Skeptics often think the miracles in the bible are too far-fetched to believe. “Dead people coming back to life? Blind people seeing? You expect me to believe that?” they ask. While sympathizing with skeptics in their initial reaction, Karlo shows in this video why it’s unreasonable to reject belief in miracles simply because of their improbability.
Transcript:
Are Biblical Miracles Too Far-Fetched to Believe?
Some think biblical miracles are too far-fetched to believe. “Dead people coming back to life? Blind people seeing? You expect me to believe that?” a skeptic might say.
While I can sympathize, we can’t reject something outright simply because it’s highly improbable or extraordinary. And here are a few reasons why.
First, an event might be improbable when considered relative to our general background knowledge. But relative to other knowledge or evidence, improbability can decrease. For example, it would be highly improbable the winning number for the California Lottery is my ticket number—say it’s 634578. But if the newspaper and the news anchor both say this is the winning number, then the probability changes—I’d be a rich man.
Similarly, miracles, like Jesus’ resurrection, are improbable relative to our background knowledge—men don’t usually rise from the dead. But the improbability decreases when it’s considered relative to specific evidence—namely, eyewitness testimonies. If the testimonies are sound, then belief is rational, despite the event’s improbability.
Second, many skeptics hardly ever consider the improbability of the reported miracle being false. Take for example the resurrection of Jesus. The alternatives to the early Christian testimony are way more improbable than the miracle itself. Why would the Christians die for a lie when there’s nothing to gain from it? How could so many different people hallucinate the same thing, at the same time, on many different occasions?
So, miracles, and in particular the biblical ones, are not too far-fetched to believe if there is sufficient evidence to justify the belief. As the saying goes, “Follow the evidence wherever it leads.”
We’ll have to wait for other videos to provide such evidence. But at least we can see here that we shouldn’t reject biblical miracles simply on the grounds that they’re too far-fetched.
If you want to learn more about this topic and others like it, visit our website at catholic.com. Also, visit catholicanswerspeakers.com to learn how you can bring me out to speak at your next event.
For Catholic Answers, I’m Karlo Broussard. Thanks for watching.