Yes, childlike trust in God. Not child-like belief he exists. I have the former but denounce the latter. Your reference to the disciples is meaningless to me. If I saw a man walking on water and still the weather I’d have more intellectual faith. It actually takes a good amount of intellectual faith and “child-like belief” to accept the historicity of those stories. They aren’t a point to argue * from*, they are a point to argue for.
A few points:
Evidence of something and proof for it are very different things. In the lack of proof, there is room for doubt. Scientists don’t even presume to fully understand the nature of gravity or why it happens despite all that evidence. Science never settles an issue definitively.
Childlike trust in God yes, Absolute certainty in the factuality of my beliefs is not to be had.
Am I supposed to believe God exists like a child believes Santa Claus is real? Surely you don’t mean this.
Maggie’s story was strong and powerful and I don’t doubt it was real for her but it can easily
be deconstructed.
My background in science tells me the mere fact that it’s based upon human testimony and interpretation of a sensual experience decades ago during a traumatic period in a person’s life that can’t replicated or externally corroborated tells me it’s a low form of evidence. Our memories are not nearly as certain as we would like to think they are. We often read things back into our experiences. We have no way of knowing in most cases.
In terms of proving something, personal experience is the weakest form of evidence there is. I’m sure Allah has appeared to millions of people convinced he was real as have ghosts, big foot, ufos and all manner of strange phenomenon. Think of suicide cults and all sorts snake handlers and so on. People truly can believe just about anything and be convinced it’s true. One only need only pit mutually exclusive religious testimony against itself to cast doubt on it and consider it part of the human imagination.
Also, several of her five highly improbably things occurring are also solved by the one thing (the nurse hit three of them from what I remember). The other two were solved by her spmtwneously deciding to drove down a different road. Not to mention for every story like hers we might find 100 that ends with a person starving under a bridge homeless.
I don’t doubt the validity of her experience. But I don’t proclaim it as it as Gospel and irrefutable proof God exists.
I never commented on them, as far as recall, because it’s not my business to critique other people’s call stories or personal experiences with God. I will comment, however, if you advocate it as public proof of God’s existence. You have mentioned that conversion story here so many times it’s almost as if you think it single-handed settled the issue of whether God exists or not for all people for all time. If you think that sort of evidence is supposed to render all doubt impossible, our science training has been very different.
I thought it was an evil generation that requires a sign? And calling them tricks was a sign of respect for God’s Providence. I don’t expect him to stop what he’s doing and come down here and fix my doubts. He’s not a cosmic vending machine that I can demand things from or a dog that will give me paw at my command. We are the dog.
Vinnie
