Is there an explanation for this miracle

[dolphins4life]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qsJfahQ-sk

As you know I've been on a spiritual quest for the last year and a half trying to find the meaning of life.

I have researched miracles, but for nearly all of them, I've found natural explanations.

This one I can't find one for

The miracle happens at the 3:05 mark

The bread literally pops into the air.

You can clearly see the bread is not lying on the bread below it.  It is clearly levitating on its own.

The footage could not have been altered because there are many other videos of this on youtube.

Is there a natural explanation for the cause of this?

[Pappy13]

Looks to me like the edges of the bread popped up and the center was still touching. Other images in the video seem to show this better. Watch the video around the 8 minute mark. You can clearly see the bread with the edges raised from the middle and again around 9:16 into the video. As Miracles go this one is pretty lame as none of the priests even react to this "miracle". I think you're seeing what you want to see and nothing more.

[Phishfan]

Parlor tricks

[Spider-Dan]

Rather than address this particular video, I'd like to address the thinking behind it.

If you are impressed by a small piece of bread levitating, how about an entire person?   Or what about this one, where a man clearly uses teleportation magic on some coins?  Or this obvious violation of the laws of physics?

Remember, if you cannot explain ALL of these things, it means whatever god the performer believes in is indisputably true.

[Downunder Dolphan]

When I saw the title, I thought it was a reference to the guy who walked out of the Air India crash.

This is pretty insignificant in comparison.

[CF DolFan]

Watch an episode of America's Got Talent and those magicians will make you believe in magic. They would have ruled the world in medieval times. hahaha

The mentalist guys always blow my mind. Although I do realize they have a system, it's impressive to see. I love when they do it in NFL meeting rooms as well.

[pondwater]

Oh wow, look a magic trick from the 3rd grade talent shoe LMFAO.

On an off note, I fail to see how miracles, blessings, and answered prayers could even exist. God expicitly gives us free will, which would be pointless if those things existed.

[CF DolFan]

Oh wow, look a magic trick from the 3rd grade talent shoe LMFAO.

On an off note, I fail to see how miracles, blessings, and answered prayers could even exist. God expicitly gives us free will, which would be pointless if those things existed.

What does that even mean? People choose to ignore it and make excuses but God still performs miracles, blesses people, and answers prayers and always has. We have free will to come to Him and we have free will to ignore Him and be our own god. Neither negates His presence in the lives of those who belong to Him.

I've said this before but I knew missionaries with New Tribes. One particular missionary was a young man when they made contact with a tribe in South America. The tribe attacked them with seven-foot-long arrows arrows and spears injuring several missionaries. Alan was the one who had to run for help. Long story short they ended up integrating with the tribe, learned their language, created a written language for them and taught them about Jesus.

I say all of this because Alan is one of the most blessed people I had ever been around. As a retired missionary he didn't have much money but if his motor blew up in his car that afternoon a stranger would drive by and ask him if he knew anyone that needed a car and they would give it to him. God is always taking care of him.

[pondwater]

What does that even mean? People choose to ignore it and make excuses but God still performs miracles, blesses people, and answers prayers and always has. We have free will to come to Him and we have free will to ignore Him and be our own god. Neither negates His presence in the lives of those who belong to Him.

I've said this before but I knew missionaries with New Tribes. One particular missionary was a young man when they made contact with a tribe in South America. The tribe attacked them with seven-foot-long arrows arrows and spears injuring several missionaries. Alan was the one who had to run for help. Long story short they ended up integrating with the tribe, learned their language, created a written language for them and taught them about Jesus.

I say all of this because Alan is one of the most blessed people I had ever been around. As a retired missionary he didn't have much money but if his motor blew up in his car that afternoon a stranger would drive by and ask him if he knew anyone that needed a car and they would give it to him. God is always taking care of him.

How can free will really exist if God changes outcomes with miracles, blessings, and answered prayers?

[CF DolFan]

How can free will really exist if God changes outcomes with miracles, blessings, and answered prayers?

