People Who Have Way Too Many Miracle Stories

[bleedblue22]

In my experience in Christianity, there were certain people I would meet who would claim that they've witnessed many miracles. I've always thought these types of people always have seemed slightly off or a little strange. At my Christian college, I went on a backpacking trip with this guy who claimed when he was a toddler he was almost hit by a car. The car missed him an parents rushed out into the street to get him and he was laughing saying that he had seen an angel stop the car from hitting him. He happened to be from a family of extreme Christians and his dad was a professional apologist. He had many other "miraculous" stories from his life like that one.

I was working on a mission trip and the owner of the house I was working on said that she performed a healing on her granddaughter over the phone. She said that her granddaughter was very sick and wouldn't stop crying and then she prayed that the sickness would go away and then almost immediately her daughter called to say the granddaughter was smiling and laughing again. This convinced her daughter that God was real and she became a regular churchgoer. This woman was a Pentecostal, so I think it's almost fashionable to have stories of "signs" to tell your friends about to fit in with other Pentecostals. She also had all sorts of stories about speaking in tongues.
 
The more I think about it, the modern miracle claims I've heard come from only strange people I know and they tend to be the least rational/credible of my acquaintances. I've always felt like they try their best to interpret certain happenings as miraculous, even if that means fudging the facts and ignoring the utterly unmiraculous. Also it seems like these "miracles" always seem to occur to the same people over and over while the vast majority of people see nothing miraculous ever happening. If what these people are describing really is miraculous, God isn't distributing his miracles all that well and is leaving the sober, rational people out of the fun altogether.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

Some folks like the spotlight, a lot. I followed and promoted just such a preacher for 9 years. He was convincing to me (and thousands of others) because he related failure first, and gave steps for how to actually achieve the presence of god, and he is a missionary to some of the "lowest" on the planet, Mexican indians, some of whom only speak their native language. All of this added up to genuine to me. He didn't wear fancy clothes and appears to work hard in the field. His preaching doesn't consist of much preaching, but mostly of relating often fantastic miracles. But I bought in because he seemed real. He makes a big deal out of the miracles not coming from pride, because he is a dyed in the wool cult leader and a great storyteller. He rags on the American church all the time for being lazy, rich, and full of self-interest, all of which is true and helped convince me that he was real.

 

Until they day I finally caught him fabricating a long story about witches and such. There was no way around it and that started my deconversion. The part that floored me even more was that his fellow missionaries also report many miracles. I was counting on them to give a straight answer, but forgot how cults work. Approval of the alpha male is paramount.

[Lucy]

I remember a man telling me he saw a strange light coming out of the door of his grandmother's room, much more light than would be normal. So he opened the door to investigate and saw the virgin Mary as clear as day praying over his grandmother on her death bed! This was such a miracle that he fell to his knees and cried while he prayed too. This apparition lasted nearly a minute. When Mary left his grandmother was dead. He believes the virgin Mary personally escorted his grandmother to heaven. He told me this story so enthusiastically, I believed it to be true even though I'm not Catholic. But now I'm really not sure now if he was making it up entirely or something in his mind caused him to hallucinate.

 

 

The miracle stories were part of what made me hold onto my belief. I thought someday god would bless me with some miraculous experience to share with others, but nothing ever happened.

 

Now if you want stories about crazy Christians, I have plenty of those.

[amateur]

I agree with what you're saying.  I too have heard several people claim miracles many times, which makes you wonder.  

 

If any of this is true, you have to wonder about a god that responds so randomly and occasionally to prayers of people in first world countries, but obviously never to sincere repeated prayers to help starving children.

[Eban73]

Miracle stories are usually cover ups for stupid behavior in my experience. I've come across a lot of people in the last year who say they've found god, but still engage in some of most foul and sometimes idiotic behavior you could imagine. The only miracle I could see is that they are somehow still alive after doing drugs or committing acts of violence that most of us wouldn't think about doing.

[Eugene39]

A friend of mine told me a few weeks ago that God had healed him from heart problems because he had shoveled the snow without his chest hurting.

[amateur]

A friend of mine told me a few weeks ago that God had healed him from heart problems because he had shoveled the snow without his chest hurting.

AMEN!!!!  HALL-LAY-LOU-YA!!!!  Praise the Lord!!!!  It's a MIRACLE!  With a $25 donation, you can receive the DVD of this man's testimony and watch him shovel his driveway with NO PAIN!!!!  ALL PRAISES TO OUR GOD!!!  Another MIRACLE HEALING in our midst!

[Travi]

This is an everyday thing in Kentucky. Anytime something good happens, first words to come from just about anyone living here: "THANK DA LAWD!" or "PRAISE JESUS!"

