- Key People:
- Jesus
- David Hume
- Related Topics:
- religion
miracle
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What is a miracle?
A miracle is an extraordinary event that inspires wonder and astonishment, defying normal standards. It is often viewed as a sign pointing to a divine power or religious reality, rather than just an inexplicable occurrence.
Belief in miracles is nearly universal across religions, though their explanations vary with cultural contexts. All miracles are explained by the religious and cultural systems that support them, such as the presence and intervention of gods or spirits.
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How do people usually describe miracles?
Miracles are generally defined as extraordinary events that inspire wonder and astonishment, often seen as amazing or inexplicable by normal standards. While sometimes labeled as supernatural, this assumes a specific view of nature and its laws.
The significance of a miracle often lies not in the event itself, but in the reality it signifies, such as the presence or activity of a divine power. Miracles can serve as credentials for religious authority, demonstrate a god's power, or prove the sanctity of a person or object. They are often reported alongside accounts of divine manifestations, cures, and even births. Ultimately, miracles express, reveal, or signify a religious reality.
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What are some examples of miracles from different cultures or religions?
Miracles are extraordinary events that inspire wonder and are often attributed to divine intervention or supernatural powers. Belief in miracles is present across many religions, though their nature and purpose can vary based on cultural context.
In Christianity, the Gospels describe Jesus performing miracles like healing the sick and raising the dead. Islam acknowledges Allah's miracles through prophets like Moses and Jesus, with the QurÊŸÄn itself considered Muhammad's greatest miracle. Meanwhile, the Hebrew Bible recounts God's wonders, such as the Exodus events. Indian traditions emphasize the mystical powers attained through ascetic practices, with Buddhism acknowledging the miracle of instruction as superior to magic.
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Why do people believe miracles happen?
Belief in miracles is nearly universal across religions, with their perceived functions and explanations varying based on cultural, social, theological, and philosophical contexts. Miracles are often seen as signs of a divine power, expressing or revealing a religious reality.
The reasons for believing in miracles are diverse. Some view miracles as authentication of religious authority, demonstration of a god's power, or proof of a religion's truth. Others believe miracles fulfill psychological needs or describe a subjective mode of experience. The significance lies less in the event itself and more in what it signifies, such as the presence or activity of a divine power.
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How do scientists and skeptics explain events called miracles?
Miracles evoke diverse explanations from scientists and skeptics. Skeptics might attribute seemingly miraculous events to natural phenomena yet unexplained, psychological factors, or misinterpretations of events. Some people may want to believe in miracles and create imaginative explanations that answer their psychological needs.
Scientists explore psychological and physiological factors behind reported improvements or cures, such as the placebo effect. The placebo effect is a psychological or psychophysiological improvement attributed to therapy with an inert substance or a simulated procedure. Confirmation bias may also play a role, where individuals give more weight to information that supports their beliefs, overlooking evidence that refutes them.
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How have miracles influenced stories, art, or traditions around the world?
Miracles, defined as extraordinary events causing wonder, vary across cultures, influencing stories, art, and traditions. They are perceived as divine interventions with the purpose of revealing a divine reality, demonstrating power, or authenticating religious authority.
Miracles appear in cultural practices like magic, shamanism, and divination, and are central to the founding of many religions. They are often associated with holy figures, relics, and sacred objects, inspiring faith and devotion. Stories of miracles serve to reveal a divine reality, reinforce religious beliefs, and highlight the power and presence of the divine in human life.
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News •
miracle, extraordinary and astonishing happening that is attributed to the presence and action of an ultimate or divine power.
Nature and significance
A miracle is generally defined, according to the etymology of the wordâit comes from the Greek thaumasion and the Latin miraculumâas that which causes wonder and astonishment, being extraordinary in itself and amazing or inexplicable by normal standards. Because that which is normal and usual is also considered as natural, miracles have occasionally been defined as supernatural events, but this definition presupposes a very specific conception of nature and natural laws and cannot, therefore, be generally applied. The significance of a miraculous event is frequently held to reside not in the event as such but in the reality to which it points (e.g., the presence or activity of a divine power); thus, a miracle is also called a signâfrom the Greek sÄmeion (biblical Hebrew ot)âsignifying and indicating something beyond itself. Extraordinary and astonishing occurrences become specifically religious phenomena when they express, reveal, or signify a religious reality, however defined.
