Miracle

A miracle is most commonly held to be the intervention by a supernatural being – usually a god – in the normal workings of the universe. Different religions, however, have substantially different notions of a miracle, and disagreements are also to be found within religions. The word "miracle" comes from the Latin miraculum meaning "something wonderful".

In casual usage, "miracle" may also refer to any statistically unlikely but beneficial event (such as survival from a natural disaster), or even to anything which is regarded as wonderful regardless of its likelihood or naturalness, such as birth.

Miracles as supernatural acts

On this view, a miracle is a violation of normal laws of nature by a god or some other supernatural being. Some scientist-theologians like Polkinghorne suggest that miracles are not violations of the laws of nature but "exploration of a new regime of physical experience".

Some modern religious believers hold that there is a scientific basis for believing in supernatural miracles. They hold that in the absence of a plausible, parsimonious scientific theory, the best explanation for these events is that they were performed by a supernatural being, e.g. a god. Therefore, there is probably a supernatural being who performs what appear to be miracles. However, some scientists criticise this kind of thinking as a subversion, or perhaps deliberate misuse, of Occam's Razor

Many adherents of monotheistic religions assert that miracles, if established, constitute proof of the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent god. There are a number of criticisms of this point of view:

1. While the existence of miracles may imply the existence of a supernatural miracle worker, that supernatural miracle worker need not be an omnipotent, omniscient, and all-benevolent god; it could be any supernatural being. That is, it only proves that gods might exist, not that there is a monotheistic god.
2. Some argue that miracles, if established, are evidence that a perfect god does not exist, as such a being would not want to, or need to, violate his own laws of nature.
   • Catholic theologians do not accept this reasoning; they conclude that the miracles are from an omnipotent god, because they accept as already logically proved (through concepts like the prime mover) that there is a single, omnipotent, omniscient god.
3. Laws of nature are inferred from empirical evidence. Thus if an accepted law of nature ever appeared to have been violated, it could simply be that the accepted law was an erroneous inference from an insufficient set of empirical observations, rather than a supernatural disruption of the true course of nature.

Miracles in the Judæo-Christian Bible

In the Hebrew Bible

The descriptions of most miracles in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) are often the same as the common definition of the word: God intervenes in the laws of nature.

A literal reading of the Tanakh shows a number of ways miracles are said to occur: God may suspend or speed up the laws of nature to produce a supernatural occurrence; God can create matter out of nothing; God can breathe life into inanimate matter. The Tanakh does not explain details of how these miracles happen.

The Tanakh attributes many natural occurrences to God, such as the sun rising and setting, and rain falling.

Today many Orthodox Jews, most Christians, and most Muslims adhere to this view of miracles. This view is generally rejected by non-Orthodox Jews, liberal Christians and Unitarian-Universalists.

Many events commonly understood to be miraculous may not actually be instances of the impossible, as commonly believed. For instance, consider the parting of the Sea of Reeds (in Hebrew Yâm-Sûph; often mistranslated as the "Red Sea"). This incident occurred when Moses and Israelites fled from bondage in Egypt, to begin their exodus to the promised land. The book of Exodus does not state that the Reed Sea split in a dramatic fashion. Rather, according to the text God caused a strong wind to slowly drive the shallow waters to land, overnight. There is no claim that God pushed apart the sea as shown in many films; rather, the miracle would be that Israel crossed this precise place, at exactly the right time, when Moses lifted his staff, and that the pursuing Egyptian army then drowned when the wind stopped and the piled waters rushed back in.

Most events later described as miracles are not labeled as such by the Bible; rather the text simply describes what happened. Often these narratives will attribute the cause of these events to God.

In the New Testament

The descriptions of most miracles in the Christian New Testament are often the same as the commonplace definition of the word: God intervenes in the laws of nature. In St John's Gospel the "miracles" are referred to as "signs" and the emphasis is on God demonstrating his underlying normal activity in remarkable ways

Jesus can turn water into wine; Jesus can create matter out of nothing, and thus turn a loaf of bread into many loaves of bread, Jesus can revive the lives of people considered to be dead. Jesus can rise from the dead. The New Testament does not explain details of how these miracles happen.

Aristotelian and Neo-Aristotelian views of miracles

Aristotle rejected the idea that God could or would intervene in the order of the natural world. Jewish neo-Aristotelian philosophers, who are still influential today, include Maimonides, Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon, and Gersonides. Directly or indirectly, their views are still prevalent in much of the religious Jewish community.

Miracles as events pre-planned by God

In rabbinic Judaism, many rabbis mentioned in the Talmud held that the laws of nature were inviolable. The idea of miracles that contravened the laws of nature were hard to accept; however, at the same time they affirmed the truth of the accounts in the Tanakh. Therefore some explained that miracles were in fact natural events that had been set up by God at the beginning of time.

