When I was in primary school, we had scripture class, and over four years I had two different 'teachers'. They started the year by relating the miracles that turned them to Christians. I thought I would post them here.

The first one was a woman, and she claims to have been an atheist. Years previous, she was with her husband traveling through the desert. One night while sleeping in a tent, she dreamed that the next day she would be in an horific car accident with another car, and they all would die.

The next day, they were barreling down the highway, approaching an intersection, when she saw a lump of black on the road. Thinking it was just a dead animal, they continued past at high speed. It was in fact an eagle feeding on some roadkill. As they approached, it spread it's wings and began to take off. It wasn't quick enough, and it plowed into the windscreen of their car, smashing it in and spattering blood everywhere.

As they rolled to a stop, she looked out the window to see another car go screaming across the intersection they were about to cross. She thinks that the eagle was sent by god to sacrifice itself so they didn't drive through the intersection, and therefore would avoid being hit by the other car. She promptly turned christian. (why she didn't think it one of the other religions' gods sending the eagle I don't know, personally, I'd have spent at least a few days worshiping the god of eagles)

The second one, a guy, told us that he had been sent to Veitnam during the war, and was on a patrol. They were crossing through the jungle and came to a creek that ran through a 30' wide, 20' deep crevasse. There was a log crossing the crevasse, and him and his patrol began to cross over the log.

Just then, charlie supposedly opened up on them with machineguns, and when they did, this dude was right in the middle of the log. Three guys ahead of him copped it, and fell into the stream and died. Four guys behind him copped it and fell into the stream. He was the only one left alive, and it seems charlie packed his shit up and fucked off without bothering to kill him as well. He went back to the base he'd come from, and spoke to the chaplain, who told him god had saved him for some greater purpose. He promptly became a christian and has been thumping bibles ever since.

Personally, neither of those miracles would have converted me. I'd have felt quite lucky, but it still wouldn't cancel out all the reasons that I'm not religious. What about you?

Or, if you are religious already, how 'miracle-y' do they sound to you?

The first one sounds like BS, mainly because she could not possibly know if things would have been different. If they wouldn't have hit the eagle, would the other car have went through the intersection? A dream based on fear of crashing while driving through a foreign country isn't much. Your mind can also play tricks on you to alter said dream later to fit the situation better, cause our memories are that bad. I rolled my quad once at 95km/h and was thrown over 100ft threw the air, and only suffered a slightly soar neck and some grass stains. Was that a miracle, or was it that I knew how to crash and was able to rotate enough to land on my shoulder blades evading pretty much all injury.

The second one could be explained as simply as the fact that it might have been friendly fire. Since when do enemies stop shooting at an open target and just leave? It was probably friendlies, and they didn't realize they were shooting their own men until he was the only one left. Another option is that he was never on the tree. He was following up the back possibly, and only thought as he saw his fellow soldiers get gunned down that it could have been him in the middle of that tree when it happened. The shock of such a incident can shatter your memories pretty good. It's the same reason why witnesses are more useful to police during a car crash, especially a serious one; than the drivers and passengers involved. Shock messes with you in a big way.

Strange occurance and coincidence happen all the time.

If they had been raised in a Muslim culture, they would not be praising Jesus for this phenomenon, would they?

For every testimony that exists for "miracle occurance" in one religion, there exists probably and equal number for other religions.

My guess would be that's all God did for them because it was all it took.

For my own conversion, it took years of self-abuse just to open my mind up to possibilities. I first began conversion back in 2006, July. I survived an intentional drug overdose that met the projected LD90 for each substance, and they are known potentiality partners. I went to jail. While in there, I read the Bible. Now, up until this point I refused to listen to anyone claiming to be Christian (the beliefs are completely...impossible). It took tremendous boredom and complete emptiness just to open a Bible up and read it. Something in it caught me. I ended up reading without sleep for 3 straight days from Genesis to Revelations. I felt different. I felt okay. I felt at peace with life...something I hadn't since I was a tiny child. After sleeping for some 14 hours, I woke up and said the first prayer I ever meant in my life, "God, please bind my forked tongue together so that I can tell the truth."

