life is so improbable, god must have had a hand in it" we need to remember that our particular universe with life is improbable, but that's a very us-centric view of things. We can't think of things as how improbable it is that they happen, but how improbable it is that something doesn't happen.

I did directly address the whole survivorship bias thing by commenting that nothing at all could exist if it all got blown to crap thanks to symmetry of (anti-)matter.

Progbeard wrote:
I can assure you right now that you can have an agnostic atheist or a gnostic atheist as well as a agnostic theist and a gnostic theist. You see, gnosticism deals exclusively with knowledge (i.e. what you know) while theism deals exclusively with belief (in a god/gods; i.e. what you believe). They are two different concepts.

Keep in mind the need to distinguish between theism and deism. Since we're limiting ourselves to rationally defensible positions we can exclude both agnostic theism (An active God exists and we can't know anything about his actions) and gnostic atheism (We know God doesn't exist). Your definition of an agnostic atheist, as I point out above and below, fits either the popular definition of agnosticism (without qualifiers) or is a dodgy position attempting to straddle the line of rational defensibility.

Progbeard wrote:
An agnostic atheist doesn't believe there is a god, but doesn't purport to know there isn't since it's ignorant to believe that such a thing is knowable. It is not a redundancy and it is definitely not a dodge. Also, this is really a matter of semantics, but an atheist might casually say "there is no god," but he could mean he doesn't believe there is one, not he knows there isn't one.

I pointed this out as well. I also claimed that the neutral formulation of atheism reduces to one of two things:
* Real lack of belief
* Negative belief without claim to knowledge
The "lack of belief" variation reduces to the popular understanding of agnosticism, and the latter, as I said, is something of a dodge.

Progbeard wrote:

I'm not going to pretend I know anything about set theory, so I'm going to assume that the axioms of ZFC are like any other mathematical axiom. An axiom is irreducably self-evident, but you can still only assume that it is true. Derived proofs might confirm the truth of the axiom.
..
I don't quite understand fully how you're comparing mathematical axioms to this.

elfprince13 wrote:
Logically sound is an entirely different beast from axiomatically sound ... Gödel's ontological proof is logically sound, but most people would be unwilling to accept Axiom 5:


Similarly, in mathematics, you have the Banach-Tarski Theorem, which isn't really paradoxical (despite having been labeled as such on occasion) so much as intuitively bothersome because of the way it uses (or abuses) the Axiom of Choice. The theorem itself is logically sound, but its validity hinges on your acceptance or rejection of the Axiom of Choice.

The definition involving "self-evidence" is domain specific to certain branches of mathematics. More correctly, axioms are any statement which is assumed, for the sake of argument, to be true. When you are debating worldview it is helpful to probe the presuppositions, or axioms, of the worldviews in question. The ultimate goal for most such arguments would be to move towards a consensus on a set of "self-evident" axioms, but given that all axioms must be assumed, it is foolish to deride the decision to assume that which is unknown (see also the question of P≠NP). The proper criteria are not about knowledge so much as internal and external consistency.

Progbeard wrote:
It's stupid to assume that anything can be "outside of the Universe" or "not governed by its natural laws" because there is no way to confirm our suspicions since we've never witnessed the possibility of anything being "outside" the boundaries of our universe. Therefore we can only assume that there is no "outside of the Universe".