In this view, when the walls of Jericho fell, it was not because God directly brought them down. Rather, God planned that there would be an earthquake at that place and time, so that the city would fall to the Israelites. Instances where rabbinic writings say that God made miracles a part of creation include Midrash Genesis Rabbah 5:45; Midrash Exodus Rabbah 21:6; and Ethics of the Fathers/Pirkei Avot 5:6.

David Hume's views of miracles

According to the philosopher David Hume, A miracle is "a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent."

Non-literal interpretations of the text

These views are held by both classical and modern thinkers.

In Numbers 22 is the story of Balaam and the talking donkey. Many hold that for miracles such as this, one must either assert the literal truth of this biblical story, or one must then reject the story as false. However, some Jewish commentators (e.g. Saadiah Gaon and Maimonides) hold that stories such as these were never meant to be taken literally in the first place. Rather, these stories should be understood as accounts of a prophetic experience, which are dreams or visions. (Of course, such dreams and visions could themselves be considered miracles.)

As products of creative art and social acceptance

In this view, miracles do not really occur. Rather, they are the product of creative story tellers. They use them to embellish a hero or incident with a theological flavor. Using miracles in a story allow characters and situations to become bigger than life, and to stir the emotions of the listener more than the mundane and ordinary.

As misunderstood commonplace events

Littlewood's law states that individuals can expect miracles to happen to them, at the rate of about one per month. By its definition, seemingly miraculous events are actually commonplace. In other words, miracles do not exist, but are rather examples of low probability events that are bound to happen by chance from time to time.

In Japanese philosophy

An excerpt from Hagakure, the Book of the Samurai:

"When something out of the ordinary happens, it is ridiculous to say that it is a mystery or a portent of things to come. Eclipses of the sun and moon, comets, clouds that flutter like flags, snow in the fifth month, lightning in the twelfth month, and so on, are all things that occur every fifty or one hundred years. They occur according to the evolution of the Yin and the Yang.

"The fact that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west would be a mystery, too, if it were not a daily occurrence. It is not dissimilar.

"Furthermore, the fact that something bad always happens in the world when strange phenomenon occur is due to people seeing something like fluttering clouds and thinking that something is going to happen. The mystery is created in their minds, and by waiting for the disaster, it is from their very minds that it occurs.

The occurrence of mysteries is always by word of mouth."

Contemporary claims of miracles and evidence

The Catholic Church is hesitant extending validity to a putative miracle. The Church requires a certain number of miracles to occur before granting sainthood to a putative saint, with particularly stringent requirements in validating the miracle's authenticity. The process is overseen by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.</ref>[2]</ref>

Followers of the Indian gurus Sathya Sai Baba and Swami Premananda claim that they routinely perform miracles. The dominant view among sceptics is that these are predominantly sleight of hand or elaborate magic tricks.

Some modern religious groups claim ongoing occurrence of miraculous events. While some miracles have been proven to be fraudulent (see Peter Popoff for an example) others (as the Paschal Fire in Jerusalem) have not proven susceptible to analysis. Some groups are far more cautious about proclaiming apparent miracles genuine than others, although official sanction, or the lack thereof, rarely has much effect on popular belief.

See also

• Miracles of Jesus
• Miracles at Lourdes
• Divine Providence In Jewish thought
• Cessationism

Reading

• Colin Brown. Miracles and the Critical Mind. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984
• Colin J. Humphreys, Miracles of Exodus. Harper, San Francisco, 2003
• Robert Eisen, Gersonides on Providence, Covenant, and the Chosen People. State University of New York Press, 1995
• Lenn E. Goodman, Rambam: Readings in the Philosophy of Moses Maimonides. Gee Bee Tee, 1985
• Harry Houdini Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Expose Prometheus Books; Reprint edition (March 1993) originally published in 1920 ISBN 0-87975-817-1
• Menachem Kellner, Dogma in Medieval Jewish Thought. Oxford University Press, 1986
• C. S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study. New York, Macmillan Co, 1947
• C. F. D. Moule [ed.], Miracles: Cambridge Studies in their Philosophy and History. London, A.R. Mowbray, 1966
• Graham Twelftree, Jesus the Miracle Worker: A Historical and Theological Study. IVP, 1999
• Kenneth L. Woodward, The Book of Miracles. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. ISBN 0-684-82393-4

External links

• God's Miracles, Islamic perspective
• An Indian Skeptic's explanation of miracles: By Yuktibaadi compiled by Basava Premanand
• Religious miracles
• The Quran Miracles Encylopedia
• Medical Miracles of the Quran
• Skeptics Dictionary on miracles
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
• Why Don't Miracles Happen Today? - A Jewish view on miracles nowadays chabad.org
• Andrew Lang, "Science and 'Miracles'", The Making of Religion Chapter II, Longmans, Green, and Co., London, New York and Bombay, 1900, pp 14-38.