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I read that before. It is not an operational definition.A miracle is an act of God, not magic or deception, that benefits us while drawing us closer to himself.
If I rescue an insect from drowning and put him back on land, that is a miracle for the bug.
Miriam-Webster, Brittanica and Cambridge dictionaries disagree with you.That’s not an example of a miracle because it wasn’t an intervention by a deity and it’s not inexplicable by science.
A miracle is any unlikely event that either provides a great benefit, or prevents or undoes a tragedy or catastrophe for one or more entities regardless of the source.
I think that encompasses the three definitions from the Miriam-Webster dictionary:
1 : An extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs
the healing miracles described in the Gospels
2 : An extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment
The bridge is a miracle of engineering.
3 Christian Science : A divinely natural phenomenon experienced humanly as the fulfillment of spiritual law
It also coincides with the Brittanica definition:
1 : An unusual or wonderful event that is believed to be caused by the power of God
a divine miracle
She believed that God had given her the power to work/perform miracles.
a miracle worker [=a person who is able to work/perform miracles]
2 : A very amazing or unusual event, thing, or achievement
It would take a miracle for this team to win.
The bridge is a miracle of engineering. = The bridge is an engineering miracle.
the miracle of birth
Or Cambridge:
An unusual and mysterious event that is thought to have been caused by a god because it does not follow the usual laws of nature:
Jesus Christ was said to have performed miracles like turning water into wine.
A very lucky event that is surprising and unexpected :
[ + (that) ] Looking at the state of his car, it's a miracle (that) he wasn't killed!
I can't promise a miracle cure, but I think we can improve things.
An excellent achievement in a particular area of activity :
I considered my recovery to be a miracle of modern medicine.
A miracle is any unlikely event that either provides a great benefit, or prevents or undoes a tragedy or catastrophe for one or more entities regardless of the source.
I think that encompasses the three definitions from the Miriam-Webster dictionary:
1 : An extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs
the healing miracles described in the Gospels
2 : An extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment
The bridge is a miracle of engineering.
3 Christian Science : A divinely natural phenomenon experienced humanly as the fulfillment of spiritual law
It also coincides with the Brittanica definition:
1 : An unusual or wonderful event that is believed to be caused by the power of God
a divine miracle
She believed that God had given her the power to work/perform miracles.
a miracle worker [=a person who is able to work/perform miracles]
2 : A very amazing or unusual event, thing, or achievement
It would take a miracle for this team to win.
The bridge is a miracle of engineering. = The bridge is an engineering miracle.
the miracle of birth
Or Cambridge:
An unusual and mysterious event that is thought to have been caused by a god because it does not follow the usual laws of nature:
Jesus Christ was said to have performed miracles like turning water into wine.
A very lucky event that is surprising and unexpected :
[ + (that) ] Looking at the state of his car, it's a miracle (that) he wasn't killed!
I can't promise a miracle cure, but I think we can improve things.
An excellent achievement in a particular area of activity :
I considered my recovery to be a miracle of modern medicine.
Definition of MIRACLECan you post links to your spices because I’m not seeing that definition from Britanica. All I’m seeing is having to do with religion and deities.
Miracle | Definition, Traditions, & World Religions | Britannica
Miracle, extraordinary and astonishing happening that is attributed to the action of an ultimate or divine power. A miracle is sometimes defined as a supernatural event or is understood as a sign that indicates something beyond itself. Learn more about the significance, interpretation, and...www.britannica.com
Not necessarily (and by the scripture we see some clear exceptions). Our own Universe operates naturally by the design of nature that God created, physics. Physics is His creation, as God created everything.The results of a miracle, have to obey the laws of physics and space-time.
Some Christians think that the earth is between 6000 to 15,000 years old (coinciding with the Neolithic Age). Astronomers think that it is 4.5 billion years old. Here is an attempt to resolve this incongruity.
Jesus turns water into wine in John 2:
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
How old is this wine?
If you ask the servants, the human observers/witnesses, they would say a few seconds old.
The story continues:
9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
If you ask the expert, the master of the banquet, "How old is this wine?", he would say it was some months or even years old.
So which answer is true?
Both are true depending on the perspective. The supernatural perspective tells us that it was only a second old. The natural perspective tells us that it was at least some months old.
Similarly, in Genesis 1:
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. ... 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
How old is the earth?
If we ask an astronomer from the natural perspective, he can only study the present-day physical data based on scientific calculation. It is 4.5 billion years old. That's the scientific space-time perspective.
On the other hand, from the supernatural angle, if we read the Bible literally, the present-day earth is only some thousands of years old. That's the biblical witnessed-time perspective.
So which answer is true?
