Does God heal people from cancer? Does God heal people from heart disease? If God cures diseases, why doesn't God heal amputees?
Why doesn't God heal amputees? According to many atheists, agnostics, and skeptics, the fact that God apparently hasn't healed amputees shows Him (or Her or It) to be a fantasy.
The argument goes like this: In the case of a person being healed from AIDS or cancer or some disease within the body, there's ambiguity. But, in a "non-ambiguous situation" (like a person's limb magically re-growing), the folks at "Why Does God Hate Amputees" explain: "There is no potential for coincidence. Because there is no ambiguity, we can actually know whether God is answering the prayer or not."
Here are my responses...
1. Can anyone prove that no amputee has ever been healed? The best that can be said is that we are unable to verify an actual, documented case of amputee limb regeneration.
2. Doesn't God call us to faith? Like it or not, the Bible repeatedly calls God's followers to faith. That requires the possibility of doubt. If God were to supernaturally regenerate limbs, there would indeed be no ambiguity. There would also be no room for faith. Healing an amputee would be the same as God audibly speaking from Heaven. Faith would be impossible. We would have certainty.
3. Does God's refusal to do something mean He doesn't exist? Even if it's "unfair" for God to heal cancer patients but not amputees (and if I were an amputee, I would be emotionally sympathetic to that position), does this disprove God's existence? Is it not equally possible that God exists, but we simply don't agree with God's way of doing things?
The bottom line...the amputee argument is emotionally effective, but that is all. Logically, the amputee issue doesn't disprove God. It doesn't even come close.
