As a Christian, I had one fantastic miracle story in my repertoire; I had seen God multiply food. I was in Africa at the time with about 50 other college students doing AIDS work/mission work for a month in the summer and one morning I was in charge of oatmeal. Beacause there were so many of us, we were organized into teams to divide up the daily chores and this was my team's morning for breakfast. There had barely been enough food for all of us and each morning we had been served a tiny scoop of oatmeal meant to last most of the day. I was dreading the job of distributing less than enough food to my friends. As the first person came through the line, I thought, "to hell with it" and gave each person as much as they wanted. I kept scooping and scooping until suddenly I realized that everyone was sitting down with their breakfast and I had one scoop left over.
Pretty fantastic, isn't it? I was so thrilled I told everyone about how God had provided for his children when they needed it most. Except... that's not exactly what happened. Everything I said was true, but there were a few other factors I didn't include. I never told anyone that even though I barely had 3 cups of oatmeal in my pot, two other of my friends were serving cream of wheat and students would choose which one they wanted. Also, I really did have one scoop left over, but it was because the last guy in line said he really didn't feel like oatmeal. So what appears to be a re-enactment of the feeding of the 5,000 is really my lack of attention to detail.
Before you judge me too harshly, I need to clarify that I never intentionally misrepresented the facts of what happened. In that moment, I was completely convinced that I had seen a miracle. I knew God had done something and if I told the whole story, that would just confuse people about whether or not there really was a miracle. Thinking back on this, it makes me wonder if many miracle stories are like this; faithful followers who saw something they truly believed to be the work of God and who leave out what they perceive as insignificant details. I'd like to believe that most Christians, instead of being con-artists, are genuinely mistaken.
Here's a good discussion regarding the reliability of eyewitness testimony, especially as it relates to the eyewitnesses in the New Testament:
ReplyDeletehttp://formerfundy.blogspot.com/2010/04/psychological-factors-influencing.html
I think you're right, most people who claim they witnessed a miracle really truly believe it, and could possibly pass a lie detector test. It is difficult to admit that what you know you experienced may not be what actually happened. I think our brains have a strong need to fill in the gaps, and for Christians, God is at or near the top of the list of possibilities for filling those gaps. Once that gap is filled in it becomes our own version of the truth, and you can't tell me I didn't see what I know I saw.
Hmmm, I may have just created an alternate version of the God of Gaps argument.
Haha, congratulations on your new argument! Thanks for the link to the blog; very informative. I am always looking for neurological evidence as to why people have religious experiences. I usually can figure out things like seeing miracles and visions, but the one thing I'm not sure how to explain is what causes people to speak in tongues? Scam artists aside, I had plenty of friends who did so on a regular basis, both in public and private. Any ideas on what this process really is?
ReplyDeleteThe Wikipedia article on glossolalia (speaking in tongues) has some good information regarding the subject.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia
I will admit to scanning quite rapidly over the parts dealing with the Bible and Christianity, since the linguistic and neuroscience sections of that article take the mystery out of it.