I quite enjoyed my visit the other day to “The Way the Ball Bounces“, described here. The writer, one Richard K. Ball, appears to be a well-spoken and generally good natured chap (which you would have to be, saddled with a name like Dick Ball); and his site is an encyclopedia of the errors by which believers in any god, from Christ to Krishna, keep their faith alive.

I couldn’t resist returning to his list of “Evidence for the Existence of God” one more time when I read the following:

16. Miracles. Numerous recorded in the pages of the Bible. Numerous attested to by Christians over the centuries and in the present day. The current revival in Lakeland Florida appears to be a download of miracles from God. Miracles are evidence.

You see my dilemma? There’s more bad thinking in here than one can shake a extra large stick at.

One could note that citing references from a collection of tribal myths as evidence of the literal truth of that collection of tribal myths is a bit circuitous.

One could point out that if anecdotal evidence of miracles is acceptable as “evidence”, then we have “evidence” of a number of apparently incompatible spiritual systems all at work within the same universe, with Hindu, Christian and Muslim deities periodically suspending the normal operation of physical law on their behalf of their respective adherents.

However, let’s confine ourselves to the final observation regarding the “current revival in Lakeland Florida”, which, according to Richard, “appears to be a download of miracles from God”.

If there’s a download of miracles from God going on, I certainly want to know about it. So I searched a bit, to figure out what the heck was going on in Lakeland, Florida. I assume Richard was talking about this, a ” A Mighty Third Wave Revn Lakeland Florida… which is poised to sweep the entire earth. Leading the charge is Power Evangelist Todd Bentley… miracles, healings, salvations, signs and wonders are being seen night after night.” A quick google will bring you to dozens of very excited Christian sites describing the “outpouring” of miracles, channelled by God through one Todd Bentley.

Mr. Bentley, according to himself, is a former alcoholic, drug addict who was delivered from a lifestyle involving criminal activity, youth prisons, ,drugs sex, satanic music and bondage by Jesus. He now earns his living by claiming to curing cancer, blindness and various crippling diseases in the name of the Lord. Some of his adherents are claiming he has raised the dead.

Miracles are of great interest to me, for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is obvious: if there is a supernatural entity that periodically steps in and suspends the rules It established for the operation of the universe if asked nicely or frequently enough by Its fans, I want to know about it.

So I like to dig a bit when I read about guys in Florida curing cancer at prayer meetings. Whenever I’ve dug into that stuff before, I end up in James Randi country, reading about deluded folks or rip-off artists who carefully avoid any serious medical scrutiny of their “miracles” and prey on the desperate. Curiously, the prevalence of healing “miracles” increases exponentially in the absence of critical, informed media coverage.

Even in North America, media coverage tends to skewed by several factors.
a) A non-miracle is not much of story. “Old Blind Guy Pressured By Mass Hysteria To Claim He Thinks He Sees Something Dimly Moving While Onstage With Fake Healer” is not nearly as cool as “Blind Man Recovers Sight!!”
b) The EVENT gets the coverage, not subsequent investigation and rebuttal. When claiming that a real world, miraculous cure has occurred, what matters is medical confirmation, not the assertion of the “cured” onstage, or the claims of the miracle working pastor. And actual confirmation takes longer, is usually NOT obtained, and almost inevitably wrecks the story (see “a”).
c) The notion of journalistic “balance” works against accuracy in this case. Reporters covering these “miracles” have to tell both “sides”. The healer claims a miracle, the doctor says no. Both “sides” are given equal weight, and usually equal ink. Which is absurd: when claiming that the laws of nature have suddenly been suspended, surely there’s more onus on the person calling “Miracle” than on the person calling “fraud”?
d) A negative finding in the case of a claimed miracle can never really be “proved”. Okay, his blindness wasn’t actually “cured” - but he says he now thinks he can detect a little more grayness. Okay, the cancer didn’t really go away, but she says the pain is a lot less, at least on the good days, sometimes. Okay, every credible examination of the shroud of Turin confirms that it’s a medieval artifact - but hey, maybe that’s all part of God’s design, to test our faith! You cannot prove a negative.
e) A certain percentage of all illnesses go into remission for reasons we don’t yet understand. A certain percentage of those remissions will occur among people with strong religious beliefs (as well as to atheists). Those who believe in divine miracles will attribute their cure to supernatural forces.

In the case of the Lakeland “miracles”, or any miracles, the test is fairly simple. Is reliable, independent medical assessment of the cures available?

Bentley claims hundreds of people have been healed of everything from deafness to infertility to cancer. This is a testable assertion about physical events in the real world. It is susceptible to proof. Unfortunately, and predictably, Mr. Bentley has declined to make that information available. He’s not interested in what the “scientists” say - he’s just doin’ God’s work. He also cites “privacy” concerns. That seems an odd argument when one considers that this evidence would provide proof of what is surely the most important news conceivable on the planet - and that God Itself seems to have no objection.

Bottom line:
- Mr. Bentley is following the pattern of every other sleazebag ripoff artist mock faith healer ever exposed.
- All this information is available for anyone with the patience to do about an hour’s digging on Google.
- Christian bloggers who swallow and disseminate this guff without digging are credulous fools: Christian bloggers who know better and disseminate it anyway are beneath contempt.