Having been an amputee since about seven years of age, when I came upon the highly educational website Why Won’t God Heal Amputees?, I thought to myself that this was an excellent question. This is especially relevant for those who believe in the power of prayer and the many alleged cases of miraculous healings. Assuming these experiences of the faithful were legit examples of miracles then why hasn’t something like an amputation miraculously grown back? Surely there are amputees who believe in god and have asked him to give them their leg or arm back but nothing like this has ever happened. This should lead anyone to a very reasonable conclusion: all of the alleged healings are cases where a disease might have gone into spontaneous remission, or a condition may have gotten better over time, on its own. Naturalistic explanations can easily account for these occurrences.
I believe if god wanted to prove his existence I think allowing a limb to grow back would be a perfect example that would be nearly impossible to fake. [1]
Due to the fact that this is such a powerful argument excuses abound trying to explain it away, from the ever popular, “[m]iracles aren’t a grab-bag of goodies for us to enjoy; rather, God uses miracles in particular points of time for very specific purposes,” [2] to the “God works in mysterious ways” bit.
As a teenager struggling with horribly low self-esteem due to all of the name-calling and teasing I endured I would constantly wonder why, if god loves his creations, he would allow such suffering? If god has a plan for me why on earth would that plan include taking away my leg and subjecting me to such treatment from other children?
Today, I understand these rationalizations used by the faithful to comfort them, but at the time I was just very confused about why all this was happening to me. I reasoned that if I were a god I would gladly help people in need, but for some reason this all-powerful being repeatedly failed to answer my prayers.
I firmly believe this is a question that needs to be asked more often because I don’t see it nearly enough, and it obviously gives theists a difficult time. Perhaps its tough questions like these that might help to shake someone from their faith.
1. Humans have the genes necessary to regrow limbs but these genes lay “dormant in our bodies.”
2. Feedback: Why Won’t God Heal Amputees? – accessed 8-13-12
