Am I missing a leg again?
There are many popular arguments that atheists like to bring up when discussing prayer with a person of faith. One such argument, that I know Sam Harris has often used before, is, if prayer really works, how come there have been no cases of people regrowing (or regenerating) their missing limbs. It's a sad and tragic scenario. A soldier (of religious faith) loses his leg on the battlefield, gets sent home and while lying on the hospital bed asks God, "Why did this happen to me? Please Lord, give me back my leg." His family prays for him and prays that God will heal his leg, too. Nothing happens.
The argument is a strong one, because it asks the question, "What can and can't we pray for? And why?" Some people believe it is absurd to ask God to regrow limbs because it's impossible for humans to grow back missing body parts. But then the question arises, "Well if we can only pray for things that are physically possible, and might occur by chance or through other means other than faith, what is the point of prayer? Where is the miracle?" Isn't prayer supposed to a miracle?
Some people pray for their favorite sports team to win, and when their team loses the game they believe that it was unfair of them to ask God, an all-knowing, omniscient creator of the Universe to take time out of His busy schedule for some irrelevant football match. However, when their team does win, they thank Him and believe that it was with His help that the team won the game. Again, I must ask, where's the miracle? This is not the will and power of a divine being, it's the ignorance of the individual that drives this belief.
So while the poor, religious amputee soldier is praying to the Heavens, what are scientists doing? Well, as it turns out, they are actually finding ways to help people like him. Scientists are constantly developing technology to regrow limbs, if not naturally, then artificially. One recent article about a bionic hand caught my attention:
Milestone for unique bionic hand
I found this to be quite ironic. While people are praying to God for something that a lot of them believe to be impossible, the scientific community is actually doing something about it - they're doing the "impossible".
The argument is a strong one, because it asks the question, "What can and can't we pray for? And why?" Some people believe it is absurd to ask God to regrow limbs because it's impossible for humans to grow back missing body parts. But then the question arises, "Well if we can only pray for things that are physically possible, and might occur by chance or through other means other than faith, what is the point of prayer? Where is the miracle?" Isn't prayer supposed to a miracle?
Some people pray for their favorite sports team to win, and when their team loses the game they believe that it was unfair of them to ask God, an all-knowing, omniscient creator of the Universe to take time out of His busy schedule for some irrelevant football match. However, when their team does win, they thank Him and believe that it was with His help that the team won the game. Again, I must ask, where's the miracle? This is not the will and power of a divine being, it's the ignorance of the individual that drives this belief.
So while the poor, religious amputee soldier is praying to the Heavens, what are scientists doing? Well, as it turns out, they are actually finding ways to help people like him. Scientists are constantly developing technology to regrow limbs, if not naturally, then artificially. One recent article about a bionic hand caught my attention:
Milestone for unique bionic hand
I found this to be quite ironic. While people are praying to God for something that a lot of them believe to be impossible, the scientific community is actually doing something about it - they're doing the "impossible".
posted by Evgueni Naverniouk | 11:28 AM
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