If you don't have the time to read this essay, then take the time to read at least the following excerpt:
C.S. Lewis's 'The Cardinal Difficulty of Naturalism' wrote:
One threat against strict Naturalism has recently been launched on which I myself will base no argument, but which it will be well to notice. The older scientists believed that the smallest particles of matter moved according to strict laws: in other words, that the movements of each particle were 'interlocked' with the total system of Nature. Some modern scientists seem to think--if I understand them--that this is not so. They seem to think that the individual unit of matter (it would be rash to call it any longer a 'particle') moves in an indeterminate or random fashion; [19] moves, in fact, 'on its own' or 'of its own accord'. The regularity which we observe in the movements of the smallest visible bodies is explained by the fact that each of these contains millions of units and that the law of averages therefore levels out the idiosyncrasies of the individual unit's behaviour. The movement of one unit is incalculable, just as the result of tossing a coin once is incalculable: the majority movement of a billion units can however be predicted, just as, if you tossed a coin a billion times, you could predict a nearly equal number of heads and tails. Now it will be noticed that if this theory is true we have really admitted something other than Nature. If the movements of the individual units are events 'on their own', events which do not interlock with all other events, then these movements are not part of Nature. It would be, indeed, too great a shock to our habits to describe them as super-natural. I think we should have to call them sub-natural. But all our confidence that Nature has no doors, and no reality outside herself for doors to open on, would have disappeared. There is apparently something outside her, the Subnatural; it is indeed from this Subnatural that all events and all 'bodies' are, as it were, fed into her. And clearly if she thus has a back door opening on the Subnatural, it is quite on the cards that she may also have a front door opening on the Supernatural-and events might be fed into her at that door too.

Additionally, most of the last several pages of this thread have been debating whether or not the question of cosmogony necessitates the acceptance of a force external to the universe. Since you appear to be a naturalist, I'm also going to demand that you attempt to justify your reliance on reason as a means towards truth.


ScoutDavid wrote:
I also think that believing in a god will make science move on slower

Failpoint is fail. Just for reference (from earlier in the thread): Freeman Dyson, Kurt Gödel, Max Planck, Isaac Newton. Also, just for fun, Asa Gray, Francis Collins, and Gottfried Leibniz.
Ashbad wrote:
I think I'll just jump in for a second on an unrelated note --

What do you think causes miracles to happen? Like ones that you can't disprove happened, such as The miracle of the sun or healings at Lourdes in France. Just curious to see what you theorize without any of God's presence Smile


There are a lot of miracles that are not miracles. Some of them are fake and others can be explained by science.

If they can't be explained, research has to be done, we can't just say "It was god."
ScoutDavid wrote:

There are a lot of miracles that are not miracles. Some of them are fake and others can be explained by science.

If they can't be explained, research has to be done, we can't just say "It was god."

You should probably also read the essay I linked. It is probably fair to say that the vast majority of miraculous claims are ascribable to wishful thinking and scientific illiteracy, and I would agree that it is a mistake to too quickly claim God's hand at work where a natural explanation is the correct one, but equally I would suggest that is a mistake to dismiss entirely the potential for miracles. A theistic worldview is built on a God who is active within his creation.
Belief in God isn't what slows science down, it's radical enforcement of those beliefs on other people.
elfprince13 wrote:

I pointed this out as well. I also claimed that the neutral formulation of atheism reduces to one of two things:
* Real lack of belief
* Negative belief without claim to knowledge
The "lack of belief" variation reduces to the popular understanding of agnosticism, and the latter, as I said, is something of a dodge.


Please explain to me the difference between not believing in God and believing there is no God.

If someone says they're an agnostic, it's a dodge. Saying you're an agnostic atheist is not a dodge.
elfprince13 wrote:
ScoutDavid wrote:

There are a lot of miracles that are not miracles. Some of them are fake and others can be explained by science.

If they can't be explained, research has to be done, we can't just say "It was god."

You should probably also read the essay I linked. It is probably fair to say that the vast majority of miraculous claims are ascribable to wishful thinking and scientific illiteracy, and I would agree that it is a mistake to too quickly claim God's hand at work where a natural explanation is the correct one, but equally I would suggest that is a mistake to dismiss entirely the potential for miracles. A theistic worldview is built on a God who is active within his creation.


many huge miracles can be proved by science to be caused by something -- but who knows, maybe god helped put everything in place so that they would happen. Plus, only one out of every million miracle finds its way in a newspaper. Miracles can come in all shapes and sizes -- such as one I experienced today: I got a 20% on a Geometry HW quiz today, and I knew my dad would be super-pissed (last time I got an 85%, I was yelled at for a little while, imagine a 20% Razz) but this time I asked god for mercy, and said it would never happen again, and 'please may my dad not be mad'. My dad actually was completely fine with it, as long as I never got one like that again. I don't think string theory disproves that as a miracle. Plus he was in a rushed (angry) mood today, so it was miraculous it happened. I can't prove it was from god, but I can disprove it can be disproved.
I'm going to throw in my own two cents here.

