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This topic is pretty amusing to me because it reflects some of the thoughts that went through my mind when my religion teacher was telling us about the “miracles” of the prophets. I was a skeptical kid that asked a lot of questions and I wondered how these extraordinary claims could actually be real. Why don’t these “miracles” happen anymore? Doesn’t “god” want to show us any more signs? Maybe he just can’t make them happen? Or maybe miracles just don’t exist?

I often thought about how I would react if someone came up to me today and made these outrageous claims. What would I think? Let’s take a look at a few of these “Miracles” from the 3 major Abrahamic Religions:

The Miracles of the Moses

The 10 Commandments

“God” told Moses to go up to Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights and then gave him two tablets with the 10 commandments that were inscribed by god himself. When Moses came back down, he discovered that his people were worshipping a man-made golden calf while he was gone. He got really upset and then dropped the tablets, which break into pieces. God then commanded Moses to go back up the Mount and engrave a new set of tablets himself just like the original ones that god created.

My Thoughts

  • Why would it take 40 days to get those damn tablets done? How do we know that Moses didn’t engrave the first ones himself? I mean, he was up there for over a month. What was he doing the whole time?
  • If the original commandments were written by god, and Moses had to redo the tablets, how do we know that he didn’t make any changes? He could have created a completely different set of rules.
  • The commandments are not even all that miraculous anyway… Most of them can be summarized into the “golden rule” that has been around a long time before Moses even got these tablets (treat others the same way you would like to be treated), and the rest are just plain silly… but I will talk about that in a future post.
Crossing the Red Sea

When Moses and his people were running away from the Pharaoh and his Egyptian army, “god” gave him the power to split the red sea. All he had to do was wave his staff over the water and then a strong wind came and divided the sea so that his people can walk through. The Israelites made it all the way across with walls of water on both sides, but as soon as the Pharaoh’s men came after them, god let the walls of water fall on top of them, allowing Moses and his people to get to the other side without being harmed.

My Thoughts

  • I would really like to see that happen! It would be pretty damn cool…. Moses waving his magic wand like Harry Potter, and the sea would miraculously form a pathway long enough for his people to walk all the way to the other side… That would be pretty amazing except for the fact that it is NOT POSSIBLE!! Doesn’t that defy the laws of gravity? We all know it is just plain BS.

The Miracles of Jesus

Virgin Mother

Apparently, Mary (the mother of Jesus) miraculously conceived without having sex. The “Holy Spirit” impregnated her without the help of a man or any kind of “seed”.

My Thoughts

  • Virgin? Yeah right!! We all know it cannot be a “miracle” that she got pregnant. That just defies everything we know about biology! If someone came up to me today and said she got pregnant out of nowhere by a “holy ghost”, I would probably laugh in her face.
Resurrection

According to the bible, Jesus was resurrected 3 days after he died for our sins. Even though he had already been buried in a tomb, he was somehow resurrected and even appeared to some people for over 40 days before his ascension to heaven. The crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus was all to save mankind.

My Thoughts

  • Come on… Really? I guess it’s just like those Zombie movies huh? Rising from the dead… Freaking people out…
  • The concept of Jesus dying for our sins is very silly.. why would god need to create him, have him captured, tortured and killed in order to forgive people for their sins…. There is another option you know… He could have just forgiven everyone! He is all-powerful right? This whole mess could have been avoided.

The Miracles of Mohammad

The Quran

Most Muslims will probably say that Mohammad’s greatest miracle was the Quran. It is the Holy Book written by “god” that is full of wisdom that works with everyday life in every generation.

My Thoughts

  • The Quran is not really miraculous at all!… As I mentioned in a previous article, it is just a book with nonsense, flaws and grammar mistakes. Nothing special there.
Isra and Miraj (Journey to Jerusalem and Heaven)

One night, when Mohammad was in Mecca praying, he went on a journey on his “flying horse” from Mecca to Jerusalem. He then went up to the 7th heaven where he met god. This is the night when he bargains with god to reduce the number of times they need to pray from 50 to 5 (See my previous article about this topic). This 2-part event is called “Al-Isra” and “Al-Miraj”.

My Thoughts

  • Flying horse? Where have I heard that before?… Hmmm… Greek mythology? Or maybe I am just thinking about all the cartoons out there today….
  • Trip to Jerusalem – I was told that the reason why his followers believed that he went to Jerusalem is because he was able to describe the city in detail even though he has never been there before…. Yeah… that doesn’t seem like proof to me! Someone else who has actually been there could have told him about Jerusalem. Not to mention that he traveled a lot when he worked in the trade business with his wife Khadijah. How do we know that he never went there during one of those trips? Or that he met other travelers that told him about the city. That’s not a miracle. ANYONE can pretend they have been somewhere if all they have to do is describe the place.
  • Trip to Heaven – Mohammad goes up to the 7th level of heaven to meet god in what is called Al-Miraj. Hmmmm…. Where is this 7th heaven that is up in the sky? Is it still on earth? Or another planet? Or somewhere in all that empty space out there. I wonder if the “flying horse” can actually fly in outer space… Or does he float instead?

These are questions that people SHOULD be asking or at least thinking about. I remember another time when we were told a story about how Mohammad was hiding from his enemies and he ended up going into a cave. “God” then had some spiders create their webs at the entrance of their hiding place. When the enemies passed by and saw the webs on the outside of the cave, they didn’t think there was anyone inside, so they left….. I was told this story was a miracle from “god”… ummmm… NO! It is not a miracle. There were times when I left my house to get coffee, and by the time I got back, there were spider webs at my door. It is an every day occurrence that happens in nature…

Miracles my ass!

Come on people… These are just fairytales written for ancient times when people didn’t know any better. You can’t call it a miracle just because it is written in a book, and you shouldn’t believe something extraordinary just because someone said it was true. We have to examine the evidence to see if it makes sense. We have to use our logical minds to determine what is real and what is fiction.

It is important to teach people the value of critical thinking. The number of religious skeptics is on the rise due to the fact that the newer generations are more educated and knowledgeable about the world. It is getting harder and harder to trick people into believing such religious nonsense.

I am not saying that we have all the answers. I am just saying that we should not believe something unless there is evidence. It is much better to say, “I don’t know” rather than jumping to conclusions just because someone said that their “imaginary friend” did it all. And just because some things might be unknown now, it doesn’t mean that we will never know them in the future. We know much more now than we did a thousand, a hundred, or even 10 years ago.

Being a skeptic is one of the most valuable lessons you can learn in life. With this skill, you will not be easily tricked into believing something without logic and evidence. You will ask questions, do your research and assess the validity of any outrageous claim. THAT is what will get us closer to the truth…. NOT an imaginary friend with a book.

(If you would like to suggest a topic, you can do it here)

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