Brett responds to the claim that God would perform obvious miracles if He really exists.

Sometimes atheists and skeptics offer this as a test for God’s existence: Heal an amputee, and I'll believe. There’s a website called whywon'tGodhealamputees.com, and it’s offered as positive evidence against God's existence. I want us to think through this. Does it follow that God does not exist if he doesn't heal an amputee?

Let's say we pray for amputees, and the limb doesn't grow back. Does it follow that God doesn’t exist? Of course not. This is guilty of what we call a non sequitur logical fallacy where you have some kind of a premise or statement, but the conclusion doesn't follow from it.

Not just the healing of an amputee, but what if I prayed, “God, give me a million dollars tomorrow.” “God, let's have world peace today.” if God doesn't answer these prayers, does it follow that God doesn't exist? Of course not. His existence is independent from what He does. Just because I have some whim or some request that He doesn't fulfill doesn't mean He doesn’t exist. It’s a non sequitur.

Secondly, even if God did this miracle and grow back somebody's limb, is that enough to secure belief for everyone? Of course not. In fact, in the Gospel accounts, Jesus performs miracles in front of people in the first century. Did everyone then believe? No, they didn’t believe. They saw Jesus do these things, and they didn't believe. So even the miracle happening right in front of us doesn't guarantee belief.

Then of course, we could say there are miracles that don't fit your particular criterion. Maybe it's not the healing an amputee, but we still do have a large body of evidence that suggests that miracles are happening. So, if you're actually open-minded and you're open to all of the evidence, then get Craig Keener’s two volume series on miracles, and see this well-documented account of miracles all over the world in different cultures, at different times, and at different places. If you're open to the evidence, the evidence suggests that there are all kinds miracles that happen that would lead us to believe that there is some supernatural being out there in the universe.