Aren’t there a lot of fake miracles? | Lee Strobel & Mark Mittelberg
By Lee Strobel & Mark Mittelberg
Aren’t there a lot of fake miracles?
Undoubtedly so—just as there is a lot of fake jewelry in the world. But that fact doesn’t discredit the existence of real diamonds and jewels!
I read an article on the subject of fake miracles in Skeptic magazine, edited by my skeptical friend, Michael Shermer. It was titled “On Miracles,” and was written by a retired physician named Harriet Hall. Her goal was to refute the possibility of divine activity in the world today.
While there was much in the piece that I would dispute, I’ll also acknowledge that Hall made some valid points:
She said that spontaneous remissions occur. Point granted.
She said there are a lot of charlatans in the world. Absolutely, yes.
She said sometimes blood tests are in error, X-rays are misinterpreted, and diagnoses are wrong. No one would know this better than a doctor.
She said coincidences happen. Without a doubt.
She said some people have a motivation to lie. Certainly.
She said even honest people can misjudge things. Acknowledged.
She said memories can falter. I can attest to that.
She said people who are only apparently dead can revive. Thankfully, yes.
She said any quack can supply testimonials that his snake oil works. Sure.
All of this is true, but does it explain away all of the accounts of miracles? Definitely not.
Believing that miracles sometimes happen does not mean we have to buy into every miraculous story that gets reported in the tabloids or repeated on the Internet.
A lot of the time weird stories are merely that: strange phenomena or clever trickery. Sometimes we can explain them and sometimes we can’t, but that doesn’t discredit every miracle claim.
Hall went on to add that eyewitnesses are “notoriously unreliable.” While, yes, there can be problems with eyewitness accounts, I would bet that if one of Hall’s relatives were murdered, she would hope for eyewitnesses to testify in court against the assailant.
All her point does is underscore the need to test eyewitness accounts by considering the witness’s character, motives, biases, and opportunity to see what occurred, and then to seek corroboration and documentation wherever possible. This is simply standard practice for lawyers, judges, journalists, police detectives, historians, juries, and others who are authentically trying to pursue truth.
Should we investigate claims of the miraculous cautiously?
Absolutely!
We should do exactly as the Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (NASB): “Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.”
Lee Strobel is founding director of The Lee Strobel Center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics at Colorado Christian University. He is the New York Times best-selling author of The Case for Christ and three dozen other books.
Mark Mittelberg is a bestselling author, speaker and apologist. He is the Executive Director of the Lee Strobel Center at Colorado Christian University.
This is an excerpt from The Miracles Answer Book by Lee Strobel & Mark Mittelberg. Used with permission.