Starting Points - part 3 Miracles

Are miracles for real? It all depends on your starting point. Last week a study by a University of Florida professor states that Jesus walked on ice, not water. His research has not been favorably received by all. I read somewhere that he receives hate email on average every three minutes. Some people of faith applaud studies like this because they say it shows the realistic possibilities of the miracles in the Bible. Others say that such work takes faith out of the equation; you just need to believe. If you could prove it scientifically then it has no faith value.

A former professor of mine explained miracles in this manner one morning. He was referring to the Ten Plagues the Egyptians suffered when Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go. There have been numerous natural explanations of how that whole sequence of events could have, and probably did, happen. He said there is a difference between a natural event and a miracle. If suddenly, the ground split open and lava and ashes spewed out, covering a set of administrative buildings for some organization, it would be called a natural disaster. However, if the week before, someone publicly stated that these buildings would be destroyed the following week if the administration of that organization did not change some aspect of their behavior, it would be a miracle. That may not be helpful in looking at events from 4000 years ago because we cannot say positively the order of those events. Which came first, the natural disaster or the public condemnation?

Advances in medical science make it hard to believe in miracles. I know of several incidents from Peru that I would constitute as miracles. These involve people with whom I have close personal connections. Some could argue misdiagnosis or equipment failure. The medical personnel involved argue otherwise. What about calling down judgement on some organization? With today's technology, we can come close to predicting such volcanic events like the one above. Remember the Mount St. Helens Watch last year?

I was asked one time to prove to someone that God existed. She said she really wanted to believe in God, but just couldn't. She was brought up in a home where God was vehemently denied. Her starting point of assumptions just would not let her believe, no matter how hard she said she wanted to. We could never get past the starting point. If you want proof of a supernatural being who can do unexplainable things (which she did), at some point you have to accept the inability to explain some of those things. Otherwise you set up a self-contradicting proposition that is impossible to resolve.

So, back to miracles. Are they real or aren't they? What are the starting points that allow us to believe they are? Are they miracles only if we believe them to be or does our belief even matter?