WHY ATHEIST MICHAEL SHERMER DOES NOT BELIEVE IN MIRACLES

Lee Strobel interviewed Dr. Michael Shermer, atheist and founder of Skeptic magazine, to request that he build the strongest possible case against miracles. Strobel wanted to see if the belief in miracles was rational and could stand up to challenges. Shermer became a Christian during his senior year in high school, but then slowly and gradually became an atheist during college and graduate school where he studied experimental psychology and grappled with the problem of God allowing bad and evil things to happen. To the day of the interview, Shermer did not hear an answer to the problem of evil that seemed satisfactory to him. In addition, during his studies in anthropology, sociology, and social psychology, he learned that religious beliefs are culturally bound. He lost interest in Christianity, became more fascinated by science as his belief system, and adopted evolution as his doctrine. Then his college sweetheart girlfriend broke her back and was paralyzed when she was a passenger in a van that veered off a highway and rolled several times ending up at the bottom of a ravine.  Shermer prayed for God to heal her, but she was never healed. Nothing happened. Then he concluded, “Well, there probably is not God. Stuff just happens. … There is no higher purpose. It’s left to us. We must create our own purpose. That’s the only meaning we have in this universe.“ Strobel, The Case for Miracles, chapter 1, 35-46. But even Shermer could not conclusively rule out miracles as impossible. If a miracle occurred, it would need to be well documented, and scientifically tested, replicated, or independently corroborated from multiple and reliable sources. Shermer agreed with Strobel’s suggested definition of miracle, as proposed by Richard L. Purtill. Strobel, The Case for Miracles, 48-49.  An example of a healing miracle that would convince Shermer would be God growing back the limbs of soldiers that came back from war as amputees, in response to prayer. Strobel, The Case for Miracles, 50-51.