Would you recognise a miracle if you saw it?

Question

Just been to see Richard Schiff in a play called "Underneath The Lintel", and this was the central question of it. I'm not talking about the "miracles" of everyday - births, plants, the thumb etc. As an atheist, I'm repeating the question to all and sundry - if you saw something you couldn't explain, something phenomenal - where would your line of belief be? David Copperfield? David Blaine? How incredible would a miracle have to be for you to believe it wasn't a trick?

Yeah, kinda, Zero - where's the line between searching for credible, logical explanations and "acceptance" of something being "miraculous"?

Answer 1

A man from 200 years ago would think that television is a magical way of trapping people in a glass box.

Any sufficiently amazing thing is just out of reach of current understanding - nothing more.

Answer 2

For an Atheist EVIDENCE of a full and thorough,verifiable nature will be required. If legitimate `Science` accepted it, it would by definition be natural and therefore observable. This has NEVER yet happened. Logic and true Science destroys poor science (superstition) showing us that the Moon is not cheese, Frogs are NOT a plague, that the Burning Bush, Aaron's Rod, and other miracles can be simply duplicated by anyone with a smidgen of knowledge, and Lourdes records miracles at the same rate as Hospitals record natural regression. Miracles are simply natural events caught up in the desire for a benign Creator, who dispenses magic tricks, but refuses to do the London Palladium.

Answer 3

i already have a frame of mind that so called magicians have perfected the art of illusion so it'd be foolish to call what they do "miracles".

if my frame of mind starts out with deciding what magicians do as "being a trick". then no matter what they did i wouldnt believe it was anything other than a trick. even if i didnt understand how they did it.

on the other hand, if i was willing to accept that it might not be a trick if it was "phenomenal enough". then i'd just be accepting what could just be a phenomenal illusion as "the real thing".
.

Answer 4

Well, to my mind Derren Brown does things that would be considered miracles. The difference is, he claims to be a fake and a trickster, not the messiah,, a magician, a medium, or a spiritualist and then gives an explanation of how he does his "miracles".

The "miracle" of childbirth is as miraculous as defecation.

Answer 5

That's a really good question. If I were in an organized religion I would probably wait for the heads of it to announce that it is a miracle and then I'd be allowed to believe it. Me personally, I think my instinct would be to think that there was a rational explaination somehwere...but with room for me to be wrong. That's my honest answer.

Answer 6

Well I'm supposed to be one I nearly died 2 years ago only for a young doctor getting me checked for something that usually is only found after a person has died, also when I was 5 I got some sort of leaches stuck to me on a beach in one of the rock pools and only for a doctor running with me and putting me in the sea I would have died, I love my life and God I'm so lucky life is great. I'm here

Answer 7

Yes! England winning the football World Cup! That would be a miracle!!

Answer 8

My footy team getting past the 5th round of the FA Cup. THAT would be a miracle.

Answer 9

I see tiny miracles all the time!

(listen to the song 'Ordinary Miracle' by Sarah McLachlan.)

Answer 10

That is a Hard Question to Answer.
GOD can work in Mysterious Ways.
You have to do Alot of Study (Bible) and Know Alot about the Word of GOD (Truth).

Fakes? I would have to Talk to the Guy,Girl who did it for a While, whats in you Heart in Abundance, will come outta your Mouth.
Ditto...............