Belief in miraculous happenings is a feature of practically all religions, and the incidence of miracles (i.e., of belief in and reports regarding miracles) is universal, though their functions, nature, purpose, and explanations vary with the social and culturalâincluding theological and philosophicalâcontext in which they appear. However inexplicable, all miracles have an explanation in the sense that they are accounted for in terms of the religious and cultural system that supports them and that, in turn, they are meant to support. Without such an accompanyingâexplicit or implicitâtheory (e.g., the presence, activity, and intervention of such realities as gods, spirits, or magical powers), there would be no miracles in the aforementioned sense but only unexplained phenomena.
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Types and functions of miracles
There is no general rule determining the types of occurrences that can be classified as miracles; they vary according to the cultural matrix of beliefs and assumptions. The mythological accounts of the origins of the gods and their activities in the primeval past, as well as accounts of the activities of other primeval beings, such as first ancestors and culture heroes, should, perhaps, not be classed as miracles, and the term is better reserved for outer, objective eventsâas distinct from such phenomena as inner experiences and visionsâthat can be regarded as divine interventions or as manifestations of divine or supernatural powers. In many cultures, nonliterate ones as well as some that were more highly developed, such as the ancient classical civilizations, the operation of extraordinary forces was taken for granted and was integrated into the total world picture and into the procedures and the modes of actionâe.g., magic, oracles, divination, and shamanismâof ordinary life. There were certain kinds of divine or spirit action and of cosmic operation that were considered to be a part of the normal order of things, even though it was generally admitted that priests and shamans would frequently resort to deception in their diverse activities, which included such manifestations as prophecy, oracles, healing, magic, and judgment by ordeal.
Revelation and signification
The purpose of a miracle may be in the direct and immediate result of the eventâe.g., deliverance from imminent danger (thus, the passage of the children of Israel through the Red Sea in the Hebrew Bible [Old Testament] book of Exodus), cure of illness, or provision of plenty to the needy. Nevertheless, the ultimate purpose frequently is the demonstration of the power of the god or of the saint, the âman of Godâ through whom the god works, to whom the miracle is attributed. Thus, the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites is described not solely in terms of salvation from great danger but as a revelation of the saving presence of God and of the consequent obligation to serve and obey him; according to the account in Exodus, âand Israel saw the great work which the Lord did against the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord; and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.â The purpose of a miraculous occurrence is thus often to reveal a divine reality or numinous dimension. The occurrence may be an event concerned with natural needs or situations, such as illness, hunger, or distress, or a specifically religious event that effects some form of salvation or revelation, such as the theophany on Mount Sinai in which God gave to Moses the Ten Commandments, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, or the revelation of the QurÊŸÄn to the Prophet Muhammad. Even in these specifically religious events, the miraculous element is not necessarily of the essence but occurs as merely an accompanying circumstance designed to arrest the attention and to impress on everyone the unique character and significance of the occasion. Thus, theoretically at least, the theophany at Mount Sinai could have taken place without thunder and lightning; Jesus need not have been born of a virgin; Muhammad need not have made his miraculous journey to heaven. In actual fact, however, the very nature and quality of a religious event attracts miraculous elements, elaborations, and embellishments, and, thus, for example, the founders of almost all religions are at the centre of great miracle cycles, and miracles occur as a rule in connection with persons and objects of religious significance, such as saints, sacraments, relics, holy images, and the like.
Authentication
In practice, it is difficult to distinguish the revelatory or signifying miracles from miracles of authenticationâi.e., miraculous happenings that serve (1) as credentials for claimants to religious authority in the form of leadership (e.g., in Exodus 4, in which Moses convinces the Israelites of the authenticity of his mission by miraculous performances) or prophecy (e.g., in Deuteronomy 18, where it is written that a prophet is disqualified if the sign that he has predicted does not come to pass), (2) as the demonstration of the superior power of a particular god (e.g., in Exodus 7, which recounts Aaronâs staff swallowing up the staffs of the Egyptian magicians, thus demonstrating the superiority of the God of the Israelites), (3) as proof of the sanctity of a holy person, a holy site, or a holy object, or (4) more generally as evidence of the truth of a particular religion.