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Why god won't heal amputees....

Funny though. If you go to a Benny Hinn Miracle Crusade, you'll see that God does a fine job of healing conditions like asthma, high blood pressure, and many forms of cancer.

But, the amputees never get to come up on stage and have their missing limbs restored in front of the crowd.

It's too bad. It'd make for some great TV.
 
It's an okay website, but the author seems to think he has seized upon some profound question which will shake Christians to the core of their beliefs. But it is really nothing new. You could generalize the question as "Why won't God do something that is dramatic and obvious to everyone". Christians have a myriad of responses for that, usually involving some variation of "You can't just ask God to show you a miracle, you have to have faith."
 
Tricky said:
It's an okay website, but the author seems to think he has seized upon some profound question which will shake Christians to the core of their beliefs. But it is really nothing new. You could generalize the question as "Why won't God do something that is dramatic and obvious to everyone". Christians have a myriad of responses for that, usually involving some variation of "You can't just ask God to show you a miracle, you have to have faith."
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The generalization loses some of the power of the question, though. The point is that any specific instance of prayer 'failing' can be accepted by the "just have faith" argument, but here we find an enormous class of prayers that have for some reason always failed. God hates amputees -- and if no amputee has ever had the requisite faith, it makes an interesting question, too. Why can't amputees have faith?
 
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Kramer: "Get a Penthouse Forum."
George: "I'm not getting a Penthouse Forum!"
Kramer: "Com'on. It will make great dinner conversation."
George: "It's not real!."
Kramer: "Oh, its real."
George: "Really, then I guess an inordinate amount of people are having sex with AMPUTEES!!!"


Maybe God likes the stories in Penthouse Forum.
 
Tricky said:
It's an okay website, but the author seems to think he has seized upon some profound question which will shake Christians to the core of their beliefs. But it is really nothing new. You could generalize the question as "Why won't God do something that is dramatic and obvious to everyone". Christians have a myriad of responses for that, usually involving some variation of "You can't just ask God to show you a miracle, you have to have faith."
Click to expand...

But I like this website because even most rationalizing Christians do believe that God will heal illness if you just pray hard enough. This site does a good job of pointing out the fact that, when you eliminate the possibility of spontaneous remission, there is no evidence whatsoever for divine intervention. The amputee case is a good, unambiguous example that I hadn't thought about before.
 
I'd like to hear the Christian rebuttal to the amputee dilmena, especially if that person believes that God does indeed answer prayers and cure persons of other diseases such as cancer.
I'm quite certain there will be a number of different explanations, as Tricky pointed out in an earlier post. How logical the explanations are is a whole didn't issue.
 
Perhaps one explanation is: "Amputees don't deserve to have their limbs back."
God could do it, but he doesn't want to!
 
Why god won't heal amputees....



His retirement is all tied up in prosthetics manufacturing.
 
Playing the Believer's advocate - an amputation can be seen as a cross to bear, and in most cases is not life-threatening. Praying for your arm to grow back, when you can work, live, and contribute in most of the Earthly activities god requires does not require your arm, leg or finger to come back. Simply put, if you die of cancer, you cannot continue to do god's work on Earth, if you lose an arm, you can.
 
I also like dthis quote from the website: "God never "answers prayers" if there is no possibility of coincidence."

But then I realized the fatal flaw in the whole thing - if god's requirement is that you believe via faith alone, then the above must necessarily be true. If he answered the prayer to cure all cancer, we would believe because of evidence, not because of faith.
 
Starrman said:
Playing the Believer's advocate - an amputation can be seen as a cross to bear, and in most cases is not life-threatening. Praying for your arm to grow back, when you can work, live, and contribute in most of the Earthly activities god requires does not require your arm, leg or finger to come back. Simply put, if you die of cancer, you cannot continue to do god's work on Earth, if you lose an arm, you can.
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So, it is really a cost/benefit calculation?
 
headscratcher4 said:
So, it is really a cost/benefit calculation?
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I'm sure god has the best accountants. I actually think the second post I made is more of an answer to the general question from a believer's view. Of course the answer 'there is no god' works as well - and doesn't bother Occam (or me!).
 
Starrman said:
Playing the Believer's advocate - an amputation can be seen as a cross to bear, and in most cases is not life-threatening. Praying for your arm to grow back, when you can work, live, and contribute in most of the Earthly activities god requires does not require your arm, leg or finger to come back. Simply put, if you die of cancer, you cannot continue to do god's work on Earth, if you lose an arm, you can.
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So, hypotheticly, if one were to lose both arms and legs, could he or she continue to work, live, and contribute what it is that God's work entails? If not, will he regrow a couple of limbs for that person to continue to do what they're required to? :)
 
JamesDillon said:
But I like this website because even most rationalizing Christians do believe that God will heal illness if you just pray hard enough.
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I'm not so sure about this. Most Christians don't believe they have power over the will of God. They believe God can cure any illness, given any amount of praying; whether he does or not, though, is ultimately up to Him, and His Plan.
 
Starrman said:
Playing the Believer's advocate - an amputation can be seen as a cross to bear, and in most cases is not life-threatening. Praying for your arm to grow back, when you can work, live, and contribute in most of the Earthly activities god requires does not require your arm, leg or finger to come back. Simply put, if you die of cancer, you cannot continue to do god's work on Earth, if you lose an arm, you can.
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Infertility, deafness, blindness etc., etc. would meet the same criteria of not being needed for all earthly activities. God is given credit when they are "cured".
 
[typical Christian response] But don't you see? God HAS healed amputees. He has given us the wisdom to learn how to create artificial limbs, and in some cases, even reattach severed limbs, in His name. [/typical Christian response]
 
I less than three logic said:
So, hypotheticly, if one were to lose both arms and legs, could he or she continue to work, live, and contribute what it is that God's work entails? If not, will he regrow a couple of limbs for that person to continue to do what they're required to? :)
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Maybe God wants that person to be a preacher, and for that person's wayward son to redeem himself by taking them into his care? Who knows, and any other case can probably be equivocated in one way or another - that's how religion works. Didn't you get the newsletter? :)

That reminds me of some of my favorite miracles - people who are maimed horribly and then thank god they lived. Couldn't he have saved you without the maiming part? If he intervened, couldn't he have intervened shortly before the maiming began? I once saw a woman thank god that the pipe that fell out of the truck and pierced her chest missed her heart by 4 inches. If god could have pushed the darn thing another foot or two she could have avoided the hole in her sternum all-together. I can see god in his easy chair: "well, she deserves to live, but she ate candy out of the veterans dish without giving a quarter, so we better give her a nice poke through the chest to be fair."
 
Freethinker said:
Infertility, deafness, blindness etc., etc. would meet the same criteria of not being needed for all earthly activities. God is given credit when they are "cured".
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No argument here - just trying to think of what a possible response from a believer might be. Again - I think my second point is probably a better answer from that perspective. An obvious miracle would negate the need for faith, which is what god likes the most.
 
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