Why Won't God Heal Amputees?

[feoplepeel]

http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/

No doubt, some of you have seen this amazing site.  For those who haven't, I suggest a read.  I'll quote a bit:
"Why won't God heal amputees?" may seem like an odd name for a Web site. The reason for choosing it is simple: this is one of the most important questions that we can ask about God.

Unless you take the time to intelligently analyze this situation, [a miracle in your life] looks ambiguous. How can we determine whether it is God or coincidence that worked the cure? One way is to eliminate the ambiguity. In a non-ambiguous situation, there is no potential for coincidence. Because there is no ambiguity, we can actually know whether God is answering the prayer or not.

That is what we are doing when we look at amputees.

Think about it this way. The Bible clearly promises that God answers prayers. For example, in Mark 11:24 Jesus says, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." And billions of Christians believe these promises. You can find thousands of books, magazine articles and Web sites talking about the power of prayer. According to believers, God is answering millions of their prayers every day.

So what should happen if we pray to God to restore amputated limbs? Clearly, if God is real, limbs should regenerate through prayer. In reality, they do not.

Why not? Because God is imaginary. Notice that there is zero ambiguity in this situation. There is only one way for a limb to regenerate through prayer: God must exist and God must answer prayers. What we find is that whenever we create a unambiguous situation like this and look at the results of prayer, prayer never works. God never "answers prayers" if there is no possibility of coincidence. We will approach this issue from several different angles in this book, but Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8 are particularly important:

    * Chapter 5 - Why won't God heal amputees?
    * Chapter 6 - Why do you need health insurance?
    * Chapter 7 - Why can't you move a mountain?
    * Chapter 8 - Why do bad things happen to good people?

The fact that prayers are never answered when the possibility of coincidence is eliminated meshes with another fact. If we analyze God's responses to ambiguous prayers using statistical tools, what we find is that there is never any statistical evidence for prayer. In other words, when we statistically compare prayer to coincidence for explaining any situation, they are identical. You can see the same effect in the following prayer. Let's assume that you are a true believer and you do believe that God cures cancer. What would happen if we get down on our knees and pray to God in this way:

      Dear God, almighty, all-powerful, all-loving creator of the universe, we pray to you to cure every case of cancer on this planet tonight. We pray in faith, knowing you will bless us as you describe in Matthew 7:7, Matthew 17:20, Matthew 21:21, Mark 11:24, John 14:12-14, Matthew 18:19 and James 5:15-16. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

We pray sincerely, knowing that when God answers this completely heartfelt, unselfish, non-materialistic prayer, it will glorify God and help millions of people in remarkable ways. If God cures cancer, then this is an easy prayer for an omnipotent, all-loving God to answer.

The fact is, what this prayer does is remove ambiguity. As soon as we do that, we see the true nature of "God." There is no way that a coincidence can answer this prayer, and, sure enough, the prayer goes unanswered.

If you look at the data, you can see exactly what is happening here:

    * When we pray to God about any non-ambigous situation, God never answers the prayer.

    * When we analyse any ambiguous prayer using statistical tools, we find zero effect from prayer.

In other words, every "answered prayer" truly is a coincidence, nothing more. "God" doesn't "answer prayers" at all. The belief in prayer is pure superstition. Non-ambiguous prayers (like those of amputees) show us, conclusively, that the whole idea that "God answers prayers" is an illusion created by human imagination."

[feoplepeel]

The site also goes into how religion and prayer works and delves into parts of the Bible, using the greatest tool: The Bible, itself.

It does this all while being very respectful and understanding that it's audience ranges from believers, non-believers and the skeptics.

[queenofnines]

I've been to the sister site, http://www.godisimaginary.com  That site can literally make a Christian into an atheist if one reads through all of the proofs throughly and sincerely.

[stokeman455]

     I do not know about all the Religous glory but,,,  we do have prosthetics...  :-

[Kiki1992]

Why do bad things happen to good people. For example, a good innocent mother is killed, leaving a 12 year old daughter to take care of a 5 year old brother. Why would God allow her to be killed and die? Have you ever heard of a saying that goes something like " there is always good in midst of evil", you just have to look for it and realize it. That girl and her little brother suffered for years of their lives, but they fought through it and became two of the most influential people in their society. They had a testimony, a story to tell. They changed a lot of hearts because they could relate to those around them when they say, " You do not have to let yourselves down for what evil has brought upon you so that you too may become evil; but see the good that lies behind the darkness, forgive, and survive.

