What is a "miracle"?

Society Religion & Philosophy
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This question has always boggled my mind.

This is the definition given in the dictionary.
An event that cannot be explained by the known laws of nature and is therefore attributed to a supernatural or divine power.

To me it sounds like as long as we cannot explain an event scientifically it is a miracle. for example a mobile phone is a common thing, we understand the principle it works on, but for a person who has not seen or heard of mobile will be thinking of it as a miracle.

I have not experienced any miracle personely, thatswhy I am a bit skeptic of miracles.

Has anyone experienced a miracle? would you like to share? might be able to understand this phenomenon a little better.

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

Have you ever heard of the miracle of birth? Or the miracle of love?
A miracle is a perfectly natural event that , due to its context, inspires in us a sense of wonder and makes us aware of God's presence.
A 'miracle story', of the kind that you read in religious scriptures, is a story that tried to communicate that sense of wonder through symbolic language. It is not to be taken literally.

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Re: What is a “miracle”?

Yes I have heard of one miraclous birth; Hazrat Essa. All the rest are natural births.
Miracle of Love? I don’t understand are you saying that if someone is in love with you its a miracle?

If it’s “perfectly natural event”, then its not a miracle. By definition, miracle is perfectly unnatural event.
Can you share one miracle which happened to you?

Your quote suggests that you do not believe in religion, but also you say that it makes you aware of God’s presence. :confused:

Please stay on one stand so we can discuss this further if you like.
:slight_smile:

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

"Your quote suggests that you do not believe in religion..........",
"Please stay on one stand....."

I don't believe in the simplistic, literalistic interpretation of religion that is implied in your question.

"If it's "perfectly natural event", then its not a miracle. By definition, miracle is perfectly unnatural event. "

If you accept this definition, then you will never find a miracle.

"Can you share one miracle which happened to you?"
Like I said, a birth is a miraculous event and witnessing it made me intensely aware of God's power.

The birth of Christ and other 'miracles' in the Holy Books are are stories that try to convey the intense sense of wonder experienced in the original event.

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

Well said.

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

You have a right to believe whatever you think is right and I respect that.

Wether you think its right or not does not change anything this is the definition of the miracle. If I will not find a miracle then is it possible there never was a miracle?

Good for you but not good enough for me. I would rather stick to the realities of life, as I said earlier birth is common thing it happens all the time. I am ready to accept it as wonder of nature, but so is the TV remote control, as how people thought of inventing it and utilized it, think about it 100 years back it would definetely look like a miracle.

I agree with you, but I don't understand why all the Ibrahamic religions rely so heavy on it. and what was the original event anyway? if I don't believe in the athenticity of the miracles do I still call myself a muslim?

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

LightBearer,
You are right that the dictionary definition of miracle , as quoted by you, is what is commonly understood and this is how most people interpret miracles mentioned in religious books. This is a simplistic and distorted understanding of religious truth. Modern science has done all of us a great favor by debunking this understanding. If religious truth were indeed no more than this then it would be just superstition and I would be an atheist.
But there is a deeper way to understand religion and my description of miracles is an example of that.

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

Krash, as I said earlier I respect your believes. but fact of the matter is 2 + 2 will always be 4. if its something else then something is wrong somewhere we just need to identify and correct it (atleast for ourselves).

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

This is the definition given in the dictionary.
An event that cannot be explained by the known laws of nature and is therefore attributed to a supernatural or divine power

hmmmm isnt that what an illusionist does as well from time to time..!

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

Well, thanks for you respect and I certainly respect your beliefs too.

If by the 2+2 comment you mean that you don't believe that there are any supernatural or unnatural events, then I hope you realize that I agree with you there.

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

if miracles have never happened, how was the word 'miracle' created.

shaz has really got married...
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Re: What is a "miracle"?

an illusionist manipulates the laws of nature to produce a desired perception. everything an illusionist does can be exactly explained by the laws of nature, therefore, an illusionist does not produce miracles.

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

What kind of an argument is that?

How was the word 'unicorn' created?

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

Hmm...I could spontaneously combust (not that it ever happens), and that would fit the dictionary definition of a "miracle"...

I think there has to be a heavy (positive) emotional component to the miracle experience. One can speak in general terms, for example, the miracle of life...that conditions must be juuuustt right, and loe and behold...they are on Earth.

