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Dr. Keener,
I'd like to get your comments on a couple of issues related to miracles:
1 - Which modern day miracle claim do you believe is most difficult to explain on naturalistic grounds? Amateur Christian apologists who support you abound on the internet, yet I cannot find any who are willing to direct atheists to any specific modern-day miracle mentioned in your books. They mostly choose to just sit on the sidelines and carp about the fallacies of of naturalism.
2 - What is your advice to atheists who say that the only reasonable miracle investigation is the one that takes apologist J. Warner Wallace's advice and guides the process by the rules of evidence used in American courts of law (i.e. documents must be authenticated by witnesses, hearsay excluded in most cases, eyewitnesses subjecting themselves to cross-examination, etc, etc.)?
3 - At what point in the miracle investigation has the atheist done enough research to justify drawing ultimate conclusions about the event? Does that point come after he has downloaded all supporting materials the miracle-claimant made available on the internet (if so, that's difficult to believe, you don't authenticate documents by simply downloading them from the internet)? Does that point come sometime after a certain amount of exchange between investigator and miracle-claimant via email? Does that point come only when he has personally interviewed the alleged eyewitnesses?
4 - Does the plethora of confirmed false miracle claims in the world and in history justify the atheist to insist on using only the highest standards of investigation when analyzing miracle claims (i.e., the standard of evidence used in American courts of law)? Does the seriousness of the spiritual issues at stake allow any room to say that a less intensive investigation is acceptable?
5 - What is your opinion of the atheist who gets so worried about going to hell, that he divorces his wife, quits his job, never sees his wife or kids again, and does little more in life than sleep, eat at a bum shelter and spend all day at his local library using the internet and library services to examine and investigate Christian miracle claims? Does the bible allow you to say that an atheist "should" decide where in the day to stop worrying about God and transfer his attentions to his family? Isn't it true that spiritual concerns are infinitely more important than the concerns of this life? Didn't Jesus encourage parents to give up houses and kids with a promise that such parents would receive salvation and more (Matthew 19:29)?
6 - Some atheists say refusal to investigate miracles is reasonable, because full comprehensive investigation of them requires a quantity of time, money and resources that the average atheist simply doesn't have. What is your response to such excuse? Is there anything irrational about the atheist's desire to investigate miracle claims equally as thoroughly as a criminal investigator, so as to avoid the possibility of being deceived by fraud or mistake? If you get rid of the cost-problem by suggesting a less stringent investigation, the possibility of successful deception increases. If you agree the highest standards of investigation are reasonable, you agree that atheists have an excuse, since they simply don't have the time, money and resources to do such comprehensive inquiry. I don't see any way to balance these concerns in a way that allows for objective investigation within the limits of the average family man's income.
7 - What is your advice to atheists who say that because even spiritually alive Christians cannot agree on the biblical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, nor on whether and to what extent miracles happen today (charismatics v. cessationists), it is most certain that spiritually dead atheists are only going to fare worse should they join the fray? If conservative NT scholars like James White, Norman Geisler and Mike Licona cannot agree on how best to argue the miracles of Jesus' resurrection and biblical inerrancy, doesn't it make sense to say that those with even less connection to God are only going to fumble the ball worse if they dare try to run with it?
Thank you,
Barry Jones
barryjoneswhat@gmail.com
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