Many people by nature are skeptics, while others tend to be naturally accepting. I myself am a balance, skeptical of much and constantly in a state of questioning but not naive enough to close my mind to really anything. However, there is one area of life and of Christianity that trips me up more than any other: miracles. This area is the hardest for me to wrap my mind around, but then again perhaps that's as it should be, for they are of the divine, and who can understand that?
For much of my life I didn't believe in miracles, or at least, I didn't believe that they happened today. I will not share here whether or not I have yet witnessed a miraculous happening, because I do not want to write to convince or for my word to be the basis of anyone's belief, but I would like to share the mindset at which I currently find myself in and provide a bit of explanation of why it is such.
To get to the point: I am ever open-minded, yet always a skeptic.
A strict materialist would not allow the possibility of miracles at all, and I cannot place myself in this category for various reasons, mainly because this seems to be too close-minded. I cannot claim for the natural world to be all that is possible of existing, simply because I cannot make such a claim on my own knowledge, for there is so much that I do not know and will never know. I will never, no matter how long I live, know it all. Another large reason why I cannot limit my understanding to the natural world is because as a Christian I whole-heartedly believe in the one miracle of the world that has never been disproven: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Perhaps I will explain my reason for belief in a future post, but there is not time for that here. Let it suffice to be said, though, that if Jesus can overturn death itself, then what happening can He not bring into causation?
An extreme fundamentalist would believe in any an all spiritual claims, or perhaps an extremist would claim every good happening as a miracle, even events that, though they are not bad, are not actually miraculous, either, or at least they are not miraculous in the biblical sense. A baby being born, for example, can indeed be because of a miracle, but at the same time it can also happen because of completely natural, explainable reasons.
When it comes to Christianity, it is important for the sake of good theology, for the Church, and for the love of Christ that miracles be thought of properly, or at least biblically.
I am not an extremist, nor am I a complete skeptic. I am in the middle. I do find miracles to be important, and especially to the person who claims Christianity, I believe a mindset of acceptance in some way must exist. Just as Shakespeare said that the earth has music for those that listen, I believe that God has miracles for those that look.
Perhaps the most important reason why I find miracles to be important is this: they were important to Jesus, so in some sense, they should be important to me, too.
In his book, The Language of God, Francis Collins defines a miracle as, 'an event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin'. I appreciate this definition because it is biblical. In the Scriptures, not every happening was considered miraculous, but rather the ones that are truly supernatural are thought to be so: a blind man healed, a child raised from the dead, food multiplied, an ascension into Heaven; now those are miraculous happenings.
To understand this idea of miracles, one must have the mindset that supernatural events are possible, and this is not easy for many to arrive at. However, a mathematical example may help to form such a philosophical mindset.
Consider a mathematical equation called 'Bayes's Theorem', in which one can calculate the probability of observing a particular event when initial as well as additional information is given.
You are a child, sat down in a chair and presented a hand of cards and told to draw a card two separate times. If both times you draw the ace of spades, then you will receive a cookie. You draw first at random, and to your amazement, you draw an ace. Surely your second hand will not be so lucky, but alas! When you draw a card and look, an ace is what you see. It's a miracle!
The chances of you drawing an ace both times, according to Baye's Theorem, is 1/2704, an occurrence most unlikely. However, you conclude that chance is chance and you were merely lucky, or perhaps a miracle occurred.
Unbeknownst to you, the person who presented to you the deck intentionally manufactured the cards to be all aces, so what was a miracle to you was quite explainable to the outer source, making your situation more than a lucky chance but rather an intentional intervention, one in which you will never have any knowledge of, thus one in which you will never be able to explain.
Now, I am not attempting to explain how miracles happen or why. In presenting this example, all I am making a point of is this: the Christ-follower must acknowledge that not every fact is known to him or her. I do not know every explanation behind every happening. You do not know every explanation behind every happening. No one person knows every bit of knowledge on earth, and no matter how long one lives, there will forever be facts unknown to the human mind. With this accepted stance, then one is able to at least concede the possibility of a knowledgable and even good being interacting with the universe.
Really, what is the harm in such an open mindset, especially if wisdom is brought into play?
Especially if one can admit that one does not know every bit of knowledge, then I do not find it impossible to also admit that an instigator of miracles can exist.
I am skeptical of much, and so the idea of miracles is not an easy one for me to accept. However, it is definitely not impossible. Open-mindedness must exist, and so now all of the believers in miracles are cheering. However, I have a word for this group as well: skepticism must also exist.
Whether or not it is easy for you to accept the idea of miracles, it is crucial that a skeptical mindset be adapted as well. Just as it is fair for the skeptic to be asked to be a bit more open-minded, so is it fair for the one who easily believes to be asked to be a bit skeptical, and there are various reasons for this:
Firstly, miracles have been often misinterpreted and overly claimed. When every happening in life is declared a miracle, then beauty is taken away from simple, natural happenings. To claim that a flower blooming is miraculous is treading upon plant biology. Proclaiming that winning the lottery is an answer to prayer is distorting the biblical view of God, as it shows Him to be a genie. Let's call miracles such when they actually are. Otherwise, let's not make false claims, for these are bad for the faith.
Secondly, discernment must always, always come into play with life but especially in the realm of spirituality and miracles, because as a professor of mine once said, 'a lot of things claim to be from God, and they aren't. In fact, sometimes they can be quite the opposite'. Miracles from God are good. Any other spiritual happening may indeed be from hell itself.
Thirdly, extraordinary claims imply that they are exactly that: extraordinary. Whenever we make everything out to be a miracle, then life becomes rather fuzzy, because if everything is a miracle, then all of sudden nothing is. A miracle is such because it stands out from the ordinary. The extraordinary characteristics of a miracle are what make it miraculous in the first place, so to truly recognize one, we need to use discernment and not make false claims about quite ordinary and explainable happenings. Otherwise, we will miss what is truly going on in our world and what God is truly doing to intervene.
Lastly, miracles in the Bible are shown to always have purpose, and I think this is true of miracles today. If God is truly good, then He is not a trickster. God isn't the Great Magician, but rather He is the Great Physician. He heals, He brings good, and He brings life. Miracles exist to bring a revelation of God that otherwise would not have been known or attained. To be credible, miracles must be good and purposeful, edifying to the Church and by and for love. These sorts of miracles are the only ones that come from the good God of Christianity.
As I mentioned previously, the greatest miracle of all is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and if one takes this event away from the story of Christianity, then one removes the very foundation of the faith. A Christ-follower must be open to miracles, true miracles, in at least this sense, because to do otherwise would be to refuse the divinity of Jesus and the God of Christianity.
Many find miracles challenging to accept simply because they cannot be explained away, but quite honestly, as cliche as it sounds, there is much that cannot be explained by a mere formula: love, joy, beauty, and much else regarding the Christian faith. If one can accept the idea of a Moral Law (discussed in this post), the idea of a universal longing that this world cannot satisfy, and the idea of a loving God, then one can accept the idea of divine intervention in a messy and broken world, and besides, though science can explain much-or even most-there is one area of life in which it falls short: the philosophical event of human existence and the reason behind it. Because of this, science and faith can be reconciled. They can coexist. We need not live in fear of either one, but instead we should use discernment to live out a harmonious combination of the two.
