The Problem with Miracles | Belief It Or Not

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[marrubium]

The clip of the guy saying he's cured of being gay and starts going "women women women" has such great meme potential.

[mudshovel]

a 'faith healer' once promised my terminally ill cousin that she would be out of her wherlchair and running around the sanctuary by next year if she had enough faith.

what a disgusting thing to say.

[PBandJames]

What really scares me about this is the idea that someone who isn't "miraculously healed" wasn't believing in God enough, or even that their family's doubts are to blame. That's absolutely nefarious.

[cocobutter]

I went through becoming a diabetic at 12 with a religious mom. She had made a new friend and suddenly become very religious. My siblings and I were denied Halloween, and she burned all my books and cd's, her friend didn't like, shortly before I got sick. I was sick for months. It got to the point where I couldn't hold down food, and she took me to her friend to "be healed". Her friend prayed, gave me a bunch of herbal supplements, and forced me to eat-- pancakes.. with syrup. I threw up again as soon as we left. I can't remember if it was the next day, or a week after, but I couldn't get up anymore and go to school. Thankfully, my dad forced my mom to take me to his doctor. My blood sugar was 1600 and I was falling into a coma. I had been in horrible pain for months, but the slight coma I was coming down with, was making it melt away, so it was really hard not to just let myself go to sleep. The hospital didn't think I was going to make it, but obviously, I did. But after all that, when I finally got out weeks later, the first thing my mom did was take me to a revival to get healed. I was so fed up with her BS by then, once the faith healer was done praying with her hands on my forehead, I asked very loudly "What am I supposed to do now, fall!?". My mom took me to private gatherings and healings after that. I'm glad my dad was normal. I feel like he's the only reason I survived childhood.

[Momoftwoboysandonecat]

Omg... this though. My kid was born with congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Liver and intestines up. ECMO for 7 days. He is home thanks to modern medicine. The baby in the bed next to him passed. Even after the parents spent every waking moment praying at his bedside. I cringe when people look at my son and say, "give god the glory!" No thanks, I give it to the team who saved him.

[M_MTsc]

I worked in the shanty towns in South Africa and saw many babies die from aids. When I asked a friend why god doesn't heal them he's answer: It's because the parents don't really believe when they pray, turned me away from religion forever

[natalieshark]

I remember telling a woman at church that I didn’t believe her that god had made her arm grow back. My mom brought me to see her thinking it would restore my faith. After doing that, the lady looked at my mom and told her she needed to get me under control. Like my reason for not believing her insane story was rebelliousness. My mom was so mad at me after that interaction that she scolded me the entire way home. So much of Christ’s love was present that day. 🙄

[jake]

Me and my wife both lost our mothers back to back. Then a couple years later we had twins. The amount of people that told me our twins were a miracle from God, since we lost our mothers, was so cringey. Yes, let’s make sure my children have no grandmothers. Thanks, God.

Every day I smile when I look at my boys, and then I feel pain knowing the woman who sacrificed so much and raised me by herself will never get to meet her grandchildren.

[maddyh]

My dad recently passed away in his sleep. He wasn't sick or anything and he said he felt fine the day before. He was here one day and then he wasn't. While the coroner was taking him away, my family members kept telling me that "God is good it's all part of the plan". If God were good, then I'd still have a dad, and if it was part of a plan, I can't imagine anything more cruel.

[rikeag]

A Christian asked me in a supermarket aisle whether he could pray for my severely sprained ankle (crutches). I said, sure, knock yourself out. When he was done, he said: Now put weight on it. I told him, no, if you have faith in God and want him to heal my ankle, then you have to live with not knowing whether it worked. There is no way, I'll just put weight on it after the doctor told me not to because the tendon is partially ripped.

[vintagearisen]

When I was a missionary in Japan I was dragged to this conference in Tokyo where this African preacher said they had so many healings and resurrections at his church in Africa. He told everybody we had to declare we were healed of whatever, and that the minute we stopped believing, our miracle would go away because we didn't have enough faith. I watched a dude with a massive tumor on his neck... still have a tumor at the end of the night. I watched them basically force a woman out of her wheelchair to walk across the stage, and at the end of that she collapsed back into her wheelchair in tears because she still needed it. I watched a group of people chase this poor teenaged boy around the auditorium to "exorcise" his demons because his father swore he was possessed. Poor kid just looked like wanted to get away from the crazies and shut himself in his room and read. Looked like a normal fucking teen with a crazy fucking dad.

And the craziest part was that night made me struggle but I didn't lose my faith right then and there. It took a good ten more years and seeing evangelicals worship Trump and reject science for absolutely batshit Covid conspiracies to nail that coffin shut.

[gabri]

I'm epileptic, I had my first seizure when I was 15. Born and raised in a Brazilian Catholic family, during my first seizure my parents were absolutely sure I was possessed by the devil. I had to endure 1 month of prayers and convulsions. Only later did a friend of my father's suggest taking me to a neurologist. He prescribed me carbamazepine, and miraculously my seizures stopped. I'm now 23, still taking my medication everyday. I never had a seizure again, and I never went to church again.

[hobojoe]

Imagine doing a 20 hour lifesaving surgery only for the patients family to thank God.

[ironically_joy]

When I was 4yo I had some stomach bug, couldnt keep anything down, not even water. My parents prayed and put christian music on, it took them nearly a week before they took me to a hospital with severe dehidration and malnurishment. My father to this day says that "god told me to take her", as if it wasnt the lack of a solution from god during six days and fear for my life that pushed him to take me 🙄

[caseytwill]

One time I was out of paper towels and I said "God, I could use some paper towels" so then I went to the store and bought some paper towels.

[sjs]

As an Icelandic person I would just like to say that the actual number of us who believe in elves is probably more like 5%, we joke about this very popular misconception about us lol

[Littlebeth]

The number of times my mum has been "healed" from her depression at a big event and for her to go down hill a month later. The damage this has done is so huge and so harmful and has stopped her getting proper help over the last 20 years

[RobotLover]

Sorry for the heavy comment but I guess I am compelled to share. I knew miracles weren’t real at the tender age of 11 because as my father abused me for years I begged and begged a god above to make him stop. And then my father never stopped until I moved away. I guess that’s why my religious trauma runs so deep. I felt so cheated and alone. Made me wonder why everyone pretended there truly was a god that was all loving. Now of course I’m older and wiser and understand that religion is a comfort for many, but man. These videos are cathartic.

[BarelyTsunami]

Growing up in the church, I spent my entire childhood praying for my eyes to be fixed…..accidentally slept with my contacts and woke up thinking I was healed. When I realized what happened, I’ve never felt a more crushing disappointment in my life. Pretty sure there’s some trauma there haha

[emilybarclay]

I wrote an essay on faith healing in uni. My favourite example was a little toddler who’s family were Christian Scientists. The little kid cut his foot on glass while praying. His parents prayed over him for six hours until he bled to death and died. My only question is what was god doing in those 6 hours? Because he was not saving the life of an innocent child