My hypothesis on miracles

cloudyday2

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I suspect others have already considered this idea, but I just began thinking about it yesterday. I was hoping that somebody might be able to add some additional thoughts to my idea to make it more concrete.

So the idea is that miracles must never contradict the laws of nature. For example, when Jesus walked on water, his disciples actually had a shared hallucination. A shared hallucination is very uncommon, but it does not contradict the laws of nature.

Although all miracles have natural explanations, they are still miraculous. They are uncommon, and they are designed to guide people. God is pulling the strings, but He is not breaking any natural laws.

That's my theory FWIW :)
 

SkyWriting

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I suspect others have already considered this idea, but I just began thinking about it yesterday. I was hoping that somebody might be able to add some additional thoughts to my idea to make it more concrete.

So the idea is that miracles must never contradict the laws of nature. For example, when Jesus walked on water, his disciples actually had a shared hallucination. A shared hallucination is very uncommon, but it does not contradict the laws of nature.

Although all miracles have natural explanations, they are still miraculous. They are uncommon, and they are designed to guide people. God is pulling the strings, but He is not breaking any natural laws.

That's my theory FWIW :)

Such theories must apply to every miracle unless you have multiple theories.


Jesus Turns Water into Wine at the Wedding in Cana
Jesus Heals an Official's Son at Capernaum in Galilee
Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit From a Man in Capernaum
Jesus Heals Peter's Mother-in-Law Sick With Fever
Jesus Heals Many Sick and Oppressed at Evening
First Miraculous Catch of Fish on the Lake of Gennesaret
Jesus Cleanses a Man With Leprosy
Jesus Heals a Centurion's Paralyzed Servant in Capernaum
Jesus Heals a Paralytic Who Was Let Down From the Roof
Jesus Heals a Man's Withered Hand on the Sabbath
Jesus Raises a Widow's Son From the Dead in Nain
Jesus Calms a Storm on the Sea
Jesus Casts Demons into a Herd of Pigs
Jesus Heals a Woman in the Crowd With an Issue of Blood
Jesus Raises Jairus' Daughter Back to Life

Jesus Heals Two Blind Men
Jesus Heals a Man Who Was Unable to Speak
Jesus Heals an Invalid at Bethesda
Jesus Feeds 5,000 Plus Women and Children
Jesus Walks on Water
Jesus Heals Many Sick in Gennesaret as They Touch His Garment
Jesus Heals a Gentile Woman's Demon-Possessed Daughter
Jesus Heals a Deaf and Dumb Man
Jesus Feeds 4,000 Plus Women and Children
Jesus Heals a Blind Man at Bethsaida
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind by Spitting in His Eyes
Jesus Heals a Boy With an Unclean Spirit
Miraculous Temple Tax in a Fish's Mouth
Jesus Heals a Blind, Mute Demoniac
Jesus Heals a Woman Who Had Been Crippled for 18 Years
Jesus Heals a Man With Dropsy on the Sabbath
Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers on the Way to Jerusalem
Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead in Bethany
Jesus Restores Sight to Bartimaeus in Jericho
Jesus Withers the Fig Tree on the Road From Bethany
Jesus Heals a Servant's Severed Ear While He Is Being Arrested
The Second Miraculous Catch of Fish at the Sea of Tiberias

37 New Testament Miracles of Jesus in Chronological Order
 
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Chesterton

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So the idea is that miracles must never contradict the laws of nature.
I think it's important to remember that "law" here is a metaphor. We don't know if they are actual laws.
 
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miamited

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Hi cloudyday,

You wrote:
So the idea is that miracles must never contradict the laws of nature.

I don't think you actually understand what a miracle is. A miracle is an event that is only possible outside of the laws of nature. Otherwise, it's not a miracle. It may be an extremely slim possibility, but it isn't a miracle.

Among people today, as often happens in the language of a culture, word meanings actually change. Today, someone who is sick and recovers with their having only been a 10% chance of their recovery, claim that it's a miracle. Well, no it isn't, if there was a 10% chance that they might have recovered. They merely became a part of the 10% rather than the 90%. So, today, people often refer to events as miracles, when the truth is that it was just a slim chance and by golly, the person they knew fell into the slim chance group.