I can still choose to accept the blessings or even if I came to Him in the first place. I really fail to see the correlation that Him answering prayers eliminates free will. In your mind does a person giving a gift to another eliminate their free will as well?

[Fau Teixeira]

So a few things here.

I really fail to see the correlation that Him answering prayers eliminates free will.

Theologically speaking, if god is all knowing, then he'll know exactly how someone would accept or decline a "gift" when given. That's the correlation you're missing.  Unless of course god isn't all knowing or omnipotent.

Long story short they ended up integrating with the tribe, learned their language, created a written language for them and taught them about Jesus.

Repulsive. This is the epitome of narcissistic behavior. The sheer gall to think that these people are somehow better cause Alan tried to indoctrinate them.

Religion doesn't improve anything. It's a leech on the body of civilization. It takes and steals and molests and provides nothing but the placebo of comfort.

[CF DolFan]

So a few things here.

Theologically speaking, if god is all knowing, then he'll know exactly how someone would accept or decline a "gift" when given. That's the correlation you're missing.  Unless of course god isn't all knowing or omnipotent.

God is all knowing. He knows who will be saved by coming to Him and those that will choose to ignore Him. It doesn't mean he makes either happen simply by knowing something. The Bible says He knows us even before He formed us in our mother's womb.

Repulsive. This is the epitome of narcissistic behavior. The sheer gall to think that these people are somehow better cause Alan tried to indoctrinate them.

Religion doesn't improve anything. It's a leech on the body of civilization. It takes and steals and molests and provides nothing but the placebo of comfort.

It may cause some inconvenience here on earth but a right relationship with God will last for eternity. Eternity is much longer than 80 years if you didn't get it.

[Spider-Dan]

According to the Bible, God created Satan with the full foreknowledge of everything he would do.  He could have chosen not to create Satan, saving trillions of humans from literal eternal torture.  Or he could have created a Satan that would be his most loyal lieutenant; one who would never consider betraying him.  He intentionally chose to create the Satan we got.

God also could have created Eve to have a more submissive personality; one where she would never have considered violating the rules and eating the apple.  Or he could have created a violent, malicious Eve that murdered Adam, or anywhere in between.  With the full spectrum of infinity before him, he chose to create the exact version of Eve that we got; the one he already knew would decide to eat the apple.

An omniscient creator cannot roll dice or create a random soul.  Every personality of every human is precisely the personality that God chose for them; God could have made a kind and compassionate Hitler, or a mean and cruel Mother Teresa.  He intentionally selected and assigned their personalities, creating them to be as they were.  Whatever "free will" you may have is constrained by your ability to make decisions... decisions controlled by the personality assigned to you by God at your creation.

[Phishfan]

I am not a religious man but I think a person needs to research anything they want to argue against. The forbidden fruit is never identified in the Bible. It may be an apple or it could have been several other things.

Now, an omnipotent creator seems to take away the possibility of free will by definition. The being may think they have free will and are making their own decisions but if a creator already knows the outcome then no decisions were really made.

[CF DolFan]

I still think you guys are confusing  "knowing" with "creating" them to be this way. You can't have free will if you are forced to do. You can't love without the choice to not love.

Ultimately, we cannot know for sure why God created Satan, knowing he would rebel. It’s tempting to assume that things would be “better” if Satan had never been created or to declare that God should have done differently. But such assumptions and declarations are unwise. In fact, to claim we know better than God how to run the universe is to fall into the devil’s own sin of promoting himself above the Most High (Isaiah 14:13–14).

God also could have created Eve to have a more submissive personality; one where she would never have considered violating the rules and eating the apple.  Or he could have created a violent, malicious Eve that murdered Adam, or anywhere in between.  With the full spectrum of infinity before him, he chose to create the exact version of Eve that we got; the one he already knew would decide to eat the apple.

There's a "women" joke about Eve that says she had everything. A beautiful world, all she could eat, live forever with a strong relationships with the creator, etc. and yet it still wasn't enough.