On the other hand, naturalists would simply point to probability. That, however, brings me back to spontaneous combustion.

Although quantum mechanics predicts that there is in fact a probability that I could spontaenously re-appear on the other side of this universe, I'd say that such an event woud be a miracle if:
i) My life was in danger
ii) I re-appear on an livable world.
iii) And what ya know, the world is full of nice people to look after me.

By the same token, I recall a story of a man who was passing by a building. He heard cries for help, and went to investigate. Just as he turned the corner, he saw a baby falling. Agile and fit, the man rushed just in time to catch the baby.

The man could have decided not to go for his walk. He could have been a split second too late. But all said in done, it was a miracle he showed up just in time, or that's how the incident was described.

I think the point of miracles is more the personal experience, rather than the nature-defying aspects of it.

Yet, this seems to be lost in the line of reasoning being employed here...

So, a counter-question: why focus on the relation of nature to science, rather than the experience of it? Sounds like one is arguing backwards from a conclusion...

Anyhoo,

Miracles admit to a theological view of the world where good things happen by God's grace.

Miracles in the authentic sense of the word refer to events of God acting on behalf of his agents.

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

Base-10, yes. Not always, though.

To extend the analogy, what makes you think we're not working in binary here?

This is not neccessarily a matter of "respecting" beliefs, but of explaining your position. Krash's view taken, why does your point of view differ? That is to say, why such a shallow portrayal of how the religious view miracles? I believe that's what he's trying to get at.

It's a good question...

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

the word 'unicorn' arose from a variation of a type of mythologized horse.

the point is, all human 'innovation' comes from variations/manipulation of what we see in nature. no human being has ever truly created anything on his own. God is the only creator. we are just rearrangers of things that already exist. we do not create, we manipulate.

therefore, for a word such as 'miracle' to arise, some sort of paranatural occurance must have occurred in order for the word to be coined.

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

You got me wrong man, I have nothing against the religeous people. I am just trying to understand miracles.
The main problem as I see it is we do not see the kind of miracles which are mentioned all three of Abrahamic religions, so one starts to think why that kind of miracles stopped happening, or were they even happened on the first place.

Take an example of faith healers, people are living all around the world to testify that they have been healed of uncureable deseases, they think or claim its a miracle, to me its a placebo effect.

what I am trying to get at is there is some kind of explaination for all these things its just we have not found the truth of it yet...

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

Miracle.............I have experienced one

I was in college back home...we used to have tuitions in evenings....But me and my group of friends would hardly attend one and do our own things....anyway one evening my father asked me "how is your tuition going".."Fine" i said...."i havent spoken to any of your teachers in ages" he said "and picked up phone "I ill call them today"...he picked up the phone and called them one by one but none of them were wt home....so he got to the last one. As luck would have it he was home....so my dad got talking to him.. i was sitting right in fromt of him trying to figure out good excuses and thinking whether i should go out of the room and just pull the phone cable out of the wall......"so how is he doing then" my dad asked him...what happened next is nothing less than a miracle"O He is doing fine" my teacher replied...Need less to say my dad eventually found out and it wasnt pretty

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

You can see miracle in my district MAnsehra where a river flows up to a steep place ... the river name in our language is "Sirhan" .. it is very long and it meets with river neelam .... its no that the whole river flows to steep place but there is like half a mile place where you can see the water going through a steep place ..

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Re: What is a "miracle"?

But seriously........... I dont think its very logical to look at miracles sceptically.. Offcourse you will find people who claim ti do or to have seen things that dont make sense but the ones that are in quran there is no reason why we shouldnt believe them.......I am pretty confident that all miracles have sound scientific reasoning behind them....
for example when Hazrat Essa (es) was leading bani israel and pharoah's army was chasing him..... The most likely place where historians have for centuries believed he famously made way through water scientists now believe was the sight of a tsunami and the timescale of both events is pretty similar.....As you know very well tsunami causes water to retreat and in certain cases retreat upto few miles even and then brings it back as a tidal wave of brutal force.....there is reason to believe that that path way in water was created by a tsunami

but then there are people who simply use simplicity of people to convince them of miracles.....for example in parts of early pakistan and india when fountain pens were new many "Peers" were seen to wisper something and then blow on the pen and miraculously it started writing.........similarly with Torches that run with batteries they would keep them in their shirts and turn them on when few "Murshids" are around to show the Noor they possess.