Confirmation bias is an issue when the miracle is in the meaning rather than the method. As the C.S. Lewis essay linked by @Quid est Veritas? explained, the confirmation bias can go in either direction - skepticism or credulousness. (I haven't read the entire essay yet, but that is what I got from it so far.)
I wonder if statistics could detect miracles that are simply improbable rather than impossible?
It's good to be able to acknowledge that many believers think God allowing us real choices means that He has not fixed that our choices, like praying, are already determined ahead of time. This is good to be able to acknowledge because this issue of predetermination can trip up and destroy faith for some, so it's not trivial.
You'll have to document your claim.
It's probably sometimes using the same verses you might use, I bet. But, when it's a Psalm (in some Psalms there is clear wording about God already knowing what will happen to us) we always need to read the entire Psalm, trying to really get the full meaning. Let's listen, and hear, the full meanings --
1You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17How precious to me are your thoughts,a God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
19If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
----------------
I just love this. I know it's good for you too. It's so wonderful, I fear even reducing it even the slightest with any partial quote.
Do you see how after the interesting verse 13, later comes verse 15, saying....something that adds to our understanding of verse 13, yes?
Consider, after all the above verses, why verse 23?..... Because it's part of the whole intent -- to ask for this from Him, in verse 24, the culmination of this prayer.
This is how the Psalms work we can see, like a song where some verses help set up other verses. But in this wonderful Psalm we must surrender to the entire Psalm, all the verses, together, as a whole, and then the deeper and more true meaning can come across.
The problem is that you are misquoting Scripture and making up things.There are many cases where people seem to be dead and then wake up. The miracle is that this rare event happened for Lazarus and inspired people to listen to Jesus. God didn't break any laws except by loading the dice of chance.
How do we know the weather was hot as opposed to cold?In fact, after three days in the heat decomposition had already begun and Lazarus was decaying.
I didn't remember where I had learned that
all our days are predestined before we are born.
Thanks for finding it for our discussion.
I don't think the mechanism has been established yet, but that seems a plausible explanation. With drugs, the disturbances they create is often times reproducible and similar in test subjects, so similar hallucinations are produced. High dose ketamine can make people violent for instance, as they induce nightmarish feelings of being persecuted.Supposedly the drug BZ caused a couple of test subjects to hallucinate a tennis game together ( BZ - Wikipedia ). I imagine the mechanism is suggestibility. One person sees the other person's reactions to a hallucination and experiences a compatible hallucination - sort of like hypnotic suggestion?
Confirmation bias is an issue when the miracle is in the meaning rather than the method. As the C.S. Lewis essay linked by @Quid est Veritas? explained, the confirmation bias can go in either direction - skepticism or credulousness. (I haven't read the entire essay yet, but that is what I got from it so far.)
The numbers would be too small to be statistically significant.I wonder if statistics could detect miracles that are simply improbable rather than impossible?
John 11:How do we know the weather was hot as opposed to cold?
There is no reason that I see not to assume that it happened in winter aside from the concern about odor.Four days of decomposition. The dead body was rotting. He was not sleeping, he was stone cold dead.
Your premise that God's miracles can't overcome natural law is absurd.
I think it's absurd to try and explain God's miracles within the confines of natural law. It shows a lack of understanding of either. Miracles are contradictions of natural law. Only God could cease the rotation of the earth for a day without any consequence.There is no reason that I see not to assume that it happened in winter aside from the concern about odor.
Also, I don't think it is absurd to assume that God would obey His own laws of nature.
If you read the first verses of Genesis, God creates order from chaos by dividing day from night, water from land, heavens from Earth, etc. And God saw that it was good. ... Can we honestly believe that God violated this natural order by magically stopping the Earth's rotation so Joshua could kill a few more enemies?I think it's absurd to try and explain God's miracles within the confines of natural law. It shows a lack of understanding of either. Miracles are contradictions of natural law. Only God could cease the rotation of the earth for a day without any consequence.
We can if we believe that the Bible is God's word.Can we honestly believe that God violated this natural order by magically stopping the Earth's rotation so Joshua could kill a few more enemies?
Can we honestly believe that God violated this natural order by magically stopping the Earth's rotation so Joshua could kill a few more enemies?
The naturalistic explanation is obvious - daylight savings time - spring forward, fall backward. Obviously Joshua fought this battle during the fall clock change and the Hebrews set their watches backward an hour.
Another theory I see ommitted in this discussion is the theory that it refers to omens.
In Assyrian texts we see conjunctions of the full moon and the rising sun treated as dark and foreboding or as good depending on their positions. This is related to the use of lunar calenders by most near eastern peoples. Some of these are essentially impossible such as reverse eclipses, but others just rare. It is similar to ideas of Fasti and Nefasti days found in Latin peoples based on calender and celestial bodies. Before our modern calenders, these were poorly correlated, so a lot of significance was often placed in incongruent risings of the moon and such.
The biblical text interestingly mentions the position of both the sun AND the moon. Why mention both? It can be argued that it is referring to Joshua asking for an omen to strike fear in the Amorites. By this logic, it didn't really 'stand still', but referred to a position within a set of astrological considerations. This is supported by the Assyrian texts which also use terms like 'stand', 'rest' or 'lying' when mentioning such omens. This is similar to how modern astrology may say the sun is sitting in aquarius or whatever, not literally assuming a static sun.
Of course the problem here is that we only know of these omens from late assyrian texts, so Joshua would greatly have predated our earliest mention of them, but it is possible this was a common near-eastern belief before they had been written. Still, an alternate explanation to keep in mind, I would think.
I noticed in the recent eclipse here in the US, that the sun was brighter during it. If an eclipse happened as the sun was near to setting, I wonder if it would effectively make the daylight last a little bit longer. Of course it is possible that the initial effect was as an omen and the idea of an extended period of daylight was added to the story later.There is actually a period specific explanation for this passage, which is fairly naturalistic. I wrote about it in another thread, which I quoted below:
Well, as I told you before, the solarisation of the YHWH cult seems to be a later 8th century phenomenon. The earliest references, such as with the Shasu of YHW and the oldest parts of the Bible do not support it, nor is it supported Archaeologically until later.I noticed in the recent eclipse here in the US, that the sun was brighter during it. If an eclipse happened as the sun was near to setting, I wonder if it would effectively make the daylight last a little bit longer. Of course it is possible that the initial effect was as an omen and the idea of an extended period of daylight was added to the story later.
BTW, this story is one reason that some see Yahweh as a solar cult. The place names associated with Joshua are associated with the Sun, and there are some other hints. Of course there is Mt. Sinai (the moon) and Mt. Horeb (the sun). I see Passover as celebrating the birth of the sun (Yahweh) from the moon god (El) mating with the cow constellation (Taurus). (Just my crazy theory LOL). I believe there is an actual myth archaeologists have discovered from Assyria with this symbolism. IDK
Here is the famous potsherd that I suspect might symbolize Passover:
Kuntillet Ajrud - Wikipedia
EDIT: There is also the story of Jacob wrestling with a heavenly being who desperately wants to be released before sunrise. This being must give Jacob its secret/magical name. It seems clear to me that this being is Yahweh the sun.