Jesus said many are call, but few are chosen, which inform us not everybody would believe in Jesus. that is the reason why he said that, those who believe in me l gave them eternal life.

Good choice of words Mr. Knight but “uncertainty” is not anything that any man should be proud of. As I have already reiterated you seem very knowledgeable. You state all your facts with a lot of confidence, however you are still in the middle of the sea when it comes to eternal salvation and that is the problem. Graham, uncertainty is a very serious and tricky gamble. Our belief in Christ clears all our uncertainties and put us in a safe zone. You rightly said, “there may or may not be a spiritual world.” You sure will hit the jackpot if yes you are right and there is no spiritual world, but what if you are wrong? What if there actually is a spiritual world? You are gonna lose everything because of the stand of disbelief you have chosen.

If the meteorologist forecasts that there is gonna be heavy rains today so everybody is gonna need an umbrella if they are stepping outside. Boy A believes the forecast and gets his umbrella and takes off. Boy B makes a list of all those days that the forecast has been wrong and concludes that it is gonna be just one of those days and so steps out without an umbrella. Again Boy B hits the jackpot if it doesn’t rain but he will turn out to foolish if the forecast is right and it actually rains. Rain or no rain Boy A will be fine and stand to lose nothing because he prepared himself for the worst.

In the same way, we have heard stories and read books about a man who came to die and brought salvation to a dying world. There are stories that He will come again and judge the world. If we believe and get prepared we will not be found wanting if He comes. We still will be fine if we are wrong and he doesn’t come but Mr. Knight just imagine how stupid we will look if doubt, analyze and support our doubts with all scientific and logical reasonings and He really really comes???

I can’t comment on what you believe you witnessed as I wasn’t there. As I said, I have not witnessed anything “miraculous” and yes I have looked! lol

Of course, if you *want* to believe, any other explanation I offer will either be ignored or excused away. But I’m going to offer some things for you to watch although, in my experience, people who *want* to believe will never ever, read, listen or watch anything that presents a different point of view. But there may be someone else reading our conversation, who has started to question, that might consider these.

I can tell you that when I heard a long time ago that Lawrence Tetteh was ‘lengthening legs’ in Ghana I was quite shocked as he lives in the UK where this has been widely exposed. I can’t post links here but google “Fake – The “Leg Lengthening” miracles are fake”, “Derren Brown Exposing the Fake Faith Healing Leg Trick” or “pastor you are pulling my leg”. These offer just some techniques that people use and that I’ve shown my friends in Accra. The question many ask is why they are unable to heal amputees.

Removing pain is not *necessarily* a sign of healing but happens when adrenaline kicks in (sports people know this well). Check if you are able to watch Miracles for Sale – Derren Brown on YouTube where you live.

All I’m saying is that there are other explanations for what you think you saw. I’m not saying these explanations are the reason for what you saw, no one can “prove” that, but they should raise questions.

If you watched a stage magician (like David Copperfield) I hope you would be skeptical and start to reflect on how the illusions could be achieved. Take this same skepticism to other places when people claim they are doing something miraculous. Research faith healing – there is plenty around on the topic. We should ensure we don’t merely read or listen to things that reinforce our existing beliefs (confirmation bias) but look at things from other perspectives too if we are really serious about the truth.

As you are aware, many things are spiritualised in Ghana and many “transformations” are claimed to have occurred – I remember the story of Mallam Fatau that was in the press many years ago. When these stories are researched they usually fall apart. The Indian Skeptics do a lot of this work and go to villages to educate people (Google – supernatural revealed in India).

As I’m no longer in Ghana, you can meet with skeptics and humanists there and talk with them about your beliefs and hear different perspective. I know of many people in Ghana, and a lot more in Europe, who don’t accept these miraculous claims but are still Christians.

There may or there may not be a spiritual world. There may or may not be natural explanations for what you have witnessed. MzBel was on the right track to question the beliefs she’d been raised with and to admit that “I could be wrong”. Let’s indeed free our minds and accept that things may not be as they appear!

