Miracles and Plane
Crashes
A miracle
is said to be an event that’s the direct intervention of a divine being.
Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, a saint, or a
religious leader, for example Jesus is said to have performed as many as 37 miracles
that are depicted in the New Testament
of the Holy Bible. You probably are somewhat familiar with that
text, remember it’s the bestselling book in the world and is held in high
regard to most Christians. In any event,
a miracle is sometimes thought of as a distinctive and undeniable interruption
of the laws of nature.
In every-day-usage,
the term “miracle” is seen as any event that is statistically unlikely but
beneficial, (such as surviving a natural disaster), or simply an occurrence professed
by most as simply a “wonderful” event; birth
may even be an example. Other miracles might be: survival of a terminal
illness, escaping a life threatening situation or somehow just “beating the
odds”. The rapid economic recovery of West Germany following World War II is oftentimes
called the German Miracle. Occasionally
even coincidences are perceived as miracles.
According to St. Augustine,
“Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about
nature;” You probably don’t recall that he was a fourth century (354AD to 430AD)
philosopher whose groundbreaking philosophy infused Christian doctrine with Neo-Platonism
which is the modern term for the school of mystical philosophy.
Time and
again things happen in life’s every day mix that make you say, “Wow” and occasionally
that leaves you speechless. Some folks call such events: Gifts from God, others
simply call them ‘miracles,’ while some just think it’s a happy coincidence or
luck of the better kind.
David
Hume (1711 to 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and
essayist, known especially for his philosophical practicality and skepticism; two
hundred fifty (250) years ago, he held that no evidence would be sufficiently
ironclad to establish a miraculous event.
He basically argued that no
amount of testimony could suffice as proof of a miracle, because the
possibility of fakery or fraud would be more likely. Hume used as an example of a miraculous claim somewhat
as follows: First this imaginary event would be supported or witnessed by several
reliable eyewitnesses, of let’s say the King of England’s dying and being
restored to life. If the alleged interval of death were short, in Hume’s view,
it would be more likely that the king had really not been dead but merely in a deep
coma; and if the death interval were longer, let’s say a month, he would
conclude that fraud was at work. In short it would be far more likely that the
king and his courtiers would have faked the death and hid the king for a month
than that he could possibly come back to life.
A more commonplace
example of such a miraculous claim is a “perfect bridge hand”; where in a
player gets cards all of a single suit. Many people have claimed to have seen
or played such a hand, but from a scientific “odds” point of view, there have
not been enough bridge hands dealt throughout the history of the game to make
even one case remotely possible. It’s therefore more sensible to conclude the
witnesses / player who make such a claim are mistaken or the cards simply were
not shuffled well in the first place.
In other
words, science rejects miracles for exactly the same reasons that accountants
do when conducting audits (a thousand Dollars doesn’t just vanish into thin
air), when forensics experts are conducting tests, and when mechanics perform trouble-shooting
tests on automobiles.
But do miracles really
exist? Or are miracles conceptions of nature that we simply cannot or do not
understand? Well, the irony is that miracles really do appear to exist, but
then again what if a miracle is simply another description for a coincidence.
If so, is the term “miracle” simply a word or event for what we do not
understand, at least yet; and since we
may not understand something, that does not prove that it does not exist.
In the
end, the reality of miracles as defined above are determined by individuals who
experience the event or persons you choose to believe who you believe to be stable
of mind. Just when you reach the point wherein science or common science has convinced
you that miracles do not exist, you or someone you know miraculously survives a
plane crash or is miraculously cured of a terminal health condition.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080323192659AAYoPaH
http://www.juevesfilosofico.com/miracles/
http://www.iep.utm.edu/augustin/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hume
http://themonticellonews.com/proof-that-miracles-really-happen-p7282-1.htm
https://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/WhyNoMiracles.HTM http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/miracles-and-plane-crashes/
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