OR why did God allow those five young missionaries who went to reach out to the Waodani Indian tribes in the jungles of Ecuador to die by the spear of the very Indians they were trying to help? Well, the son of one of the missionaries went back along with the wives of the five men killed and successfully reached out to these Indians who became Christians afterwards.

You say, Why doesn't God do this; why doesn't God answer prays? God will do what is best. That same man who killed the woman repented of his crime life and became a man of peace, a man of God after seeing the forgiving heart of these two children. These treacherous Indians who were constantly fighting and killing got a chance of a life of peace because of the death of these five young missionary men.

And what are you praying for? For your limb to grow back? For your loved ones to be healed of cancer? These kids did not pray for their mother to come back. They prayed (like their mother taught them) that the evil hearts would some day change, and prayed that God gave them food and shelter to make it through every day.

And the Bible does say "pray and you shall be answered." But do so with faith and with no doubt, with no selfishness or envy.

[Falconer02]

Wow. Nice find. A very intelligent site. I enjoy how it promotes skeptical thinking. Especially the scripted parts here-

http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/god19.htm

[feoplepeel]

Why do bad things happen to good people. For example, a good innocent mother is killed, leaving a 12 year old daughter to take care of a 5 year old brother. Why would God allow her to be killed and die? Have you ever heard of a saying that goes something like " there is always good in midst of evil", you just have to look for it and realize it. That girl and her little brother suffered for years of their lives, but they fought through it and became two of the most influential people in their society. They had a testimony, a story to tell. They changed a lot of hearts because they could relate to those around them when they say, " You do not have to let yourselves down for what evil has brought upon you so that you too may become evil; but see the good that lies behind the darkness, forgive, and survive.

OR why did God allow those five young missionaries who went to reach out to the Waodani Indian tribes in the jungles of Ecuador to die by the spear of the very Indians they were trying to help? Well, the son of one of the missionaries went back along with the wives of the five men killed and successfully reached out to these Indians who became Christians afterwards.

You say, Why doesn't God do this; why doesn't God answer prays? God will do what is best. That same man who killed the woman repented of his crime life and became a man of peace, a man of God after seeing the forgiving heart of these two children. These treacherous Indians who were constantly fighting and killing got a chance of a life of peace because of the death of these five young missionary men.

Actually, "Bad things happen to good people" doesn't really work in your favor, I'm sorry.  In fact it backs up the opposite side pretty heavily.  Bad things happening to good people eventually ending in something nice, sometime farther down the line is something I commonly hear about, most always from Christians and ALWAYS followed by, "God's Plan".  I'm sorry, but if that's the case then what about the millions of other people who don't turn out as lucky as the people you mentioned?  If you believe fully in the divinity of God's plan and that he answers the prayers of those faithful and doubtless, what that says to me is those who aren't rescued--children abused, raped, murdered--all God-loving children are just not praying with selflessness.

And, to be honest, your first story is a little terrible.  I admit, people become STRONGER in the face of adversity, but saying that GOD let that happen, instead of a terrible person?  To say God LET A WOMAN DIE, leaving two children to fend for themselves, JUST so they could tell a story later?  What a guy.

And the Bible does say "pray and you shall be answered." But do so with faith and with no doubt, with no selfishness or envy.

And Matthew said that in his 21st chapter, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt", but that's not the only verse on prayer, you know?  In Matthew 17:20, JESUS said, "For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you."  And another 1 in Matthew (18:19), one in Mark (11:24) and one in John (14: 12-14).  I'm sure there's something in the entire BIBLE about selfishness and envy, but...most of those verses are about praying for one's well-being or the well-being or what God can do for the person.

And what are you praying for? For your limb to grow back? For your loved ones to be healed of cancer? These kids did not pray for their mother to come back. They prayed (like their mother taught them) that the evil hearts would some day change, and prayed that God gave them food and shelter to make it through every day.

Please, please, PLEASE read at least this ONE page in answer to your question: http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/god5.htm

[reneabingham]

GOD HEALS THATS Y HE SAID TO GET IT TAKEN OFF