The Case Against Miracles

by John W. Loftus

“A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.” The principle of proportionality demands extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims, as Carl Sagan famously said (quoting

Sam Harris made the correct call: “Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings.”[600]

“Gave his only son” sounds so much better than “God required a human sacrifice…”

Bible Christians misconstrue the Bible as history and fail to read it in its historical development; that is, they do not use methods to isolate original traditions, to identify how editors combine traditions separated several hundred years, and they do not read it genre-specifically. Moreover, they are unaware of cross-cultural ancient Near Eastern vocabulary and mythological concepts. They also do not discern how ancient biblical descriptions of the natural world not only violate science but show serious historical and logical flaws. These Bible Christians are uninformed about how historical-critical methods function in solving some of these problems. Hence, this chapter will describe how methods can help determine original sources, oral settings, and the form and function of various miracle genres.