The very word, miracle, is a dangerous one. It’s loaded with connotation of people’s hopes, projected on a blind belief towards a magical wishing god.
There are points where we all want miraculous things to happen, but consider that even Jesus didn’t do miracles for the sake of healing people. Each one came with a lesson, all of which culminated when the world didn’t end when he was gone.
It was up to us at that point.
I think the most telling remark on this subject came during a panel I once introduced on the relevance of Religion to the world today. One of the panelists was the head of the school of medicine at Queen’s University, who was hired by the Vatican to investigate claims about medical miracles (she was an atheist). One summer she got to explore the Vatican archives and read up on all the claimed miracles in history.
Her findings was being able to explain 97% of all claimed miracles through medical means. What about the last 3%? Isn’t that evidence that miracles can happen?
In her words:
“That just tells me that there’s a 3% chance that a miracle can happen in nature.”
I have no doubt that as we continue medical research, that percentage will go down, but it does say something about our collective desire for placing our faith in something other than each other. Why do so many people make pilgrimages to Lourdes to be healed in the waters, carried by many others, but so few are willing to support each other in society?
I think often about Peter Singer’s argument that we would instantly run in and save a child in a pond, ruining a $300 pair of shoes in the process, but hesitate to spend that $300 to save a child overseas.
It’s telling that when we watch people treat each other individually, they carry the traits of what we want to see everywhere. Yet, when it comes to their attitude towards a larger group, that suddenly breaks down. It feels as though the reason people seek these miracles in the first place is because we’ve abandoned them to think this is their only recourse.
A 3% chance for divine medical intervention.
The real miracle we seek should be a collective will to build heaven on earth. It’s not magical—it’s work.
But in that work, we’ll actually see real miracles happen.