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Articles Section Article 6 Miracles - Wishful Thinking If this is your first visit to this site please read the Glossary Investigating Miracles Sometimes it seems impossible to get to the truth about certain phenomena. Then, suddenly, a direct, certain and undeniable simple method of investigation pops up and there's no turning back. The following is thus. What Is A Miracle? By definition a miracle is an occurance, or action, which under normal circumstances would be considered as being impossible and thus considered as being an action cause by some non-normal entity ie god. Any act which would only be seen as being unusual, or not normal, should not be considered as being a miracle. I think the only truly definitive word concerning miracles is 'impossible' rather than merely 'unusual'. 'Normal' Miracles The 'usual suspects' of miracles are the healing miracles - recovering from cancer, tumours disappearing etc etc. The more traditional miracles would be the ones concerning those unable to walk and using crutches and then suddenly throwing away the crutches and being able to walk without help. There seems to be no definitive method of investigating these occurrences. One question could be - are these recoveries totally 'impossible'? They may be strange. They may be unusual. They may be wonderous. They may be stupendous. They may be totally unexpected. But are they actual miracles - are they actually impossible? I don't think one could say so. The fact is, the body heals itself: bones mend, muscles grow etc. We need something more definite. We need to start the investigation from a totally different perspective. We need findamental principles. Impossibilities When people go to Lourdes, or any other 'holy' place to look for 'special' healing (through god) it usually concerns health problems (though passing exams and such-like are also very popular). There are many many different types of health problems and all we need to do is to take one or two 'impossible' health problems and see how many real miracles have occured. Two very specific ones come to mind. Miracle Type One: Lifespan A lot of miracles could be described as an improvement of health so that a person doesn't die as expected and is cured and thereby continues to live. I think we can all agree that many people do not want to die. Many people would like to prolong their life. So a simple question could be: 'how many people who have gone to Lourdes etc have lived to the age of 180 (just to take a random number) for example? Even without much investigation I think we can all agree that no one lives to be 180 years of age. No one has ever lived to be 180. Now the question is: has anyone ever prayed to live longer than the usual life-span? - the answer to that would seem to be a definite 'yes'. An yet no one has lived to reach 180 years of age. If there was a god who 'performed' miracles there should be at least a few people living to that age. I think I can safely say that there is no one at all, not even one person, who is 150 years of age. If there was - well that WOULD be a miracle. But there are none. Yet even if there was a person living to 150 years of age it souldn't, even then, be considered as being totally impossible. Miracle Type Two: Limbs It is often stated, and taken as true, that many people have had various healings through the intersession of god; otherwise known as miracles. Usually these miracle sites have their collection of crutches which were left behind by those cured. But let's look at what would actually be a true miracle. The simple question is this: how many people have gone to Lourdes or other 'holy' place with one limb (arm or leg) and subsequently returned with two? I think I can safely assume that NO One has ever 'grown' a second limb (to replace a missing one) ever ever ever. Presumably this god would not be confined to specific miracles but could do ANYTHING it wanted. Therefore if it ever 'performed' a miracle then why not in the odd case or two give a person an extra limb? There could be no arguement against god doing that. That is - if god ever performed a miracle. I would think that even those who 'believe' in miracles would realise that growing an extra limb has never, and will never happen. THAT is impossible and no matter how much one talks of miracles no one would expect that to occur - ever. Conclusion These two contenders for miracle-hood have never been performed. These would, without any doubt whatsoever, be considered as being miracles - especially the latter. Yet they have never happened. There is no logical reason why they shouldn't . . . except in the case where there haven't ever been any actual miracles at all. Then it would make sense. So you can talk of miracles and the intersession of god etc etc but reality tells us they don't happen. 8th April 2007 The Playing Cards Scenario Yesterday (7th April 2007) I heard an item on the news which said that a nun was miraculously cured by the late pope John Paul. I suddenly realised that there is a very simple scenario to put the truth of these occurances into correct and realistic perspective. I call it the 'Playing Cards Scenario'. I claim that I can see into the future and to prove so I will predict what card will be next when I turn it over (I have a pack of cards face down on the table). How can I prove that? Simply by stating the name of each card before I turn it over and do so for the whole pack. Let us try the experiment! I state that the next card will be the TWO (it doesn't matter what suit it is for this example). I turn over the card and see that it is a KING. I then state that the next card will be a TWO and turn over the next card and it is a SEVEN. I carry on predicting a TWO and after 9 cards it IS a TWO. Therefore I CAN predict the future and predict what card will be next! I carry on and keep predicting a TWO and after another 10 cards another TWO turns up - this must prove that I can predict what the next card will be. I continue doing so for the rest of the pack of cards and another 2 times I will be correct in my predictions! The question now is - does this mean that I can predict what the next card will be, and thus can predict the future? Just in case you are a bit slow, or confused, the answer is NO - this does NOT demonstrate that I can predict the future. One could describe the fact that I did predict the 4 TWOs which happened to turn up as being totally random occurances and therefore not demonstrating my powers of seeing into the future. So let's go back to this nun who was cured by John Paul. One can presume that at least some thousands of people have prayed to John Paul seeking 'divine' intervention. If it was the case that ALL those prayers were answered then there would be a very strong case for thinking that John Paul still exists and has power to intervene and help people in this life. But if it is the case that only ONE person's prayer was answered and all those others who prayed were ignored then the idea that it was a miracle is very weak or even non-existent - it should be described as being a totally random occurance. Also if there was an intervention by John Paul in the nun's case then it would mean that John Paul purposefully and with consideration did NOT help (and did NOT want to help) all the others who prayed to him for help. If it was the case that John Paul had the power to cure people then why does he not help everyone? The answer could only be that he doesn't want to help everyone. Think about it! There are no miracles. To believe in miracles is to be like a child, to think like a child, and to dream like a child and, above all, to ignore reality. No doubt this page will alter over time but in most cases it will only be to re-phrase some things, with possibly the addition of more ideas as they come to me, but overall the explanation will stay the same. If you want to contact me to discuss, or to get me to clarify, a specific point, please only do so AFTER reading this carefully. Thank you.  Top of Page

Last Update : 3rd October 2009

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