Both are true depending on the time perspective. God created the earth with the embedded evolutionary records of billions of years. The Bible is not a scientific treatise. It focuses on the story of redemption. In terms of witnessed-time history, it is only some thousands of years old. On the other hand, from the scientific-time point of view, the earth is billions of years old.
Why would God deceive people or scientists?
God did not deceive people. The results of a miracle, have to obey the laws of physics and space-time.
Did not God create the universe last Thursday?
No, this is not the same as Last Thursdayism because God tells me the contrary. God did not create the universe last Thursday. Genesis contradicts this. As a witness, I can also contradict this. I was alive last Thursday. God was with me. God dwells in me. It happened in real live-time. I didn't see God create this universe last Thursday. I believe in the words of God, not Last Thursdayism.
Jesus spoke about it as a historical witnessed-time event in Mark 10:
6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’
From the perspective of scientific time, the details of this embedding are amazing:
24,000-year-old animal found alive, well, and ready to reproduce
Fossils reveal what may be the oldest known case of the dino sniffles.
There are two different frameworks of time. Roughly, witnessed-time started when Adam opened his eyes. Space-time is measured by scientific calculations. Even scientifically, there is something funny about time.
I distinguish between these two concepts of time. The Bible speaks of events that happened in the real historical witnessed-time. Scientific research speaks in terms of space-time even when there were no live animals there to observe the original events.
verse?Not necessarily (and by the scripture we see some clear exceptions).
This is a very significant passage. It reveals to what extent God will go when man is in harmony with His will.Let's look at one of that kind: an unnatural maricle:
12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on[b] its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
See the post. The passage quoted with the physics-disobeying miracle is in the last section, but I think the entire post is worth reading, a distillation of years of reading scripture and reflecting.verse?
The passage you mean. Sure. It's just discussion to me. There are other ways to see it. Best is to talk it out if you like to discuss.I wrote: The results of a miracle, have to obey the laws of physics and space-time.
You wrote: Not necessarily (and by the scripture we see some clear exceptions).
Can you display the verse and bold the relevant words to support your point? This is a basic scholarship.
I’m studied speed of light for years… the current speed was assigned because of measurable fluctuations even in a vacuum. (1969)He could create light that appears to have been traveling through space for billions of years as a record of things that never happened
That's an interesting possible exception. Do you have another one?The passage you mean. Sure. It's just discussion to me. There are other ways to see it. Best is to talk it out if you like to discuss.
This breaks the laws of physics, such as Conservation of Angular Momentum (of the Earth rotating on its axis), and of course also the Conservation of Momentum of objects (like people and other things) on the Earth's surface as its rotation stopped -- about 900 miles per hour at the latitude of Israel. (fyi, I have a degree in Engineering Physics, so this is very simple stuff for me, and ask if you need more explanation of anything)
12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on[b] its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
-- Joshua 10
Hi, I'm a believer, and it's good to understand that God isn't limited by physics. Instead, physics is His creation. He made it. For God to be limited by the laws of physics would be like a carpenter being limited by a yellow pine 2x4 piece of lumber, as if unable to cut a different size or type of wood.I’m studied speed of light for years… the current speed was assigned because of measurable fluctuations even in a vacuum. (1969)
SOL has been measured for hundreds of years. The data strongly suggests that light was significantly faster.
If scientists use today’s SOL factor to measure light speed from 200 years ago, they could “scientifically” conclude the earth is 100s of thousand to millions of years old. The reason is that light can be slowed when passing through different substances.With the expansion of the universe, there is ‘waste’ energy from the expansion. The more the expansion, the more this particular waste. It doesn’t occur on the refractive index for light, because if it did, people would know that our means of measuring the age of the universe is inherently flawed.
Scientists know of this waste, but cannot/will not make the connection with its effect on SOL.
According to the most trusted astronomical math, the farthest parts of the universe are exceeding the SOL. That’s impossible, but scientists would rather believe something is/was faster that SOL than to admit SOL has been slowed to a fraction of its original speed, giving a sense of age that is defined only by our understanding of science… which is flawed by an “assigned” SOL that is thought to be a constant.
That's an interesting possible exception. Do you have another one?
The notion that God created a narrative in the sky and in the earth that states the earth is 4.5 billion years old and the universe 14.5 billion years old has problems. These fossil records and stories in the skies would essentially be lies. He created a (fictional) story that is not true. Of course He could do this. He could create light that appears to have been traveling through space for billions of years as a record of things that never happened. We see a super nova recorded in the star light that never actually happened. And He could create a fossil record and a geologic record that makes the earth appear to be billions of years old. But why deceive us? The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth forth his handywork. What you are seeing in the sky and in the earth are the result of His hands. Are they lies? Are they a fictional record of things that never really happened?
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