This insistence on evidence for physical regrowth of an appendage is every bit as silly as the insistence by an atheist Freeper long ago that she would believe if God would give her a bag of M&Ms. betty boop might remember that thread.
Seems to me that breath entering bones in Ezekiel 37 - and moreover the very breath of God entering Adam and making him a living soul - and most important of all, our being reborn by the will of God - are far more impressive miracles happening to earth-bound men than a regrown eye, finger, foot or arm.
I'm also inclined to the story in John 9 - how Jesus used clay in restoring the blind man's sight. The clay must have been substantive as compared to other instances where He restored sight to the blind.
To God be the glory!
While you and I gladly testify to this every day we draw breath, dearest sister in Christ, Sam Harris could never even begin to see the truth of it. Spirit as a dimension of man does not exist for him at all: In his book, he has simply written it out of existence. To him, religious people are fools, for believing in such superstitious claptrap.
Truly the miracle God performs in faithful souls is the "turning around" and drawing of them into His loving Truth and Life. Some religious people have direct experiences of the "movement of the Holy Spirit" in their lives, a felt sense of the Presence of God "with us."
But the bottom line is, as William James observed, the true test of a genuinely religious person is found, not in the root of their belief, but in the fruit that it brings forth in personal, family, and community life.
As Christians, we are called to live in God's truth and to manifest faith, hope, and love in the world. And we recognize only that justice which is rooted in God's Will and Purpose as suitable to the liberty and dignity of human beings.
What has Sam Harris and his other atheist buddies done for us lately that could possibly compare with that? They seek to destroy faith in God (knowing full well they can't destroy God himself); but what can they give us that could possibly replace it, in the sense of securing the goals and purposes of free human life in a just society? To be "anti-God" ultimately is to be anti-man, anti-liberty, anti-life, and anti-truth as well.
Harris and his buds are fools in the classical and Judeo-Christian senses of that word: The fool is "the man who says in his heart, 'there is no God.'"
God is not mocked. And so I pray the people will not be fooled by the fools.
Thank you so much for your beautiful essay-post, dear A-G!