Billions of people have HD video cameras in their pockets: why aren't we seeing lots of miracles on video?

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Heather914 said:
I have always wondered the same thing. When I was a child, I asked my parents why angels didn’t appear to people now, and where were the miraculous signs from Heaven that occurred during Biblical times. It would be interesting if such things happened now. I do believe it would strengthen the faith of many, and even win converts to Christianity.
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Dear friend,
They are happening now, praise God! 🙂
Within the Church, and the Church alone, we have many, many miracles, ranging from healings at Lourdes to Eucharistic miracles to incorrupt bodies of saints, to the healings that lead to beatification and canonization. These miracles, particularly the healings and Eucharistic miracles, are proven with absolute certainty by unbiased scientific and medical studies. In fact, at the Medical Bureau in Lourdes, any doctor, whether he is an atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, Protestant, or what have you, can serve to authenticate the cures. Also, when investigating healings required to beatify or canonize a person, the Church prefers to use non-believing scientific and medical experts to prove the miracles, to eliminate any hint of bias. I suggest that you check out the links in my above post, and I will repost them here -
 
pamphlets.org.au/docs/cts/australia/html/acts1518.html
catholic.com/blog/tim-staples/miracles-and-evangelism
catholicpamphlets.net/pamphlets/THE%20MIRACLES%20AT%20LOURDES.pdf
therealpresence.org/archives/Church_Dogma/Church_Dogma_026.htm
therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/a3.html
catholic.com/magazine/articles/eucharistic-miracles-evidence-of-the-real-presence-0
karlobroussard.com/what-constitutes-a-miracle/
And as I said above, I highly recommend reading The Miracle of Lourdes by Ruth Cranston, which can be purchased here- amazon.com/Miracle-Lourdes-Ruth-Cranston/dp/0385241879
I also recommend The Healing Fire of Christ by Fr. Paul Glynn - ignatius.com/Products/HFC-P/the-healing-fire-of-christ.aspx
As Tim Staples says in the link “Miracles and Evangelism” I posted above, there would be millions of converts to the Catholic Faith if we would only inform them of these miracles, which are absolutely certain proofs of the truth of the Catholic Faith. Glory be to God!
May God bless you always. 🙂
 
To me the mythology of the new and old testaments are no different than the mythologies of any ism so far thought of by man. Religions are based in mythologies and those mythologies are based partially in fact. The Truth is way too big for any one religion or tradition to have a patent on it.
 
Most people don’t realize they have witnessed a miracle until well after the fact…
 
John_Lazarus said:
Good job then he didn’t live in Puritan times.
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I like to imagine taking an iPad loaded with Wikipedia back to different time periods. Would you be able to convince people you were a prophet or a god before the battery ran out?
 
Joe_5859 said:
Right. Take, for example, the miracle that was approved as part of Fulton Sheen’s beatification process

. A baby was stillborn and miraculously came to life 20 minutes later. I doubt the parents and hospital staff were whipping out their cell phones while waiting for a miracle just to satiate the curiosity of internet onlookers looking for signs from heaven.

Or the miracles from St. John Paul II for his beatification and canonization. They are also both healings. Not exactly the type of thing you capture in a 30 second YouTube video. But that doesn’t make them any less miraculous.[/QUOT
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Exactly.
People who don’t believe, simply don’t believe either.
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Some still say the first moon walk video was faked (and I suppose believe every other moon walk after was faked as well).

And there are also those non-believers who require a real time “backyard resurrection” to believe. Nothing less will move them; not even a “youtube” video. We still pray for you.
 
