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Author | Topic: The "science" of Miracles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
RAZD Member (Idle past 1427 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
If God uses science, then he's an alien with a more advanced technology than ours. That's the most plausible kind of god. The minute we can observe it, test it, and understand it, it becomes mundane (muggle) science. Enjoyby our ability to understand Rebel☮American☆Zen☯Deist ... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ... to share. Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)
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RAZD Member (Idle past 1427 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
Mundane science is not necessarily tied to any scientific field of study ... rather it is defined by whether or not the scientific method can be applied:
Mundane science doesn't necessarily take the last step of documenting in a scientific peer reviewed journal ... because the results are mundane, expected, normal. Every time we drop a pen on the desk we are testing whether gravity still applies. The expected results are that it does. Every time we sit in a chair we test that our observation of chairs as safe places to sit is tested. Sometimes that expectation is false and the chair collapses, but the chair can be inspected for causes of failure (load to heavy, stress cracked or decayed structure, it's a folding chair that was improperly opened, etc) -- and that too is mundane science. So we build up a worldview of pens, and chairs, and doors, and roads, etc etc from our experience and compare them to the experience of other people -- an unwritten peer review -- and by this method, we construct a view of reality that is then a fundamental element of our worldview. But this worldview reality is a hypothesis of actual REALITY, it is a filter through which we view things. This has advantages when new experiences fall inside our expectations, going new places and finding pens, and chairs, and doors, and roads, etc etc are similar enough to our experience that they are readily incorporated into our total experience of such observations, because we don't have to spend time on reinventing our understanding of how things work. Problems arise, however, when a new experience, observation or information, is in conflict with our worldview and contradicts our worldview hypothesis of reality. Then we have two choices:
The first choice is our common way of adding to our worldview. Say we come to a door with a latching mechanism we have never seen before and don't immediately know how to operate it. We can find out by testing different actions or by getting shown how it works: thereafter it is easily incorporated into our worldview. The second choice only occurs when we have a strong, emotional, commitment to a core belief that is threatened by the new experience, observation or information, and it is emotionally less tumultuous to maintain the core belief than change it. It should be noted that in the formal practice of science such new experiences, observations or information, contrary to expectations are readily and actively sought, and that denial is not an option. This then gives us a measure of how well our personal worldview reality hypothesis matches actual REALITY by the inverse relationship of the degree of denial one must maintain. A second measure is how well our personal worldview reality hypothesis matches those of other people, with high agreement and consilience showing a positive relationship. Enjoyby our ability to understand Rebel☮American☆Zen☯Deist ... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ... to share. Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)
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Phat Member Posts: 18310 From: Denver,Colorado USA Joined: Member Rating: 1.1 |
So what does google have to say regarding definitions of terms?
Miracle noun a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency. "the miracle of rising from the grave" synonyms: wonder, marvel, sensation, phenomenon, supernatural phenomenon, mystery a highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences. This is why the idea of evidence conflicts with the very definition of a miracle.It should also be noted that miracles are always welcome events. NosyNed writes: RAZD explained it with the critical thinking chart. There is no science regarding miracles. They are by definition unexplainable and/or unverifiable.
What is science then? jar writes: I suppose that it would be a welcome surprise unexplainable via scientific rationale.
First, how would someone identify some event as a miracle? Second, why call something a miracle rather than calling it unexplained? Depends on how dramatic it is and how many lives are affected. Back in the day, manna from Heaven was a miracle. These days it likely would be both unexplained and a miracle, if people actually benefitted from eating the stuff.Chance as a real force is a myth. It has no basis in reality and no place in scientific inquiry. For science and philosophy to continue to advance in knowledge, chance must be demythologized once and for all. —RC Sproul "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." —Mark Twain " ~"If that's not sufficient for you go soak your head."~Faith Paul was probably SO soaked in prayer nobody else has ever equaled him.~Faith
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Phatt writes:
Welcomed by whom? The Flood was clearly, "not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency."
It should also be noted that miracles are always welcome events.
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Tangle Member Posts: 9504 From: UK Joined: Member Rating: 4.8
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Phat writes: This is why the idea of evidence conflicts with the very definition of a miracle. Not really. Without evidence we wouldn't know a miracle had happened would we? :-) If a miracle cures an ill person we would expect at least two pieces of evidence; that the person was ill before the event and not ill after. Ideally, the event would be a woo-style intervention of some sort - the laying on of hands perhaps. But so-called miracles never, ever involve something where a natural explanation is impossible and/or be objectively evaluated - a 'real' miracle. So in the case of miracle cures, an amputated arm never grows back, but back-ache can be easily cured.Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona "Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android "Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved." - Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.
