This is Satya Sai Baba, an 83 year old man who has close to six million followers. He is described by his devotees as an avatar, godman, spiritual teacher, and miracle worker. He has said that he is the reincarnation of the fakir and saint, Sai Baba of Shirdi.
His biographer, Easwaramma, described him as being born of immaculate conception. She relates, "I had dreamt of Sathya Narayana Deva and he cautioned me that I should not be frightened if something happened to me through the Will of God. That morning when I was at the well drawing water, a big ball of blue light came rolling towards me and I fainted and fell. I felt it glided into me". Sathya Sai Baba confirmed this during a 2003 birthday party.
When he had first announced that he was a reincarnation of a saint, the people asked for jasmine flowers...when the flowers were dropped, they spelled out his name and from then on, he was said to have been a saint. He has made various public appearances in which we can now see his reported miracles. His followers believe that he is a saint, we have eyewitness testimony of followers, and actual video footage of these miracles. Some miracles include materializing jewelry, conjuring ash, levitation, turning water into gasoline, and controlling the weather.
Do you believe in the claims of Sai Baba and his followers? We have eyewitness testimony, videos, and about six million followers.
Info used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sathya_Sai_Baba
Miracle Videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btST49MM7g4
This is Criss Angel, a 41 year-old man from the United States who performs various stunts in public that are seen by millions of eyewitnesses and are available for viewing online and on television. Criss Angel walks on water, levitates, makes cars disappear, survives exploding in a crate of C4s, and cuts people in half.
31 million people have watched this video of Criss Angel walking on water on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBQLq2VmZcA
We have several eyewitnesses for other stunts such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovNwmhpbdlg&feature=related
We can watch Criss Angel's television shows and see him live.
Do you think that Criss Angel's actions are miraculous or do you believe that he is fooling you?
This is Jesus, a man who supposedly existed and claimed to be the son of God. Two Gospel authors have said that he was born of a virgin. We also have claims of his walking on water, turning water into wine, casting devils into pigs, coming back from the dead, and raising people from the dead. Our eyewitness accounts for his claims are much, much less than that of Criss Angel or Satya Sai Baba and the Gospels were written about 30 years after these events happened. We also do not have any videos of these events and we don't find any of these claims supported by anyone outside of the Bible.
We can easily understand that the Bible was changed, put together and written by ignorant people who knew almost nothing about the universe, and selectively produced. There are oh, so many contradictions in the New Testament, only two authors spoke of the virgin birth, the authors are dubious, and we have no original copies. Years and years of translation most likely changed so many things, added information, and left information out.
Why aren't Jesus miracles happening today? We now have the chance to record, document, and directly see these miracles...but nothing. It's also very suspicious that Jesus "decided" to appear in the Middle East instead of a place like China where people were much more advanced.
There's also a great case that Jesus never existed found here: http://www.jesuspuzzle.humanists.net/puzzle1.htm
*And*
Bart Ehrman, a biblical scholar, makes a great case and debates William Lane Craig about the miracle claims of Jesus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhT4IENSwac
Why would you suggest that Jesus could walk on water when you will say that Criss Angel is just fooling you? You probably have watched the Criss Angel video and thought, "Hmm. There must be a trick to it!" Why wouldn't you think the same about Jesus?
You may say that since Jesus is divine, we should believe him...
but when does being born of a virgin or saying that you're divine constitute truth, especially when you show no evidence of your claims? All we have is the stories in the Bible! Do you believe everything you read? Do you believe that Thor, Mohammad, or Zeus were divine?
If I told you that I was born of a virgin and was the son of God, you probably wouldn't believe anything I had to say just because of this. Jesus and the Bible may make claims of divinity, but what do we have to prove these claims? Ahh, faith you say? Well, why not have faith in Satya Sai Baba or Criss Angel? Why should we have faith, anyway? Why is faith a good thing or a reasonable position?
If faith, something based on no good evidence, is needed to believe something, the likelihood of it being true is greatly diminished.
We shouldn't start with or provide supernatural explanations when we encounter claims of miracles or something we don't understand. We should investigate, attempt to understand through natural explanations. We once didn't understand the chemical compositions of stars, the shape of the earth, earthquakes, and diseases. We do not say, today, that these are results of miracles; we understand how the universe works. Give us some time with things we don't understand and we'll provide a reasonable explanation.
Look at Criss Angel's "miracles," listen to other magicians, and think about what actually happened. you'll eventually find an explanation.
Look at Sai Baba's videos and understand how he performed the "miracles."
----
The most plausible explanation for Satya Sai Baba is that his miracle claims are cheap magic tricks and that he is lying. His believers are enthralled by his presence and want to believe in him.
The most plausible explanation for Criss Angel is that even though we don't quite understand what he is doing, we should understand that we are being fooled because people can't walk on water and fly without aid or cheating.
The most plausible explanation for Jesus is that he did not perform miracles and the stories were simply made up or embellished. We also have another problem with Jesus that we don't have with Sai Baba or Angel...did he even exist?
----
The evidence against the claims of theists and the lack of evidence for their claims is astonishingly overwhelming. Jesus [or the writers of his stories] either lied, never existed, or was embellished.