Quote Originally Posted by PRO DOM View Post
It's funny that I seem to have empirical evidence and still I find myself doubting but if you want evidence that is astounding, I have three miracles to share. I’ll be brief.
Okay, I'm going to take you at your word that these things happened as you say they happened, or at least as you remember them. I have no doubt that you honestly believe them, and I cannot, of course, definitively say that they were NOT miracles. But I may have alternative explanations which don't necessarily require the intervention of God.

Situation one: I fell off a house and screamed Gods name as I was falling when I was nine. As I was rolling down I saw my feet go over my head and my life was ending before me. I didn't scream it as though I was begging, I screamed it as though God were my parent and I was informing him that I needed his care right then and there. I am telling you, and I'm not playing, I was instantaneously at the top of the roof again as though nothing had ever happened.
My first instinct is that this was probably a very vivid, perhaps even repetitive, dream. Maybe even a waking dream. You are playing on the roof, your mom or dad have warned you that you could fall off and get hurt, and perhaps you slipped a bit. Your mind fabricated everything right down to just above ground level. Then you woke up. As I understand it, it's common for people who are dreaming of falling to wake just before they hit. It's even happened to me. Unless there were witnesses who saw you miraculously teleported back to the roof top, I'll have to go with this explanation.

Situation two: I became deaf in one ear in college for three months. I had always been taught in my religion to expect instantaneous healings since it was what Jesus taught his disciples and tried to get them to pass the word on. I hadn't prayed about it at all when one night I decided that I was a Christian Scientist and I should be able to heal myself instantaneously. So I knew that I was a child of God. Not born into matter and that my rightful heritage was spiritual. I had only been knowing the truth for one minute max when all the fluid drained from my ear in that very instant.
We often hear about people who seem to have achieved a cure through the power of faith, or the power of the mind. It's true that the mind can do some pretty amazing things, as can the body, in times of stress. People have been known to perform some amazing physical feats to save a loved one. It can generally be explained without resorting to the mystical.
I take it that you suffered with this malady without seeing a doctor? If you had, he would probably have diagnosed a cyst of some sort and drained it himself. As it was, you had to wait for the cyst to "ripen" until it burst on its own. The belief that you magically (or miraculously, if you prefer) cured it in less than a minute is, I believe, likely to be a fiction your mind formed to try to explain it all.

Situation three: I was about 50 miles inland in the middle of nowhere. My job as an ornithologist required very remote settings. I became lost as I lost my flag line. I wondered aimlessly for 30 minutes and then panic set in. I realized my life was in danger. There literally was no way out but by boat which was an hour walk to the boat and the boat ride took 30 minutes and to get out of the forest took another 45 minutes by car. I was screwed if I didn't find the flag line! I told God. I will calm down and listen. He said to me, "Stop and know that I am God." So I stopped and prayed. He was quiet and I didn't hear him and began to get nervous so I stopped again and listened very carefully. He told me 90 degrees. So I was startled and turned my compass 90 degrees. Nothing. I thought, "That's the wrong way anyway." So I decided to head at about 350 degrees. Well I didn't make it more than three feet when I ran into a web of a spider! With the spider in it! I thought that was a sign from God so I backed up. I went back to where God had told me to turn my compass to 90 degrees. I looked again but nothing. Then I thought to myself. If He says it is 90 then it is 90. So I started at the ground and with a straight line I ran my compass into the air and it was the last flag on the corner of the plot dangling over 10 feet in the air. Holy Cow! It was then that I remembered that in Arkansas, the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge is under water when the flags were put in. God had saved my life again!
You know, Moses doubted God once and the Israelites had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. You must be particularly holy if God gave you a second chance!
No, again I must rely on the power of the mind. Consciously you were lost, and you were frightened and panicked. Understandably. But your subconscious mind was keeping track all along. It was only when you calmed yourself down, and allowed the subconscious to exert some control over your conscious mind, that you "remembered" the way out.

I am not trying to ridicule your beliefs or minimize these events. I'm sure they had a profound influence upon you. But the interpretations you, and I, make are all subjective. I am not happy with the mystical explanations and prefer more rational ones. You are convinced that God has interceded in your life. I certainly can't prove that I'm right and you're wrong. But then, neither can you.

Coincidence? If so then I should sign up for the lottery!
If God wanted you to be rich, He wouldn't have to depend upon the lottery to do it, would He?