> Right. But *are* there any third-party (meaning, outside of religious texts) sources of eye-witness accounts of any of the miracles of the Bible? If there are, that'd go a heck of a long way for me in convincing me that the Bible is something I should at least look at more closely.

Eyewitness, I don't know. Here's an anecdotal something that may be relevant, however. It's totally random that I know this:

Josephus was an ancient historian who lived from A.D. 37 to about 100. He was a close friend of emperors Vespasian and Titus, to the point of taking their family name, Flavius. He was a greatly respected historian whose writings have been considered reliable, not to mention expansive, and these writings, or at least much of them, survive.

An excerpt of his work, as translated by William Wheaton on page 39 of "The Works of Josephus" corroborates the turning of Lot's wife into salt:

"But Lot's wife continually turning back to view the city as she went from it, and being too nicely inquisitive what would become of it, although God had forbidden her to do so, was changed into a pillar of salt; for I have seen it, and it remains at this day."

In the second century, Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons, also verified that Lot's wife remained "a pillar of salt unto this day."

Unfortunately we can't verify this today, as the area where Sodom used to be was the Vale of the Siddim, now filled with water and known as the Dead Sea.