puzzledtoo said:
To me the mythology of the new and old testaments are no different than the mythologies of any ism so far thought of by man. Religions are based in mythologies and those mythologies are based partially in fact. The Truth is way too big for any one religion or tradition to have a patent on it.
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My friend,
It is true to say that some religions are based upon mythology, yes. But this cannot be said about Judaism and Christianity- at least, no historian worth the name would believe it. These faiths are based rather upon God’s entrance into human history, his revelation of himself to man. We can determine, through objective and unbiased historical analysis, without presupposing divine inspiration, that the New and Old Testament books are as historically credible as any other historical document from antiquity. If one denies that Christ performed miracles and rose from the dead, he must also deny that Aristotle lived or that Nero was the emperor of Rome. Please check out the following-
catholic.com/magazine/articles/are-the-gospels-myth
catholic.com/blog/jon-sorensen/the-evidence-is-on-our-side
Also, as regards your comment on truth, I would like to make a few points: firstly, the Catholic Church makes no claim to possess all truth. There are different areas of truth: religious truth, philosophical truth, historical truth, scientific truth, mathematical truth, etc… The Catholic Church claims to have been entrusted only with the fullness of the truth that has been revealed by God, truth which pertains to faith and morality. It claims only to possess all of the truth that God has revealed for the sake of human salvation, not all truth, period. And this claim has been proven to be true through the miracles of Christ (which, again, can be proved to be historically true), the miracles of the Apostles recorded in the Acts of the Apostles (of which the same historical principle applies), the miracles performed throughout Church history, to which there is tremendous historical testimony, and particularly by miracles which are continually performed to this day and are proven by scientists and doctors to be entirely beyond the powers of nature, including the healings at Lourdes, the Eucharistic miracles, the incorrupt bodies of saints, and the healings authenticated for the beatification and canonization of saints. An important thing to remember with such miracles is that the Church actually prefers to use non-believing scientists/physicians to authenticate the miracles, so as to avoid the slightest hint of bias. A notable story is that of Dr. Alexis Carrell, a Nobel Prize winning doctor and agnostic, who ended up converting to Catholicism, owing his conversion partially to witnessing an unmistakable miracle at Lourdes. The Lourdes Medical Bureau, which authenticates cures from a medical standpoint, is open to any doctor from any place, whether he is an atheist, agnostic, Jew, Protestant, Buddhist, etc…and keep in mind that such non-believing doctors do indeed authenticate cures at Lourdes as beyond the power of nature. The same goes for the cures involved in the process of declaring someone “blessed” and “Saint”. I would strongly recommend checking out the following-
pamphlets.org.au/docs/cts/australia/html/acts1518.html
catholicpamphlets.net/pamphlets/THE%20MIRACLES%20AT%20LOURDES.pdf
catholic.com/blog/tim-staples/miracles-and-evangelism
therealpresence.org/archives/Church_Dogma/Church_Dogma_026.htm
ewtn.com/johnpaul2/cause/process.asp
catholic.com/magazine/articles/eucharistic-miracles-evidence-of-the-real-presence-0
therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/a3.html
I would very much recommend reading the following, for information not only on miracles but on the historicity of the Gospels and, more broadly, how we know the Catholic Faith is true-
The Miracle of Lourdes by Ruth Cranston (who was not Catholic)
*Laying the Foundation: A Handbook of Catholic Apologetics and Fundamental Theology *by Fr. Joseph C. Fenton
Catholic Apologetics Today: Answers to Modern Critics by Fr. William Most
As well as the other books I mention in my signature below.
May God bless you!
 
Joe_5859 said:
Right. Take, for example, the miracle that was approved as part of Fulton Sheen’s beatification process. A baby was stillborn and miraculously came to life 20 minutes later. I doubt the parents and hospital staff were whipping out their cell phones while waiting for a miracle just to satiate the curiosity of internet onlookers looking for signs from heaven.

Or the miracles from St. John Paul II for his beatification and canonization. They are also both healings. Not exactly the type of thing you capture in a 30 second YouTube video. But that doesn’t make them any less miraculous.
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Excellent point, thank you 🙂
 
Little_Tiger said:
My friend,
It is true to say that some religions are based upon mythology, yes. But this cannot be said about Judaism and Christianity- at least, no historian worth the name would believe it. These faiths are based rather upon God’s entrance into human history, his revelation of himself to man. We can determine, through objective and unbiased historical analysis, without presupposing divine inspiration, that the New and Old Testament books are as historically credible as any other historical document from antiquity.
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Your inclusion of the old testament makes you demonstrably wrong. The current scientific consensus is that the entire old testament exodus did not happen:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus#Historicity
 