I personally believe that there is a God, a Creator and King of the universe. I also believe that He is the literal father of our souls. Because of that, we can eventually become like He is. The reason we are on the earth is to see if we could handle that responsiblity, and also to learn and become stronger in mind and soul.
Ashbad, I don't mean to be rude, but you seem to have a very low standard for what you consider to be miraculous.
And I think you're standard is a bit too high Razz

no offense, but I think anything that you pray to god asking for, and it happens even though it was bound not to ever happen otherwise, is a miracle.
Well, if God made it provable that he existed, people wouldn't have choices. Choices are essential to growth. No matter how oppressive something is, there must always be a choice.

Also, miracles are few and far between, relative to our lifetimes. Also, they are quite unprovable in most cases. They are very rare, which is why they are considered worthy of scripture reference when they happen. It's usually far more subtle in the case of possible divine influence.

I believe in God. I don't believe in trying to force it on others, since that will simply drive them away. Instead, if they want to know more, I tell them. If they don't, I don't, and all is well between us, not having religion as a common ground. No need to become enemies over something that matters little in terms of social interaction (not that it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things)

Besides, why should it be my responsibility to force people into believing? That's not my job.
willrandship wrote:
Besides, why should it be my responsibility to force people into believing? That's not my job.


Plus, people won't easily change their ideas -- aetheists won't be convinced to believe in god any more than christians can be convinced he can't exist. People have to make their own choices.
Quote:
The bible was not written to be completely historically accurate, although it is, sometimes. An important thing to remember about the bible is that it was written to be religiously accurate, so when you say the bible is "off," in what way do you mean? If historically, then of course, as it wasn't meant to be a history book. If you mean religiously, then I guess that depends on your faith.


That is true, it isn't perfectly accurate -- it's comprised of first hand accounts of what happened, and I wouldn't be surprised if half the entries were simply meant to be metaphors. But, it is perfectly religiously accurate.

EDIT: sorry, but I didn't double post -- the guy I quoted deleted his post Confused
agreed. But as christians (assuming the reader is) we are called to bring people the good news. See the bible. Its all there.

Ashbad: That was my quote. How the heck did you manage to quote that in the two seconds it was up before i deleted it because i realized it was kinda irrelevant???

Willrandship: Hmmm.... I wouldn't say that miracles are unprovable. I can name a few cases that are highly provable. Like the priest as he was consecrating the host, It turned into a piece of a heart. Many doctors and body specialists have looked at it. The way the piece is, It could not have possibly been cut from a heart by people. It's impossible, even with today's laser cutting and all that stuff. How is that unprovable?
bspymaster wrote:
Like the priest as he was consecrating the host, It turned into a piece of a heart. Many doctors and body specialists have looked at it. The way the piece is, It could not have possibly been cut from a heart by people. It's impossible, even with today's laser cutting and all that stuff. How is that unprovable?


Cite your sources, and I can assure you I can find reliable criticisms.
bspymaster wrote:

Willrandship: Hmmm.... I wouldn't say that miracles are unprovable. I can name a few cases that are highly provable. Like the priest as he was consecrating the host, It turned into a piece of a heart. Many doctors and body specialists have looked at it. The way the piece is, It could not have possibly been cut from a heart by people. It's impossible, even with today's laser cutting and all that stuff. How is that unprovable?


I'm curious about this story, although I'm not sure what you're saying is impossible with today's technology? It can't be to remove a piece of cardiac tissue, because I could do that with the biblical era technology in my kitchen called an "steel knife."
iirc, the important part of that story is that it was perfectly removed in a circular form, with all cells still alive and no ruptures whatsoever in the membranes, and was still beating. I remember reading that in the 'Arlington Catholic Herald' a few years ago, but I cannot re-find the source :/

Another one is when a sick lady went to a witch to get cured, and the witch asked for the 'final ingredient' (i.e., consecrated host) and on the way to the witch, a variety of miracles happened, such as the host bleeding, emitting ultra-bright light, and turning into a crystal of human flesh. Here is a biased-towards-being-true article: http://www.americaneedsfatima.org/Articles/host-bleeds-on-way-to-witchs-cave.html and I have to eat dinner, so I can't find unbiased ones ATM Razz maybe in ~10 minutes. Until then, read that to get a decent overview.

