I've wondered about this before. It seems people strongly believe that through their faith that god will heal themselves, or heal the person that are close to them. But how can that be? I'm sure he gets so many request at every waking minute, how does he pick and chose who gets healed and who doesn't? How does a blind person miraculously can see again? I've never heard of an amputee growing new limbs before? For those that are devoted followers, please elaborate?
Don't question faith. At least that is what most very religious people tell me... apparently you just have to believe. Or are we not allowed to question it because if we do, then we see that there is no proof of faith healing anyone? We do however have proof of vaccinations, medications and medical procedures saving millions of lives. Personally I would much rather put my faith in modern medicine rather than what I believe to be a fictional character.
I also have trouble be believing in God, and all that people tell me about religion to be honest. I was actually brought up as a Catholic but I was never one to have blind faith in something for no reason. There are too many questions for me that either can't, or don't get answered to believe in God, well, the God who people talk about anyway.
People can and are regularly healed. The reason you no longer see any people getting healed any more is because the preachers and religious leaders, most of them are false teachers who are in the "business" to make money. Anyway since most people in the West seek to see miracles "to believe in God" no miracles shall they ever witness. And this isn't the first time people want to test God. In Jesus time, they didn't believe Him when He told them He IS the Son of God. And when they demanded that He perform a miracle to prove Himself what response did He give them? People haven't changed much it appears.
Sometimes for a laugh I will watch one of these Evangelical television personalities from the USA. Then it just gets depressing. I look at the preacher basically yelling at and hounding his audience for money. How do they live with themselves? They take money from poor desperate people on promises never delivered, they deceive people who are vulnerable and need help.
I'm a devoted follower of Jesus. I'm a devoted follower not because of any miraculous healings (which I believe, but can't prove, there may be a special Hell for those swindlers on television) but because I know my own heart. For the atheists in the group, I apologize there are no proofs for faith. But really, before I became a Christian, there was nothing that I would accept as adequate proof for a deity. I was quite fine without a foreign moral compass in my life - thank you very much. I just happened to be in a situation, 20 years ago, when I was seriously open to the possibility. Seriously, I didn't really want to be a Christian because of the Christians I knew.
I do not believe in divine miracles in which a blind man can one day wake up and see again like nothing ever happened. I do believe that God gave us science and brains so that we could take a problem and solve it. Like was said above, modern medicine heals millions of people every year and that could be viewed as a miracle in itself. I think people want instant proof that God exists, when the proof is all around us if we open up our eyes and quit expecting instant gratification. Have you ever prayed for something so hard and it happened? I have before and that is what I see. Sometimes things are just meant to happen the way they do for a reason.
Have a look at the book 'Miraculous Occurences and Counsels of Elder Porphyrios' which is available from Amazon. --------—------------------------------------------------------
I'm an agnostic but I was raised in a family of believers, and I found those cases really interesting too. My father thinks that God does not help everyone, he think that God choose some of them, the ones that need the most to be healed or the ones who can't still go because they have things to do on the Earth... But I think that God does not help, something happens inside of those people's mind, I'm not sure what but mind over matter, and sometimes you want something so much that it just comes true, I guess.
@anorexorcist, I think it's likely to be a case of positive thinking too. People with faith have the asurance that everything will work out in the end so it's easier for them to remain positive. It's well known that a positive mental attitude can really help someone recover from even the most serious of illnesses. So I don't think that it is God or some other higher power doing all the healing, it is actually coming from within that person.
