Items of Interest December 26, 2011 Issue

Healing – miracle or natural for everyone?

Eric Nelson

“Understanding miracles” blogcritics.org. November 3, 2011.

In the movie Oh, God! the title character, played by George Burns, explains to co-star John Denver that the last miracle he performed was the 1969 Mets—the implication being that God is a kind of celestial superhero whose random interventions result in some amazing things happening here on earth. This is likely how most folks view miracles, and pretty much how they’re defined on Dictionary.com:

“. . . an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.”

But what if all the things we call “miracles” aren’t so “miraculous” after all? What if they’re simply misunderstood phenomena waiting for an explanation? What if what we now think of as impossible and supernatural suddenly became possible and completely natural—for everyone?

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Dominion over change