They Say He Raised the Dead

The July 23 entry at this blog includes this fascinating tidbit:

The Naracoorte Herald [17 July 2008] has a piece on an upcoming event that includes a quotation that a Major was used by God to raise a dead person back to life. All glory to God!

Now, I know some people get a bit uptight at this. And I recognise that we shouldn’t believe everything in the newspaper. But, Evangelist Heidi Baker puts it this way: “Did God forget how to do the impossible? You believe that a doctor can make someone well, but when God does it you want videos before you’ll believe it. Haven’t you read the book?”

Amen, Heidi Baker.
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The Major, quoted in the newspaper, confirms, “I have seen the lives of men and women changed by the power of the Holy Ghost; people with cancer healed…” (there is no indication in the article as to the timing).

It’s a shame that the administrator of this blog, whom I will call Mr. Blogger, doesn’t allow comments (nor does he have an email link). I would love to have seen the discussion that this entry could have generated. Since I can’t comment over there, I’ll have to do it here instead. So, as Julie Andrews sang in The Sound of Music, “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” I’ll start by raising three questions about the opening paragraph.

Question #1: Why did the blogger merely reference the quotation in question rather than quoting it? This is an astonishing claim that warrants a direct quotation. Give us unfiltered evidence, Mr. Blogger! Yours is a third-hand account, at best. It would have been grand of you to have made an effort to get us a little bit closer to the original source.

Question #2: Why is the Major anonymous? Even if one grants that he or she is humble and does not want to attract attention to himself or herself, this is a remarkable miracle. People can hardly be blamed for wanting to know who accomplished such a feat. This is not the time to keep one’s identity under wraps. Take off those glasses and reveal yourself, Clark!

Question #3: Why is there no specific information about the blessed event? When did it happen? Where did it happen? Who was the lucky Lazarus? In short, the only concrete information contained in this paragraph is a) the name of the newspaper that supposedly published the account, and b) the date of publication. I searched the online edition of the publication and could not find the story in question. In fairness, it’s possible that the online edition differs from the print edition, so I will understand if you take my failure to find the story with a grain of salt. In fact, I expect you to do so.

We’ve started at the beginning and learned nothing substantive. Nevertheless, we will move to the middle of Mr. Blogger’s piece. Mr. Blogger knows that the claim he’s made in the first paragraph will raise questions, perhaps even doubts, in the minds of his readers. Some may even raise their eyebrows. Mr. Blogger moves to forestall such happenings by reminding his readers that they are obligated to believe that their God performs miracles and they should not require evidence of such claims. Take it all on faith, baby! The medical analogy is beyond lame. When physicians heal people, we actually have evidence of that. We know what medications or surgical procedures they used and we can see the results. Presumably, when God raises someone from the dead, I should also be able to see someone who was once a corpse carrying on with normal life activities. That being the case, I wouldn’t need video and the question of whether I’d read the book would be moot. (The book question is moot anyway; it’s merely there to admonish believers. If they’ve been lax in adhering to their spiritual disciplines, then they have no right to question God – they need to get right with him before raising any questions about his activities).

But, as I noted earlier, I have no idea who Major Miracle is and I have no idea who Lazarus is. All I have is a fuzzy report that I’m supposed to accept solely because Mr. Blogger expects his readers to accept his authority and trust his trustworthiness. Carl Sagan famously said “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” What we have in Mr. Blogger’s case is an extraordinary claim that is not supported by even a shred of ordinary evidence. In the place of evidence, he provides admonition. I’ll bet you’ve never seen a Christian make that move before.

Finally, we reach the end. Contrary to Mr. Blogger’s implication, the quote from Major Miracle does not confirm anything about raising the dead. It is simply a claim about routine happenings that can be explained in various ways. I will not dispute that many people’s lives change when they get religion, nor will I dispute that people are cured of cancer all the time. With regard to the former, I suggest that the reason people’s lives change when they get religion is because they themselves change the way they live, rather than any activity on the part of a god. There is no more evidence for the Christian assertion that God Did It than there is for my assertion that The Person Did It. With regard to the latter, cancer is cured via medical science. In this case, there is much more evidence that People Did It than there is that God Did It.

Mr. Blogger closes this account with the lame, “there is no indication in the article as to the timing.” So, God changed lots of people’s lives and he healed people on multiple occasions and we can’t get even one citation? Who was cured? Whose lives were changed? You can’t cite one specific example or name one name? Excuse me, but that’s lame even by the standards of ordinary prayer and praise meeting testimonies.

As is the case with all bloggers, Mr. Blogger has a particular audience whom he addresses with his posts. Fair enough. Since he does not allow comments, however, I know nothing about his audience. Are they all unthinking sheep who simply accept accounts like this because they respect Mr. Blogger? Are any of them critical thinkers who would raise questions like those I’ve raised (and, hopefully, far better ones)? These questions disturb me deeply. Christians don’t like it when atheists contend that they do not exercise good thinking habits. But, how can we do otherwise when we read unsubstantiated garbage like Mr. Blogger’s post? I know that Mr. Blogger is one man and neither he nor his audience represent the whole spectrum of Christian belief. Still, it strikes me that thoughtful Christians should find posts like this excruciatingly embarrassing. It embarrasses me and I’m not even a Christian. But I was one. And, when I read pieces like Mr. Blogger’s, I’m embarrassed about that too.

– the chaplain