With my own naked eyes I saw a bird turn into a woman. I was there when Rev. Dr. Lawrence Tetteh prayed for a young girl whose right leg was longer than her left leg. Pastor Lawrence said, ” the Spirit of God is giving just one instruction. Kick ur left leg and it will come to the same height as the right.” I was standing right there when the girl kicked her left leg and it became level with the right. I once had pretty bad stomach upset. My elder brother Reinhard laid his hand on me and INSTANTLY all the pain was gone. What am I trying to say?? Stuff goes on in the spiritual realm. Set ur heart n mind free and God will fill it.

We need to distinguish between what we believe and what can be justified by the evidence. We all want to hold ideas that are true and discard ones that are false.

When someone makes a claim we need to ask what is the evidence, how reliable is the evidence, can the evidence be verified and is the claim capable of being be verified by objective observers or only by those who believed in it in the first place?
We need to ask ourselves, how plausible is the claim, could there be other explanations and how strong are they? If people claim that certain things interfere with nature we might demand stronger evidence for those things.

So far I have not witnessed any of the things you have mentioned. I have heard people report stories of things they have heard or have claim to have seen. When I’ve examined these claims or have witnessed people firsthand who claim to be able to do these things, I have only seen trickery or people misperceiving what they have witnessed. I notice very few people who believe in these things have examined ‘cold reading’, studied trickery (I’m an amateur magician), hypnosis, and basic psychology.

Could these things exist? Well as we have agreed we cannot disprove them but that doesn’t mean they are real. Are they plausible, knowing what we do about the world and people’s fallibility?

At all times we need to exercise a healthy skepticism and not jump to beliefs when the evidence does not warrant it, so that we are not gullible or let confirmation bias influence us. We don’t believe claims *because* there is a lack convincing evidence.

You might like to look up people such as James Randi who went from pretending he had powers to investigating them (and offers a lot of money to anyone who can demonstrate them!) and Richard Wiseman. Also look up Leo Igwe who is studying witchcraft accusations (and has done field research in the North of Ghana), and Google the Fake Miracle Detection Manual by Jide Akeredolu.

Mr. Graham do you believe in magic? Do u believe in witchcraft? Do u believe in miracles??

Thanks for your reply Lionel.
So it sounds as if we have reached agreement that simply *not* being able to disprove something doesn’t automatically make it true? I mentioned the invisible calabash but Bertrand Russell spoke of an invisible teapot orbiting the sun! We can’t disprove either of these claims but that doesn’t mean they are true.

You have now raised a very old philosophical argument known as the Teleological argument. The version you have used is that because you see A (order) you infer B (your particular god). But, I’m sure you could see that this doesn’t necessarily follow. Could there be other explanations that the small part of this particular universe that we’re able to observe appears to exhibit order (let’s ignore the disorder for now)?

The Greeks used this argument to prove their many gods were real. Muslims use this argument to prove Allah is the real god and the Qu’ran is correct. Those that believe that intelligent alien life is responsible for the creation of life on this planet might well use the same argument. It also assumes that disorder is the default state of things. Why should this be the case? We could also note that, in order to dissipate more energy atoms tend to fall into the optimum arrangement (the appearance of order).
I’m not asking you to necessarily reply but just to think about alternative explanations to your claim that the appearance of order leads you to your specific god. There have been many critiques of this ‘argument from inference’ from David Hume to the Christian philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.
I hope you recognise that I’m not telling you what you must think. I’m merely hoping that you reflect on the arguments that you have presented, will not be satisfied with feeling there are no more questions to ask, but will continue to question, search and investigate.
Good luck on your journey.

Hahaha Mr Graham to be able to disprove a claim, you have to prove beyond all reasonable doubts that the claim is null. Anything less than that is not enough. When I look around and behold how orderly things are arranged in this universe, I just find it impossible to accept that this excellent creation is by accident. I so believe in the existence of God cuz I am a living witness to that fact. I pray you would free your mind and heart so that you can realize and fellowship with him.

Massa, stop re-echoing your sunday school lessons to someone who is clearly using his God given capabilities to reason.