Everything good is a miracle in Kentucky. We're the state Commonwealth of miracles! Come on down!

[wyson]

Anyone wonder why these miracles don't involve anything actually helpful, but are generally made up of things that affirm the mythology (crying statues, visions of mary, stigmata) or are misinterpretations of natural phenomena?

 

Like why would an all loving, all powerful God decide to animate a statue in a Church rather than give someone an idea, or even conjure out of thin air a cheap and plentiful way of creating electricity? Considering the harm that resource allocation does on the geopolitical stage and the lives lost over it, surely it would be a better demonstration of his goodness?

 

Christians like this really do my head in. My cousin had fibriods which disappeared of their own accord. Despite being told by her doctors this happens and not infrequently either, she decided it was a miracle based on her prayer. I argued with her that it was her body healing its self, but she was adamant it was a miracle because of a dream sent to her from God. Its soooo stupid.

[yunea]

What used to make me wonder, even as a Xian who thought I'd experienced actual miracles, was that so many claimed to see and hear Jesus with their actual eyes and ears. Not in the mind's eye, not thoughts, but actual seeing and hearing. Heck, for example I recently saw a video testimony of a 18-ish year old girl who claimed she'd seen with her own eyes that there was an angel as tall as a tree.

 

There also was this guy where I was born, who had severe schizophrenia and he decided to be completely open about it. He said he actually saw very nice flowers on his table when they weren't there, and he had voices telling him to go on vacation (which he didn't do). I always wondered just how I'd know the difference if god were to make me really see and hear things that others didn't, since not all schizophrenia is scary either. A good thing it never went that far with me.

[SquareOne]

The wife of the pastor at my first church was notorious for her angel sightings.  The thing was, she never talked about her angel sightings as I think someone would if they actually saw an angel.  I mean, I would be like "OMG celestial being of light from beyond this realm!!"  But she was like a child speaking about her imaginary friend.  "I saw an angel, and it was really tall and had big wings and a big sword...  Isn't God amazing?"  I realised in the end that she was almost certainly lying.  I didn't stay at that church, needless to say.

[Lucy]

If you have a dream about kittens and puppies, it's just a dream.

If you have a dream about angels or Jesus, it's a real message from god.

 

If you see visions of dancing palm trees, it's hallucination caused by drugs or schizophrenia.

If you see visions of angels or Jesus, it's a real message from god.

 

 

I'm really unsure if the people telling me these miracle claims were having hallucinations or just adamant liars. Thinking about it now, the ones with the most grand miracle claims also had the most crazy beliefs to go with them.

 

 

 

Now the miracle stories about people getting sick or doing dangerous things and almost getting killed but somehow managing to survive are different. These stories usually offended me. For one, you can't prove god did anything at all. And there is this implication of the person telling the story being somehow better than others. God lets other people die in car wrecks, but you have a divine purpose so go saved you. God lets other people suffer illness, but when you pray he heals you. These stories always imply that god favors them over others.

 

We had a "miracle" near where I live a few months ago. A plane crashed and the whole family died except one girl. People were talking about this like it's a real miracle. People kept sharing it on FB with comments like, "This girl is going to share great testimony one day!" and, "God has great plans for her!"  http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/02/us/kentucky-plane-crash/

[EyesOpened]

My mother has told me a few in the past in her personal experience.

 

Back in the late 70's my mom was out for a walk with me and she heard a voice say, "Marvell(southern name for the old days), everything will be ok and you will be healed in 3 days". She said she heard this voice out loud and no one was in sight. I was 3 and in a stroller at the time and i was sleeping.

 

This was something she didn't tell many people and kept it among the family because she didn't want to be judged by her peers.

 

Another time she said she seen Jesus in the moon.

 

I never doubted her because for much of my life I was a Xtian and thought these things actually happened.

 

Years later when i figured out that it was all fake, what happened to her made sense.

 

She has had a history of medical problems and it started at an early age. She started having heart problems at 15. Also in the list is diabetes, breathing difficulties at times, and poor vision. I believe something medical caused what she experienced.

 

My mom passed away last year and the last words she said was "i am afraid, i hope God and Heaven is real, but i am not sure anymore". That will stick with me until i die because my mom was 100% about God and Heaven being true.

[ConsiderTheSource]

In my 20s a lady in our home study group announced that God told her she was with child. And What makes this truly amazing us that she had no uterus or other need parts to make this work. She was "with child" for 6 months. No one would step forward to challenge her story. After 6 month she announced that, yes,she was indeed pregnant for six months, but the lard decided to take the pregnancy away... and that she did not understand why, but, that it must be part of god's greater plan.