Here's a story that was shared in my fellowship years ago about miracles and what qualifies as a miracle.

A confederate soldier was out in a field and came across a union soldier a hundred yards or so in front of him and raised his musket and fired. Another hundred yards or so beyond the union soldier who was fired upon was a young virgin woman hanging up laundry on the line behind her house.

The musket ball passed through the scrotum of the union soldier and traveled on down range where it entered the woman hanging clothes. It came to rest in the uterus of the woman down range. A month later it was found that the woman was pregnant. A miracle right?

No! Not at all. When the musket ball passed through the soldiers scrotum, as musket balls in those days weren't particular smooth, some of the man's sperm became lodged in the rough surface of the musket ball. Then when the coated musket ball entered the woman's uterus the sperm did what sperm do.

Now, that is certainly a one in a million shot, but the truth is that if sperm is introduced into a woman's uterus at the proper time, pregnancy is almost a sure thing. What's the miracle in that. Women have babies every day where sperm was introduced into their uterus in the normal way. The only real challenge of this story is how the sperm was introduced into the woman's uterus. Not that the woman was found to be pregnant.

So, I can appreciate your theory, but I'm 100% positive that your using a poor definition of miracle to support your theory. From what I've gleaned from the Scriptures, pretty much everything that God has done goes against all of the natural laws.

Let me ask you, how do you explain Mary becoming pregnant?

God bless you,
In Christ, ted
 
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Halbhh

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17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

35 Jesus wept.

36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
 
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cloudyday2

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Such theories must apply to every miracle unless you have multiple theories.
I didn't mention in the OP the possibility that Jesus was healing through hypnotic suggestion and the placebo effect. When Jesus went to His hometown where faith was weaker, He was not able to heal people. This suggests something like hypnosis or the placebo effect IMO.

I agree with your point that the hypothesis should cover all the miracles. I think hypnosis, hallucinations, delusions, quirks of nature, etc. can explain everything. IDK
 
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cloudyday2

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I think it's important to remember that "law" here is a metaphor. We don't know if they are actual laws.
That's true. All our laws are best guesses.

Why can't God's miracles bend the human mind instead of bending nature? Both are miraculous.
 
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I've long believed that for an event to qualify as a miracle, it must take place outside of natural law. Any event, even if it takes place through divine intervention, is no miracle if it can be explained naturally.
 
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cloudyday2

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17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
There are many cases where people seem to be dead and then wake up. The miracle is that this rare event happened for Lazarus and inspired people to listen to Jesus. God didn't break any laws except by loading the dice of chance.
 
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Halbhh

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That's true. All our laws are best guesses.

Why can't God's miracles bend the human mind instead of bending nature? Both are miraculous.


Healing a leper, so that immediately he had healthy skin?..... (Matthew chapter 8)

Placebo?
Mental perception?

heh heh
 
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Quid est Veritas?

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http://www.angelfire.com/ga4/readings/Lewis.html

There is a wonderful little essay by CS Lewis called Miracles in God in the Dock. I think it very useful. It addresses what a miracle is and perhaps how we are to perceive the miracles of Christ.
 
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cloudyday2

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Healing a leper, so that immediately he had healthy skin?..... (Matthew chapter 8)

Placebo?
Mental perception?

heh heh
I believe @Quid est Veritas? mentioned in another thread that the diagnosis of leprosy was applied to a wide variety of skin problems in ancient times. Psoriasis and many other skin problems are affected by emotional state. ... Or maybe the person was already virtually free of leprosy through exposure to sunlight and simply needed a encouragement from Jesus to go to a priest for a clean bill of health.
 
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Halbhh

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It's going to be easier to know more about how real the things of Jesus are by carefully looking at His wording and then testing what He says about how to live. Or that was the way I learned more. I was pretty sure "love your enemies" was a burst of idealistic optimism, and couldn't work that great. Boy was I in for a surprise.
 
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