EDIT: I actually cannot find many (or rather, any) criticisms by simply looking online :/ even This wikipedia article concerning it doesn't have any criticisms. Sorry :/ though, feel welcome to find your own, I just personally don't want to go to page 35 on google results hunting for something that tries to disprove something I'm sure is true.

EDIT2: and this seems to be what bspymaster was referring to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_Lanciano (It actually couldn't have been done with the technology we had, it was in the 700's Razz before even the middle ages -- no lasers then, however, this one also has little or no criticisms embedded in-article)
I'm not even going to address the America needs [fatima?] link, because it should be obvious that it's too biased to be considered seriously credible.

As for the Lanciano article, where to begin...?

First of all, the "[citation needed]" links on almost every line should be a big hint that the article isn't even up to Wikipedia's admittedly non-scholarly standards.

Secondly, out of the five sources listed on the page, four of them link to the same source, with broken links no less. Very bad quality. The one source that's different links to an organization with this as the first line of their About page:

Quote:

ZENIT is a non-profit international news agency comprising a team of professionals and volunteers who are convinced of the extraordinary richness of the Catholic Church's message, particularly its social doctrine.


Specialized media agencies are notoriously bad at doing proper sourcing and for another. An organization essentially trumpeting the Catholic Church's message isn't often a good source on empirical matters unless they can provide decent sourcing for their statements, which this group doesn't.

As for the source linked in four of the five "citations," it actually links to an old archived page of bioscience organization [that has eliminated the page from its current site]. Somewhat promising, but if you skip all of the technical fluff, you get to this in the conclusions section:

Quote:
CONCLUSION
Dear Pilgrim!

The world of today is tossed around at the mercy of countless contradictory currents. He is dismayed in the midst of thousands of conflicting opinions.
The spectrum of its ideas, from right to left, does nothing but hide a deeper level of delusion, emptiness and profound uneasiness.
Why?
Because the spirit needs certitude, stability and height. In the height there is only the Father of eternity, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Only He is capable of keeping the world in peace and in goodness.
With the Miracle God returns and with Him, man, this small but great pilgrim.
The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano is the seal of this mysterious, discreet, yet very real presence of God.
You have to come to see, to contemplate, to adore. The way of the pilgrim is long and hard.

Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, is the only light for difficult pathways, the only strength in our moments of weakness, the only hope for our fragile dreams, the only warmth for our needy hearts.
Pilgrim!
Do not stop.
Keep going.
God awaits you.
Trust Him!
Use well the time remaining before your great meeting with Him.
You will not be disappointed.
[Snip]


Also:

Quote:

At the Emallume-Eosine staining, no cellular element can be detected, with the exception of a yellow-dark-green granular material with foreign bodies of vegetable origin.
III. MICROCHEMICAL STUDIES ON BLOOD
Teichmann's reaction modified by Bertrand with hydrochlorate hematine and Takayama's reaction with hemo-chromogen, have been carried out on the ancient Blood in Lanciano with negative results, together with human Blood samples normally dried, which gave positive results.
Oxidase research (Stone and Burke's tests) gave highly positive results on the test sample and on control human normally dried Blood.
[Snip intervening material]
The negativity of Teichmann-Bertrand's test and Takayama's test does not exclude the presence of Blood, as these tests can become negative due to sample denaturation.
A positive oxidase test, generally indicating the presence of Blood, can occur also with organs contaminated by vegetable extracts or metal traces.


Sounds like a classic case of confirmation bias to me, since their tests seem to indicate contamination rather than valid results. The source is far too biased to be considered credibly scientific evidence, though.


Given what was provided, I see little to no reason to believe that the proposed "miracle" actually" occurred. While there's likewise no evidence that I can see to suggest that it didn't occur, that's not good enough to make a decent factual position.
  
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