That was July 27th, 2006.

I entered into a rehab center in Rockford, IL. After about a week there, that old feeling I had came back, but I had no Bible to read to ease me. I prayed that night, I admit, in complete desperation, "Christ, please enter into my heart." Nothing. I did the same the second night. Nothing. The third night, I was laying awake, and my old paranoia, self obsession, self loathing, and bitter hatred for all life began to close in on me. I felt absolutely cornered, lost, defeated...life, as I knew it, was worthless and broken. I had many things before, and it was never satisfying. The rat race first, then the dating game, then the drugs and alcohol...I couldn't find anything that made me able to live a normal life. As this feeling began to overwhelm me, I knew I could do nothing about it. I began to tear up, accepting my fate as a member of the living dead. At this moment, it came to me that I should pray one more time. I did. This time, I felt overcome with warmth and peace. My room filled with light and the worries and troubles of the world faded away. From that day on, I have had an active relationship with my conscience; further, on rare occasions, I hear a gentle voice asking me to do very simple things...usually to tell of my conversion like I am right now, sometimes to simply listen to a person in mourning, occasionally to help someone out. I've even had the pleasure of hearing the voice of the Father...the Son speaks softly and gently...the Father speaks in a whisper that could crumble mountains.

Anyhow, I am a Christian because I have been convicted of such. The beliefs make no sense to me, but it has been proven to me beyond my ability to doubt. I was not given a small sign that suggested conversion; I was given an irrefutable experience that secures my faith against all adversity.

My guess would be that's all God did for them because it was all it took.

For my own conversion, it took years of self-abuse just to open my mind up to possibilities. I first began conversion back in 2006, July. I survived an intentional drug overdose that met the projected LD90 for each substance, and they are known potentiality partners. I went to jail. While in there, I read the Bible. Now, up until this point I refused to listen to anyone claiming to be Christian (the beliefs are completely...impossible). It took tremendous boredom and complete emptiness just to open a Bible up and read it. Something in it caught me. I ended up reading without sleep for 3 straight days from Genesis to Revelations. I felt different. I felt okay. I felt at peace with life...something I hadn't since I was a tiny child. After sleeping for some 14 hours, I woke up and said the first prayer I ever meant in my life, "God, please bind my forked tongue together so that I can tell the truth."

That was July 27th, 2006.

I entered into a rehab center in Rockford, IL. After about a week there, that old feeling I had came back, but I had no Bible to read to ease me. I prayed that night, I admit, in complete desperation, "Christ, please enter into my heart." Nothing. I did the same the second night. Nothing. The third night, I was laying awake, and my old paranoia, self obsession, self loathing, and bitter hatred for all life began to close in on me. I felt absolutely cornered, lost, defeated...life, as I knew it, was worthless and broken. I had many things before, and it was never satisfying. The rat race first, then the dating game, then the drugs and alcohol...I couldn't find anything that made me able to live a normal life. As this feeling began to overwhelm me, I knew I could do nothing about it. I began to tear up, accepting my fate as a member of the living dead. At this moment, it came to me that I should pray one more time. I did. This time, I felt overcome with warmth and peace. My room filled with light and the worries and troubles of the world faded away. From that day on, I have had an active relationship with my conscience; further, on rare occasions, I hear a gentle voice asking me to do very simple things...usually to tell of my conversion like I am right now, sometimes to simply listen to a person in mourning, occasionally to help someone out. I've even had the pleasure of hearing the voice of the Father...the Son speaks softly and gently...the Father speaks in a whisper that could crumble mountains.

Anyhow, I am a Christian because I have been convicted of such. The beliefs make no sense to me, but it has been proven to me beyond my ability to doubt. I was not given a small sign that suggested conversion; I was given an irrefutable experience that secures my faith against all adversity.

Now that there is more like the method I'd expect God would use to reach people, rather than blocking some bullets with a magical hand, or sending an eagle to sacrifice itself. It seems more logical that it would be a personal thing. Cheers for sharing.