Precisely my point. If this logic is correct, then I must not believe any person who claims God saved them from “X” person wishing to do them harm. Because, if God did save them, why does he neglect most everyone else? Therefore, based on this evidence, I must reject every believer who claims some miraculous salvation from the hands of evil men.
Take the total eclipse recently. Imagine with me living 3,000 years ago. You are praying to God for a sign. Now, many people pray for signs, and they are told to just ‘wait’ and allow God to work on his time. So you pray, pray, pray and you are about to give up. Someone in your faith says to keep pressing forward and let God answer the prayer in his own time. Finally, you are at your wits end and you say “Ok, God, I am about to ready to give up… Please show me a sign” and then while working out the fields the entire earth goes dark and the son is blotted out… Wow, God spoke to me. This is the way I see it when we try and say that God “Did such and such” give enough time, coincidences will in fact happen. The perfect recipe for it to be attributed to God? Keep praying and keep waiting. Time is on God’s side, because given enough time, and given enough wonders of the world, you will see something that doesn’t happen on a regular basis and interpret that as a sign from God.
I have had such things… In fact, I was convinced, complete convinced God has spoken to me… But as I reflect back, I only believe that because of how rare the situation was… I was basically saying "Because I had a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of this happening (think of hitting the lottery twice in one day) I basically said “God had to be the reason.” when in reality, he doesn’t have to be the reason at all. People do, in fact, hit the lottery multiple times in their life time. Just because it is rare, almost never happens doesn’t mean it is God who caused it. It was ‘coincidence’… Just randomness working out in our favor. So have I ever won the lottery? No. But two events did happen which people can say were miracles, or merely coincidence.
When I was 2, I crossed an extremely busy highway with no guardian. I lived to tell about it. No idea how, but I did. I have no memories… Had to be God? Or maybe I just had some drivers that swerved to miss, drove slower like waiting for ducks to cross the street, or maybe I say some people and followed closely after them. No idea. But it happened.
When I was 35, I looked down, then looked up and someone was driving the wrong way down the highway… As I looked up I saw two headlights staring right at me and swerved just in time to avoid a head on collision. Had I looked down longer (I think I was changing the radio station) I would be dead, or worse, a battered up brain damaged person. You don’t survive 60 Mph head on collision with other cards going the same speed (think 120+) You end up dead.
So, did God save me? Maybe. But it is just as likely that I hit the lottery twice in my life. I avoided death when it was nigh or the likely outcome. Now, if God protected me, why does he not protect others? Why should I think I am special? Isn’t that an egoist position to hold? That, surely, God has plans for me. He must love me so much and has so much work for me to to do that I am worth saving, while some other poor sap around the world starves to death at a young age of… 10. Or maybe, another boy is raped every day his entire life, until he commits suicide. Yep, I must be more important than all of those people! No, the truth is, I am not more important than those less fortunate and to think God saved me from the above, is really just another form of “I am better than others”.
I am not declaring there isn’t a God, but I am suggesting that I don’t think this God is all good, all powerful and all loving. Whatever it is, it wants to hide from us, only reveals itself to certain people (according to their claims) and acts unjustly according to human reason (which ironically, he gave us)… Or, of course, that God doesn’t exist at all. I know, that isn’t a popular position to hold here, but is not not, will you grant me, at least a possibility? If you say “Then where did we come from if there is no first cause”? I say “Who caused God?” and if he always was, then why can’t the universe always have been? I mean, both arguments fail to account for a first cause… They can both say it isn’t needed, but ultimately both boil down to the same concept.