[GraphicsGuy]

I remember visiting my uncle's church numerous times and there was one lady there that stood up to "testify" pretty much every time (years later my uncle confirmed she did speak at every single opportunity).

 

Anyway, every single "testimony" from her concerned some sort of visit from angels sent to "rescue" her in times of crisis. Apparently her car broke down every single time she drove anywhere and complete strangers would help her out and then mysteriously disappear the moment she turned her back.

[amateur]

A friend of my sister's had a lot of angel photos.  Every time a photo had some strange thing like the flash reflecting in a mirror or other strange lighting effect from the flash, she claimed excitedly it was an angel and it was there to protect the people in the picture.  She had a lot of those.

[yunea]

A friend of my sister's had a lot of angel photos.  Every time a photo had some strange thing like the flash reflecting in a mirror or other strange lighting effect from the flash, she claimed excitedly it was an angel and it was there to protect the people in the picture.  She had a lot of those.

Ohh yes, I've met people who did that, too. They claimed to see the angels' faces in them and all.

 

One time someone tried to prove to them on a message board that it was just the camera, by misting water on their camera and then taking photos in certain light conditions. The photos were full of bright ball shapes. The comments? "Ohhh lovely <3 <3<3 ".

[Lucy]

 

A friend of my sister's had a lot of angel photos.  Every time a photo had some strange thing like the flash reflecting in a mirror or other strange lighting effect from the flash, she claimed excitedly it was an angel and it was there to protect the people in the picture.  She had a lot of those.

Ohh yes, I've met people who did that, too. They claimed to see the angels' faces in them and all.

 

One time someone tried to prove to them on a message board that it was just the camera, by misting water on their camera and then taking photos in certain light conditions. The photos were full of bright ball shapes. The comments? "Ohhh lovely <3 <3<3 ".

 

 

When I was in the saloon in Goodsprings (the one that appears in Fallout New Vegas), they were having a meeting about capturing ghosts and things on their cameras. Somebody took some pics of me and rushed over to show me all the ghosts following me around. They showed me a lot of pics of demons and angels and ghosts. These people had flown in from all over to take ghost pics and believed 100% the random blobs were supernatural.

[bleedblue22]

Most of these miracle claims sound a lot like what people who believe in the paranormal report. I kinda want to go on one those silly ghost hunting shows and watch for all the psychological factors like confirmation bias and credulity. I feel like I'd be utterly underwhelmed by what I'd see.

[sdelsolray]

Hypothesis:  The quantity of personally experienced miracle claims asserted by person X is directly linked to and inexorably caused by the same quantity of lies related to personally experienced miracles presented by person X.

[♦ ficino ♦]

Dude said he got the Baptism. Jumped up, jumped up and down, screaming in tongues, ran outside and around the entire house. Old lady: "NOBODY gets the Baptism like that."

 

The rest of us were laughin' ... and we were holy rollers fire baptized sanctified in the spirit and the blood of the lamb, too.

[yunea]

Then there's always the story that someone else told about how they heard of something miraculous happening in a different country. Those stories always involve crazy-ass miracles like new, perfect teeth to a toothless mouth, allegedly confirmed by a dentist who has no name, or the crime of an entire town gone down to zero but nobody remembers the town's name.

 

For something less dramatic and distant, one priest I remember was saying that he'd forgotten his coat somewhere when travelling to keep sermons in different churches, and after intense prayer the coat appeared in his hotel wardrobe. Um... Yeah, praise God.

[AndrewTomlinson]

I personally experienced a miracle! When I was 4 years old, I prayed for a wart on my finger to go away and if vanished. It's true. Very legitimate. Very miraculous.

 

I now realize that, as a gullible 4-year-old, I had probably found the miraculous treasure in my nose and mistook it for a wart. Then as I folded my hands to pray, the little imposter was brushed off. In practice, any explanation at all is more likely than magic.

[SquareOne]

Then there's always the story that someone else told about how they heard of something miraculous happening in a different country. Those stories always involve crazy-ass miracles like new, perfect teeth to a toothless mouth, allegedly confirmed by a dentist who has no name, or the crime of an entire town gone down to zero but nobody remembers the town's name.

 

For something less dramatic and distant, one priest I remember was saying that he'd forgotten his coat somewhere when travelling to keep sermons in different churches, and after intense prayer the coat appeared in his hotel wardrobe. Um... Yeah, praise God.

 

There are always stories about people being resurrected in Africa.  Generally God chooses to perform bigger miracles further away from Western civilisation and only in places where verification is impossible.

[mwc]

     Oh no.  Those resurrection stories in Africa are true.  You see god likes to bring one of them back to life now and then just so they can starve to death again.  He knows the loaves and fishes miracle would be far better suited to the region but that's far less funny.

 

          mwc