Robertson: ‘Simple’ Foreigners More Likely to Experience Miracles than ‘Sophisticated’ Americans

How many evangelists, preachers, and faith-healers have tried to inspire the ‘faith’ of an audience by recounting stories that have happened in Africa? And in these instances there is no story too outrageous: the blind see, the lame walk, the sick are healed… even supernatural limb-regeneration!

Of course, there is no evidence of any of these healings, and to recreate it in North America is impossible. Is this because third world persons may be naive concerning outrageous claims, not really having good categories to evaluate the feasibility of metaphysical truth claims?

Could it be that they really don’t fully understand the relationship between cause and effect or anecdotal evidence?

No, according to Pat Robertson: it’s precisely because they are ignorant that miracles happen! [If he only knew how right he was! In a different sense of course.]

“Well, we are so sophisticated, we think we’ve got everything figured out, we know about evolution, we know about Darwin, we know about all these things that says God isn’t real, we know about all this stuff,” Robertson lamented, “in many schools, in the most advanced schools, we have been inundated with skepticism and secularism.”

Unlike these too-educated Americans, “overseas they are simple and humble” and are more ready to accept miracles.

This is such an idiotic comment I don’t even know where to begin, but at the very least I will leave this link that shows we have just as ‘simple’ and ‘humble’ people in North America:

Second Child of Pennsylvania Couple Dies After Only Praying.

Unfortunately, that is but one of many links on this site to ‘simple’ people who have allowed their children or themselves to die because they ‘humbly’ believe in miracles. So, on the one hand Pat is actually right: being duped by a snake-oil salesman does require someone being ‘simple’.

On the other hand, he is ridiculously wrong for someone living in the 21st century: demanding evidence, experimenting to see if something works, trying to understand the processes by which someone gets sick, and then trying to figure out a way to make their body healthy again is not being “skeptical and secular” it’s being “scientific”… you know, that process which has been shown actually to work!!! Repeatedly, and under observation.

Can you imagine if the roles were reversed for these ignoramuses? If faith healing actually worked, and it was demonstrable and repeatable? And scientists made outrageous medical claims without any proofs?

A scientific-evangelist stands in front of a crowd of persons wanting to believe that science can help them be healthy again. The standard medicine of prayer hasn’t worked, so now they are getting desperate and going to all of the Science Tent Revivals they can. The Science-Preacher stands in front of the crowd and begins, “last year we were in Africa, and there was a sick boy in a village, and everybody thought he was going to die. Then we gave him some penicillin and in three days he was healthy again. It was a miracle!

But, if he gives penicillin to anyone in North America for the same sickness it doesn’t work.

Would the prayer-healers believe the claim of the Scientists in this matter? Of course not!

But, obviously, the analogy breaks down because germ theory is the cornerstone of modern medicine, and scientific medical interventions are repeatable and can be shown actually to work. However, the recent track record of faith healing is not so good, especially when it has to resort to “claims” that it happened “in Africa” to “some person” some time “last year” without any verification or ability to reproduce the result in North America.

Yep, only a simple person would put their belief and health in the hands of those shaky claims.