Imagine: I am in terrible debt, say $10,000 dollars in personal debt and payment is due, as I had promised. I pray for God’s help and “lo and behold,” I find a roll of 100, $100.00 bills in my path.
Obviously it was dropped by someone...perhaps by a robber in flight. There’s no way to determine to whom it belongs. Should I turn it in to, say, the police department in case it is reported missing or stolen?
Absolutely NOT! God sent this money to me in answer to my prayers. It is God’s will that I have it. And, anyway, does each $100 bill not say “In God We Trust?” one hundred times; in affect 10,000 times? I will pay my debt and get this worry off my mind. Oh! Thanks be to God!
• This would certainly seem like an answered prayer. Also, it would be a miracle: a supernatural cause for a natural (materialistic) effect.
But, if it is an “effect”, is it not destined, by nature, to become a “cause” or “causes,” themselves having “effects” as those 10,000 dollars ripple throughout the economy both national and international. And, all this does not even reflect the effect of the bank teller’s timing, nor that of others in line as my creditor’s $10,000 finds its way into its first bank account, later to be disbursed through a dozen or more separate checks. We can be sure of only one thing, at least. That the traffic light on the corner will not be affected by the length of this transaction. This assured, all future affects and causes will be tempered by this "cause" as events occur in ripple-effect throughout all the time to be known on this planet.
• Oh, there IS a problem here. Did someone really loose the roll of money? Or, did God create it. If the latter, that would make God a counterfeiter and that would be dishonest. Not to mention that it would contribute to inflation, and that affects everyone, however slightly. No! God would not be dishonest. That money must have been dropped by someone who didn’t deserve it. That must be it.
• But, OH! that means, there must have been a “cause.” If that is true, that would mean that all the effects and causes converging to render my roll of money will have been altered and in ALL PROBABILITY (according to Dr. Dawkins), I will have missed my opportunity to be born and cease to have ever existed: no yesterday, no today, no future, no soul, no eternity.
I thought about this when I saw the football player bowing on one knee. Hopefully “God” does not answer prayers or enfluence ball games). Ooooops! The game was won because of someone who never existed. Too bad his parents had no children. Never met.
