User:Harrison90

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Miracles

Defining a miracle is very difficult, who are we as humans to say whether something is a direct cause from God, or whether it merely coincidence. Those who practice a religion and follow it’s teachings would be very happy to claim what ever occurrence that took place was an act of God as it proves them right, yet some one who placed their heart in science would rationalize the event and use reasoning to explain its origins. For example, a religious women suffering with cancer goes in for a routine check up discovers that cancer is gone, and with no explanation, this could easily be mistaken as a miracle, and seeing as there is very little reasonable scientific explanation behind it, it is hard to disprove, yet, if we consider that odds are playing a part, then it can be quite possible. If the odds are that there was a 1 in 6.6 billion chance of her cancer disappearing with out a trace, then it happing to her and very few other people on the planet, then it can be argued that it was bound to happen, the odds were on her side. Natural laws play a huge role, as it is the natural outcome of the issue. It was going to happen whether it was her or not. But whether odds and natural laws are controlled by God or not is unknown. The real difficulty in proving whether a miracle is one is that we have yet to prove if there is any one/thing out there to create such an event. Scriptures and science do not coincide with one another, so its very unlikely that the origins of a miracle will ever be have solid proof. An other problem in defining a miracle is what is to be said for a miracle happening to people of different faiths, do certain religions have to discount the miracle as its not affecting some one of there faith? Finally, coincidence. This is easily mistaken for a miracle, but is often good fortune/luck. E.g. if I were to fall out of a window, and unknowingly, a bed was beneath me, which saved my life. That bed would have been there regardless if I had fallen or not, so it being there is hard to class a miraculous, yet, the fact that I did fall and was saved, that can be a miraculous event. What appears to be a miracle to one person, can be seen as nothing more than a basic occurrence, which was bound to happen. The account of a miracle can be considered unreliable by the person or persons it affects. If some one who tends to be extremely ill mannered to other people receives a stroke of unexplainable good fortune, such as avoiding a near death experience, most would say this is coincidence as he has done little to deserve a miracle, yet if the same miracle happened to some one who was kind hearted and caring, then many would claim this to be a well deserved miracle. Its up to human judgment to dub an act as a miracle or not, and we as humans are surely knowledgeable enough to go and start telling others the will of God. The actions of God are unpredictable and cannot be called out by those who have no understanding. An other reason on the unreliability of miracles is that there can, and most often is, more than one explanation behind it which does not always lead to a supreme being. Science of today has explained many of miracles of yesterday, so who is to say the science of tomorrow wont explain the unexplainable miracles of today. We should not be hasty in providing reason to something with out considering the possibilities of it being more accurately solved by other methods. Other religions also have miracles, but as they do not worship the same god as others, a miracle occurring in one religion must prove that all other religions are false, yet this is not the case, as all people can experience a miracle, even those with no faith. The miracle of science has effected many, and in the religious sense, it does not conform to the laws of a miracle, yet, if a doctor were to perform a life saving operation, and was successful, it will be god who takes the credit, when infact it was the doctor who did all the work, or whether god was acting through the doctor. The hard work of others should not be discredited when considering the roots of a miracle, as it is always unknown. The occurrence of a miracle however, is almost proof of religions being true, as in the true sense of the word, God is the most logical explanation. A priory argument, that logically goes back to there being a God. Some thing unexplainable happened, human minds cant explain it, it stemmed from an inhuman mind, it must be superhuman, its God. The strongest and biggest miracle to date is the resurrection of Jesus, which cannot be (unlike other miracles) taken metaphorically, as It the sole reason why Christianity today is the largest religion, as God rose his one and only son from the dead to join him in heaven. This is solid to Christians as it is written in the bible and is the core of the religion. Now, metaphors can play a part in past miracles that we read about, but if we consider that most the miracles are metaphors, such as Jesus feeding the five thousand, was actually Jesus just feeding many and being generous, it shows the extent religions are willing to go to show the purity of their religion and the depth to the thought behind it, such depth which must be motivated by God. Also, Miracle’s only tend to happen to religious people, and if they happen to none religious people, it can possibly convert them, showing that the true effects behind a miracle are the either reward or to save, (save meaning to save a none religious person from a life of damnation). A miracle can also be considered a test, like the story of Job. He was tested and his final miracle was given as he successfully passed his test (again a reward, but offered in a different fashion). Finally, miracles support religious belief as a vast majority of miracle happen in a religious manner, healing and forgiveness. Religion has made it very clear to see how one action be taken into religious context, and with things we have yet to explain, religion has won.