Miracle stories seem to be an important part of the belief in all religions, including idolatrous ones. Diagoras, “the cynic of Melos“, was not convinced. He was told about sailors who were saved after praying to Poseidon. “Their pictures and stories are kept in the temple where everyone can see them.” Diagoras responded, “And where do they keep the pictures of the sailors who prayed to Poseidon and drowned?”

My sense is that religious leader are the source of the stories, or religious purveyors, since success I note typically involves a holy man intervening, or a holy item (available for sale). Counter evidence is never offered, and it’s considered impolite to ask for any. Perhaps the miracle cure was due to a random beggars “bless you”, or to the availability of penicillin in the local apothecary. It’s also impolite to ask why the miracle man or item does not do more good than it does. Why did’t he cure other members of his family? Miracle man stories transacted in blind belief favor gifts and service to the purveyor, often the most haughty of leaders, and the biggest of liars. If this is the basis of your faith, do not check the stories: you’ll either lose your faith or come to believe in a complete trickster and magician, the biggest fraud in town, someone who lies without compaction.

If you look closely at the family history of a holy man who’s claimed to have curing powers, you will almost certainly find he relatives who died young. Why didn’t he use his power to cure them If he could not cure them, or chose not to, what makes you think he can or will help you. I suspect that God wants you to go directly to Him, at least He has the power to cure. What sort of god needs the miracle man as a paid gatekeeper? Will the mystic charge you next for sunlight?

There seems to be good scientific evidence for God, but no evidence that he wants you to go to the various intermediary men who claim power. And if you think God wants intermediaries, why should he want only this fellow, and not any honest person. Belief in your religion’s miracle men is generally considered to be belief in God; while belief in other intermediaries is considered a sign of heresy or insanity. It’s circular. We believe that our man is the only one, because he’s the leader in our religion. And we believe that our religion is the only one because our man has special power. It’s circular reasoning and it causes problems in science, too.

Miracle men are not the modern version of the leaders of The Bible, by the way. Abraham, Moses, and the prophets did not take money, or set themselves up as kings. And not all prophets did miracles. Most directed their efforts at getting judges to stop taking gifts, and instead judge honestly. They told you to give to the poor, but not give to them to give. It’s a model one would hope our leaders would follow.

Gaychazi, the renegade associate of Elisha, is the one exception in the Old Testament, and Simon in the new. They take a gift, and are cursed for it. I’d suggest avoiding people with impressive robes, and especially those with a suggested donation amount. Pray for yourself directly to God when you need help, and if you want a blessing, I suggest you go to an ordinary, honest, person. Also consider that there are ordinary routes for prayer to be answered. Go to doctors, keep fit, eat healthy, work hard, save, learn to swim, and drive carefully. It seems to me that amulets, or miracle intermediaries are a sort of idol worship, and the universal God seems to hate idol worship — the belief that He is more in the location of one person or item.

A way to test the miracle stories you hear — probably a bad idea — I suggest you use the 5 Ws of journalism: check the who, what, when, where, and why of the story. Does the fellow telling the story have personal knowledge? Who else was there, and is it clear who did the wonder, and to whom? Who can I contact to confirm the facts of what happened. Where did this happen, exactly, and when. If the teller doesn’t have the specifics or would choose not to tell, can you I see the account in the local newspapers of the time, or the report of the policeman or doctor. Also important is to discover what happened next. Miracle cures were done on TV when I was a kid: lame people walked, but not for long, it seemed. If the miracle happened in India or Iraq and you’re in America, does this suggest that God prefers Hindus or Moslems, or perhaps He only does miracles near an open air bazaar selling hashish. Harry Houdini has a good book on how crooks of his day fooled people, “the right way to do wrong.”

Speaking of frauds and liars, I was involved with a miracle story that was credited to the Lubovich Rebbie. It happened about 2 years before I got married. I ran into a mother and her son in East Lansing, where I lived. I noticed them because they spoke little English and the son wore a yarmulke; I thought I knew all the observant Jews of East Lansing. As it turned out, they were visiting from Argentina, and the mother was in town to go to the local hospital (Sparrow). She was in need of medical help (I don’t know for  what). I put them up for two days, and got them to the hospital and checked in. I visited every day, and expected nothing more than a thank you, or at least a phone call before they left. One day I visited the hospital, and they were gone without ever saying thank you or anything. I was surprised. The lady at the desk said they’d left and were on the way to the airport heading home. I dashed to the airport and met up with them a few minutes before their plane left (Lansing was a small airport). It turned out that they’d contacted a spokesperson for Lubovich from the hospital, and he’d claimed that his boss, The Lubavitch Rebbie, a Brooklyn mystic, had seen the pair of them with his holy sight and had sent me, one of his servant to help them. They were instructed not to speak to me again, but to go straight back to Argentina and publicize the power and kindness of the Lubovich Rebbie. I was too shocked to tell the mother or son the truth — What I’d done was plain old kindness, with no contact from Lubovich or association. I would like a thank you, but aside from that, nothing. I was more convinced that their leader was an old fraud who stole the credit from others. I have never met him, by the way, or seen him that I know of. The spokesperson was just proselytizing for someone he considered the messiah, and fund-raising and covering up for being lazy. I suspect all the stores are similar, taking credit and money for the kindnesses of others, and claiming heavenly powers they do not have.

Here are two more Diagoras stories:

At one point Diagoras was on a ship when a storm came up. The sailors wanted to throw him overboard saying that the storm was their punishment for carrying the cynic. Diagoras saved his life by pointing out that all the other ships in sight were struggling, too. “Does each of them have a Diagoras on board?” The underlying religious question is: do you believe in a god that kills all those in this ship, and in all the others, because of anger with one person?

Another story, at one point Diagoras chopped up a wooden statue of Herakles (Hercules) and using it to boil his turnips. “This is your 13th labor, Herakles, “Boil my turnips.” For this, and for noting that the Milotian Gods had done nothing to stop the destruction of Milos, a warrant was issued for him dead or alive. Diagoras escaped, but was sold into slavery along with the other citizens of Milos. He was bought by Democritus, below and taught philosophy. I’d say he already knew quite a lot before he was bought.

R.E. Buxbaum, Sept. 22, 2013. Diagoras, the cynic of MeIos, is not to be confused with Diogenes, the cynic of Synope, the philosopher who lived in a barrel and met with Alexander the Great, nor with Diagoras of Rhodes, the philosopher who taught that everything began as hot gases that condensed.