Gawdzila

Now, in the Bible, God performed an awful lot of big fancy miracles
in a pretty short timespan. Why is it that he doesn't do those things
anymore? He used to wipe out armies, and make the sun stand still
at the behest of the generals leading armies. He used to make bushes
burn and speak, turn people into pillars of salt, and carve walkways
through entire seas. What ever happened to all this stuff?

"Miracle" used to mean "impossible". LITERALLY impossible.
Now it just means "improbable". Improbable things happen constantly.

I know this isn't a formal disproof of theism, but it is curious why God
seems to have withdrawn his hand from view. Do any theists see any
reason for this? Do real miracles still occurr? Because I often hear
miracles cited as proof for God's existence. The problem is, I've never
seen nor heard of anything remotely credible.

John A. Broussard

Miracles happen every day. Haven't you seen the latest picture of the virgin Mary on the freeway wall in Chicago? And she shows up on fried cheese sandwiches, pretzels and assorted food items. Windows are another favorite place for her appearances.

You may not believe they are credible, but check out the vast number of candles, offerings, incense and whatever that people bring to these sites.

I admit that we don't have spectacular ones like the stopping of the sun, but the Abraham story is frequently repeated where someone kills one or more members of his/her family as a result of a direct order from god. That's spectacular enough for me.

Chili

We have lots of miracles today if good health is the norm for humans and sickness the abnormal deviation from good health.

Toto

This is more of a question of the Existence of God than a Biblical Criticism (involving the meaning of the texts) question.

Selsaral

A bad apologist would say something about 'free will', and completely forget about the fact that the bible is FILLED with God interfering with people's 'free will'.

Bobinius

Miracles are in the eye of the beholder.

I found my car keys just one minute before it would have been too late to get to work: a miracle!

They are much more frequently seen these days. Only their substance has changed. They are now common events that receive a 'miraculous' interpretation. All the believers are living miracle detectors.

Gawdzila

The Theory of Large Numbers from mathematical probability says that,
on average, people will have one such miracle like that every single month.
Is it really a miracle then? By that theory, such events aren't even unlikely.

What ever happened to those good ole' "defying the laws of physics" miracles?

Ulrich

Those were never really miracles so much as they were just people making shit up, and other people having no way of proving the shit was made up. Now that we have more adequate ways of determining when people are spewing bullshit, miracles are relegated to the realm of the unlikely.

LGM

The only real miracle is how a species with such a credulous mind could have survived as long as we have…

Bobinius

I wonder that too.

Hey, I was just making a point about people saying : 'Thank God!' every time a nice coincidence comes by. Seems like God is pretty active in their view.

On a more academic basis, the good ol' miracles are still defined like that.