Editor's Note: The painting featured above is "The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes" by Lambert Lombard, 16th Century.
Eighty-four percent of Americans say they believe in so-called "miracles," defined as "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 many scientists reject the possibility of such things because, by their very definition, they require a violation of the known laws of nature.
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In the 19th Century, David Hume addressed miracles and their contention with both reason and science. He argued that miracles are scientifically impossible and superstitious delusions. We only believe something is a miracle because we haven't witnessed it occurring naturally, and this is not sound thinking.
As Hume states:
"...(T)here is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men of such unquestioned good sense, education, and learning as to serve us against all delusion in themselves; of such undaunted integrity as to place themselves beyond all suspicion of any design to deceive others; of such credit and reputation in the eyes of mankind as to have a great deal to lose in case of their being detected in any falsehood, and at the same time attesting facts performed in such a public manner and in so celebrated a part of the world as to render the detection unavoidable..."
In a more modern example, Dr. Steven Dutch, a professor of Natural and Applied Sciences at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay wrote a piece in 2001 titled, "Why Science Can't Accept Miracles (Even If They Really Exist)." He argues that scientists work on evidence according to observable laws and therefore cannot allow for the possibility of miracles. "Science rejects miracles for exactly the same reasons that accountants do when conducting audits, the police do when conducting forensics, and mechanics do when trouble-shooting cars," writes Dr. Dutch.
He goes on to say that a strong belief in miracles can just be a lazy way of explaining away facts or avoiding the hard work of investigation. Here Dr. Dutch makes a salient point, for many Christians often ascribe events to God what may or may not actually derive from God. "That's totally a God thing," you may hear a fellow Christian say after he or she has merely analyzed the circumstances.
But do these scientists' assertions prove that the reality of miracles--a fundamental belief held by Christians--is nonsense? Is the wall of separation between scientists and the religious on this issue too high to climb?
[For more on the faith and science divide check out Q's The Spirituality of Science small group study.]
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SOURCE: Q Ideas
