Does God Hate Amputees?

I stumbled upon an online book a few month ago after finding a link to it in a discussion on Slashdot. The commenter who linked to the book attributed it to Marshall Brain, the founder of the site HowStuffWorks.com. The actual book itself contained no attribution of authorship. The title of the book is "Why Won't God Heal Amputees?" The original title of the work was "Why Does God Hate Amputees?" but that was apparently deemed too insulting to amputees.

I started reading through the book and noted several large holes in the arguments being made. At the time I considered writing a post or two rebutting some of the major flaws in the arguments in the book, but laziness won the day and I never did it.

Recently I decided to do another search on iTunes for "mormon" podcasts. I found one called "Mormon Musings" and the most recent episode was about Brain's book. Apparently, Marshall Brain is a neighbor to the "disaffected Mormon" in Mormon Musings, Steve Zimmerman. So the podcast is a discussion between Marshall Brain, Zimmerman, and another atheist friend, Bruce.

In this post I want to address some of the things that were said in the podcast. If time and inclination permit, I will address some other points from the book in a future post.

The most common flaw is the false dichotomy. To paraphrase Brain's argument: "If God could heal amputees, he would. If he doesn't, then he must not exist. I don't know about any amuputees that have been healed, so God is fake." This assumes that we know the mind of God and why he would or would not do something. As a pure logical argument, this is empty. And the main premise of the book hinges on this assertion. By analogy, we might say, "If Bill Gates could afford to single-handedly finance PBS, he would surely do so. If he doesn't, he must not really exist. PBS is doing another fund drive which proves that Bill Gates is imaginary." The logic is identical. In both cases a third option is available. God/Bill Gates is able to do the thing but, for whatever reason, doesn't do it. Brain's argument is vacuous even if we don't know what God's other reason might be.

The next argument that comes up is the multiplicity of religions. Since there are so many religions, the argument goes, then we can be sure none of them are true or else presumably they would have coalesced around the truth by now. Pointing out that there is disagreement is hardly an argument. Just because all people don't properly recognize truths doesn't mean those truths don't exist.

Next comes Brain's attack on the Bible. His argument is essentially that because there are parts of the Bible that don't match our culture then it must be rejected in its entirety. He cites rules about slavery in the Old Testament. If God says slavery is okay in any context, then he must not really exist. How can an atheist make that argument? If there is no external controlling moral authority (like God) then how could they claim anything is wrong or right? If survival (and comfort) of the fittest if the only value, as I imagine it must be in a Godless universe, then why would you believe that others must be bound by your version of morality? Brain doesn't like the morality in the Bible, so there can't be a God that would advocate it. What hubris! Again, we don't even need to explain the slavery passages in the Bible (troubling as those might be) to discount Brain's argument.

Bruce then makes the argument that feeling the Spirit or having a religious experience is purely a brain-chemical event. I guess he is making this argument to show that spiritual experiences are just inside your head. If you believe, as Mormons do, that humans are a combination of spirit and physical body, then it seems logical that there must be some communication interface between the two. The spirit must have some physiological effect for the body to become aware of it. Indeed, noting that spiritual experiences include a component of brain chemistry doesn't say anything pro or con about the origin of that experience. If a brain surgeon can stimulate a patient's brain in such a way that they artificially feel joy or fear, it doesn't imply that those emotions don't have legitimate causes in some cases.

Health insurance is the next whipping boy of the rationalists. They can't understand why any Christian would have health insurance. If God wants you healed, he can do it without doctors, goes the argument. If he doesn't want you healed, then what is the point of bothering to see a doctor? Steve, our disaffected Mormon, points out the commonly held religious belief that we are expected to help ourselves as much as possible before we ask God to step in and intervene. Marshall and Bruce just laugh and point out that this is just another way of saying that there is no God. I don't even know how to respond to that flow of "logic" it is so lame. They again insist on the bogus false dichotomy.

To be fair, in the book these men are discussing, Brain does bring up some difficult challenges for people of faith. There are some really tricky issues about God and about mortality that we don't have good answers to. But the main issues they choose to highlight in their online conversation are so absurd that they certainly cast doubt on the strength of any other points they might have waiting in the wings.

In short, our failure to understand a thing isn't evidence of the absense of the thing. See my previous post for the testimony of a living prophet.