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AlexCaledin Member (Idle past 435 days) Posts: 64 From: Samara, Russia Joined: |
"The caliph then ordered John's right hand be cut off and hung up in public view. Some days afterwards, John asked for the restitution of his hand, and prayed fervently to the Theotokos before her icon: thereupon, his hand is said to have been miraculously restored."
John of Damascus - Wikipedia
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New Cat's Eye Inactive Member |
Phat writes: This is why the idea of evidence conflicts with the very definition of a miracle. Not really. Without evidence we wouldn't know a miracle had happened would we? :-) You could. In the context of evidence and knowledge being scientific, you cannot "know" that a miracle happened. Miracles are inexplicable, if you have evidence and knowledge then it's not a miracle.
If a miracle cures an ill person we would expect at least two pieces of evidence; that the person was ill before the event and not ill after. And if you witnessed the event but did not gather any record of the evidence, then you would be aware of the miracle occurring without having any evidence of it. Then you would know the miracle happened and be without evidence.
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Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1467 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined: |
As has come up on other threads, the ability to study a phenomenon scientifically requires repeatability, and/or evidence that endures after each event. If you don't have that you can't study it, and in all the examples that have been brought up those conditions don't exist, all we have is witness evidence for single events, and since nobody here will accept that, what sense does it make even to talk about a science of miracles?
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jar Member (Idle past 416 days) Posts: 34026 From: Texas!! Joined: |
Faith writes: As has come up on other threads, the ability to study a phenomenon scientifically requires repeatability, and/or evidence that endures after each event. And as has been pointed out, change must leave evidence and the evidence that would support the miracles found in the Bible stories is totally missing. The Sun did NOT stop in the sky. The Conquest of Canaan did not happen. The Exodus is a folk tale. Jonah did not live inside a fish.
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Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1467 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined: |
In the case of phenomena that do not leave evidence and are not replicable you can't just make that fact into evidence against it. Lack of evidence obviously is not evidence that the phenomenon did not occur at all.
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jar Member (Idle past 416 days) Posts: 34026 From: Texas!! Joined: |
Faith writes: In the case of phenomena that do not leave evidence and are not replicable you can't just make that fact into evidence against it. But for all the BIG miracles in the Bible stories there MUST be evidence and for the little miracles where evidence is not possible the reasonable action is to question their actuality. Simply accepting that they happened and were miracles is silly.
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Tangle Member Posts: 9504 From: UK Joined: Member Rating: 4.8 |
NCE writes: You could. In the context of evidence and knowledge being scientific, you cannot "know" that a miracle happened. Miracles are inexplicable, if you have evidence and knowledge then it's not a miracle. If someone waved a wand and said 'hocus pocus, grow a second penis' and you instantly grew a second penis, you'd be pretty convinced that something miraculous had happened. ie the evidence and knowledge of the miracle is that something inexplicable has happened in the natural world that we can observe. If nothing observable or detectable happened, then we couldn't say a miracle had happened.
And if you witnessed the event but did not gather any record of the evidence, then you would be aware of the miracle occurring without having any evidence of it. Then you would know the miracle happened and be without evidence. Yup. And?Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona "Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android "Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved." - Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.
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NoNukes Inactive Member |
As has come up on other threads, the ability to study a phenomenon scientifically requires repeatability, and/or evidence that endures after each event. Nicely summarized. And a major concession from your previous insistence that repeatability was required. Thanks for your honesty. Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846) I was thinking as long as I have my hands up they’re not going to shoot me. This is what I’m thinking they’re not going to shoot me. Wow, was I wrong. -- Charles Kinsey We got a thousand points of light for the homeless man. We've got a kinder, gentler, machine gun hand. Neil Young, Rockin' in the Free World. Worrying about the "browning of America" is not racism. -- Faith I hate you all, you hate me -- Faith
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Taq Member Posts: 10045 Joined: Member Rating: 5.3 |
Faith writes: In the case of phenomena that do not leave evidence and are not replicable you can't just make that fact into evidence against it. Lack of evidence obviously is not evidence that the phenomenon did not occur at all. If there is no evidence for miracles, then why believe a miracle happened at all?
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Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1467 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined: |
Because of the tons of witness evidence. That's the point. You don't have the scientific kind of evidence you all insist on, but you have lots of witness evidence that you deny out of sheer prejudice.
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