why do stupid people testify to miracles?
 
A miracle is what is not naturally possible. It is a supernatural occurrence. It is paranormal. Christianity stresses miracles as signs of God's love and care.
 
Suppose miracles are signs from God to indicate his presence and his true doctrines. It is only those who already believe that will take them as signs.
 
It follows then that an apparition or healing can only take place when the person already believes in God and has based that belief on rational grounds. So only educated intelligent believing people would be getting them. But the pattern is that they nearly always happen to simple and badly educated people or people who are not versed in the evidences for God.
 
Some religions claim to be based on evidence. Some say that the miracle will take place to verify the evidence even if there is no need for the evidence is strong enough.
 
Suppose an apparition comes from Heaven to urge us to believe in God. When the evidence for God is good enough, the apparition should only be believed because of the evidence for God. So the apparition is not evidence for God for the evidence for God has to test it but it draws attention to the evidence for God. This means that an apparition or healing that fails to stress the evidences for God and teaches them is not from God. If supernatural at all it is the work of demons.
 
It seems there would be no need for the apparition if we have the evidences. True but if there is no other way to get our attention focused on the evidences the apparition will have to happen to teach us. But then groups would be able to force God to send apparitions when they know nothing of the evidences or where to look for them. If apparitions were real they would be all over the place or God would tell us the proofs in dreams leaving us unsure if they were miraculous or not because the subconscious mind can do things like that. Why do an obvious miracle when you could do that? Those miracles then are wastes of power. They are showing off. This disproves God for a perfect God doesn’t show off.
 
Further Reading ~
 
A Christian Faith for Today, W Montgomery Watt, Routledge, London, 2002
Answers to Tough Questions, Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, Scripture Press, Bucks, 1980
Apparitions, Healings and Weeping Madonnas, Lisa J Schwebel, Paulist Press, New York, 2004
A Summary of Christian Doctrine, Louis Berkhof, The Banner of Truth Trust, London, 1971
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Veritas, Dublin, 1995
Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Karl Keating, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1988
Enchiridion Symbolorum Et Definitionum, Heinrich Joseph Denzinger, Edited by A Schonmetzer, Barcelona, 1963
Looking for a Miracle, Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, New York, 1993
Miracles, Rev Ronald A Knox, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1937
Miracles in Dispute, Ernst and Marie-Luise Keller, SCM Press Ltd, London, 1969
Lourdes, Antonio Bernardo, A. Doucet Publications, Lourdes, 1987
Medjugorje, David Baldwin, Catholic Truth Society, London, 2002
Miraculous Divine Healing, Connie W Adams, Guardian of Truth Publications, KY, undated
New Catholic Encyclopaedia, The Catholic University of America and the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc, Washington, District of Columbia, 1967
Raised From the Dead, Father Albert J Hebert SM, TAN, Illinois 1986
Philosophy of Religion for A Level, Anne Jordan, Neil Lockyer and Edwin Tate, Nelson Throne Ltd, Cheltenham, 2004
Science and the Paranormal, Edited by George O Abell and Barry Singer, Junction Books, London, 1981
The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan, Headline, London, 1997
The Book of Miracles, Stuart Gordon, Headline, London, 1996
The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2000
The Encyclopaedia of Unbelief Volume 1, Gordon Stein, Editor, Prometheus Books, New York, 1985
The Hidden Power, Brian Inglis, Jonathan Cape, London, 1986
The Reality of God and the Problem of Evil, Brian Davies, Continuum, London-New York, 2006
The Sceptical Occultist, Terry White, Century, London, 1994
The Stigmata and Modern Science, Rev Charles Carty, TAN, Illinois, 1974
Twenty Questions About Medjugorje, Kevin Orlin Johnson, Ph.D. Pangaeus Press, Dallas, 1999
Why People Believe Weird Things, Michael Shermer, Freeman, New York, 1997