NationStates Jolt Archive

I was just wondering wether people (Both religious and non-religious) believe in miracles.

I personally don't believe in them...

mir·a·cle ( P ) Pronunciation Key (mr-kl)
n.
1) An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God: “Miracles are spontaneous, they cannot be summoned, but come of themselves” (Katherine Anne Porter).
2) One that excites admiring awe. See Synonyms at wonder.
3) A miracle play. Based on the second definition, I'd say yes I do believe in miracles; Black Holes, heroic or incredible feats, the birth and deaths of stars, life's tenacity etc

Please define "religious". Does that include people who do not belong to any organized religion, but who are spiritual?

I was just wondering wether people (Both religious and non-religious) believe in miracles.

I personally don't believe in them...

Also, please define "miracle".

Please define "religious". Does that include people who do not belong to any organized religion, but who are spiritual?

Yes

My daughter fell down the basement stairs when she was 14 mos old. A full flight of wooden stairs and a concrete floor at the bottom. She went end over end and hit every step on the way down. She didnt have a scratch anywhere.
That was a miracle. I was certain she would have a broken neck or a brain damage. She is fine.

Also, please define "miracle".
I would define it as something that cannot be expalined by current knowledge. E.g. People laying on hands etc. But then again acupuncture works and science can't adequatley exaplain that.

Also, please define "miracle".

Ok

A breach of the natural Law, brought about by the 'Volition of the deity, or by the interposition of soem invisible agent'

Happy?

Originally Posted by David Hume
A breach of the natural Law, brought about by the 'Volition of the deity, or by the interposition of soem invisible agent'

Happy?

Really???? David Hume posted that? Wow! Now that is a miracle! :D

I've put down Yes, but Not religious.
My own definition of a miracle does not involve a diety, it's just something GOOD that happens against an overwhelming probability.

Really???? David Hume posted that? Wow! Now that is a miracle! :D

Well no, but that is a quote from him

lOL

According to the Law of Large Numbers (apparently not the actual Law of Large Numbers) a one in a million event happens 295 times a day. So the chances of what someone would consider a miracle is actually pretty decent.

Article (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=13&articleID=00094511-E068-10FA-89FB83414B7F0000)

According to the Law of Large Numbers (apparently not the actual Law of Large Numbers) a one in a million event happens 295 times a day. So the chances of what someone would consider a miracle is actually pretty decent.

Article (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=13&articleID=00094511-E068-10FA-89FB83414B7F0000)
Terry Pratchett once wrote something on the lines of - 50/50 chances happen one out of two times, but one in a million chances happen nine times out of ten.
Can't remember what book it was from, but then the protagonist then blindfolded himself and stood on one foot to make a very difficult shot a one in a million shot and hence give himself a nine in ten chance of getting it.

It was "Guards Guards."

too many medical miracles have happened to me in my time for me not to believe in them. I mean how does a tumor just dissapear overnight???

Terry Pratchett once wrote something on the lines of - 50/50 chances happen one out of two times, but one in a million chances happen nine times out of ten.
Can't remember what book it was from, but then the protagonist then blindfolded himself and stood on one foot to make a very difficult shot a one in a million shot and hence give himself a nine in ten chance of getting it.

I get what Pratchett is talking about, though. Sometimes there are so many possible outcomes that any particular outcome could have very small probability of occurring.

For example, I could say right now that the next car I see would be a blue Ford Taurus. If the next car I see is actually a blue Ford Taurus, I would note it as quite a coincidence, even though the odds of seeing a blue taurus are no worse than seeing any other make of car.

I was just wondering wether people (Both religious and non-religious) believe in miracles.

I personally don't believe in them...


I used to be that way.

I've not only seen miracles, I've seen signs. Rather obvious ones.

I've seen prayer answered as well - not only for others, but for me as well.

So I'm religious now, even though I am a self-avowed skeptic.

I believe in miracles in the same way that I believe in really bad accidents. They seem to me to be two sides of a coin. I don't think people like the idea that the universe is one big, dangerous, random place, so they have religious beliefs to cushion that reality (*cough* says me with my belief in reincarnation and universal consciousness). Miracles to me are just those random events that you can't explain logically, and wish would happen more often. I think we have to distinguish them from the events that are entirely dependent on an individual's own fortitude - we humans are far more resilient and courageous than most of us ever have the opportunity to realise. Credit where credit is due!

Considering that a miracle is defined as a breech of natural law, miracles would be impossible by definition.

Even if you assume the intervention of a diety, all that means is that the applicable natural laws have not yet been adequately explained.

I used to be that way.

I've not only seen miracles, I've seen signs. Rather obvious ones.

I've seen prayer answered as well - not only for others, but for me as well.

So I'm religious now, even though I am a self-avowed skeptic.

Thats what exactly what happened to me! I have an ability to see the future in my dreams, (I think its called "Awakened").When my father was going on a buisness trip, i told him about my dream that i saw a criminal at the airport, stealing everyone's personal belongings. He was very late, but when he got their, he saw the criminal! If i didn't tell my dream, then he would have lost evrrything...

Based on the definition, a miracle is an occurance that is unexplainable by reason or science.

I think miracles have happened in the past, but I think God no longer wastes his time, feeling it's best to leave humanity to its own course.

That...and pricks like Benny Hin do his job for him... :headbang:

Im not exactly what you call religious, I dont go to church, but I am a Catholic and follow what Jesus taught us and I believe in god.

When I was in my teens and hadn't learned how to handle my depression (I suffer from clinical depression), I tried to kill myself twice. On two separate occasions, I picked up different pistols I owned, put them to my head and pulled the trigger. Both guns, in excellent working order, fully loaded and firing perfectly at any other time...jammed. The chances of that are astronomical. I should be dead.

So, yes, I absolutely believe in miracles.

I believe in the possibility of the miraculous, depending on my own personal understanding of miraculous. Obviously everybody is going to have a different understanding of what a miracle is to them, rather than just reading it out of a dictionary and saying "Well, that sums up what the world must think".

However, the very first reply, by Falhaar, was extremely helpful in kind of better defining a generalized idea.

too many medical miracles have happened to me in my time for me not to believe in them. I mean how does a tumor just dissapear overnight???

Usually surgery. Occasionally it was just misdiagnosed in the first place. Maybe. Medicine isn't really my thing.

Yep... cuz a few happened to me...