The only further I can say for my part as I’m not much of a debater is that we have two ways that we can be fooled. We can believe that which isn’t true and we can refuse to believe that which is true. I have never been one to believe I have all the answers though I’ve tried, and the more I learn the less I believe of what the ancients have left us. So I’m learning to become comfortable with less answers(uncertainty) and not having to be right all the time. Be well-stay safe.
 
puzzledtoo said:
The only further I can say for my part as I’m not much of a debater is that we have two ways that we can be fooled. We can believe that which isn’t true and we can refuse to believe that which is true. I have never been one to believe I have all the answers though I’ve tried, and the more I learn the less I believe of what the ancients have left us. So I’m learning to become comfortable with less answers(uncertainty) and not having to be right all the time. Be well-stay safe.
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Yes, absolutely, we don’t have all the answers. There is a lot of unknown in life, much mystery. But there is also a lot we do know. As for the ancients, why not believe what they left us if it is demonstrably true, as in the case of the Gospels? Again, please check out those links my friend. Uncertainty is fine if there is a reason for it. But if a particular fact is certain, then our uncertainty is unwarranted. The materials I mentioned before, both online and print, shed a lot of light on what I am saying, and so I reiterate my endorsement of them. Please give them a try :). Thank you, and God bless you my friend :D.
 
DaddyGirl said:
Perhaps…miracles don’t happen? And never did?

.
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My friend,

This claim would be contradicted by the clear and certain testimony of both history and contemporary medical science. Please see my earlier posts for relevant links and books. I will repost a few here -
catholic.com/magazine/articles/are-the-gospels-myth
catholic.com/blog/jon-sorensen/the-evidence-is-on-our-side
pamphlets.org.au/docs/cts/australia/html/acts1518.html
catholic.com/blog/tim-staples/miracles-and-evangelism
And I recommend the book The Miracle of Lourdes by Ruth Cranston, a non-Catholic writer- amazon.com/Miracle-Lourdes-Ruth-Cranston/dp/0385241879
May God bless you my friend :).
 
Little_Tiger said:
Is that so? Please take a look at part three here my friend,
staycatholic.com/confirming_biblical_history.htm
God bless you.
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Yes. See for example:

individual.utoronto.ca/mfkolarcik/texts/WDeverArchaeology_ConquestABD.html
As is often observed, there is no direct archaeological evidence that any constituents of later Israel were ever in Egypt. The only Egyptian textual reference, the well known “Victory Stela” of Merneptah (now dated ca. 1207 b.c.; see further Stager 1985b) mentions “Israel” as a “people,” probably an ethnic element, not in Egypt but in Canaan, with no apparent knowledge of any Egyptian derivation. Nor is there anything in the material culture of the early Israelite settlements in Palestine that points to an Egyptian origin for that culture. The few Egyptian scarabs and possible house-types (as at Tel Masos; Fritz and Kempinski 1983) can easily be explained by the continuity of Egyptian elements from the local LB Canaanite culture into the early Iron Age.
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“At a recent international conference entitled “Out of Egypt” on the question of the Exodus’ historicity, one point of agreement, I believe, among most of the 45 participating scholars was that Semitic peoples, or Western Asiatics, were in fact living in Egypt and were traveling to and from there for centuries. And the evidence indicates that the smaller group among them, who were connected with the Exodus, were Levites. The Levites were members of the group associated with Moses, the Exodus, and the Sinai events depicted in the Bible. In the Torah, Moses is identified as a Levite. Also, out of all of Israel only Levites had Egyptian names: Moses, Phinehas, Hophni, and Hur are all Egyptian names”.
reformjudaism.org/exodus-not-fiction
 
“More generally, there is a limit to what we can expect from the written record of ancient Egypt. Ninety-nine percent of the papyri produced there during the period in question have been lost, and none whatsoever has survived from the eastern Nile delta, the region where the Torah claims the Hebrew slaves resided.”
mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2015/03/was-there-an-exodus/
 
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