Introduction

A miracle is a sensibly perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker. Many folktales, religious texts, and people claim various events they refer to as “miraculous”. People in different cultures have substantially different definitions of the word “miracle.” Sometimes the term “miracle” may refer to the action of a supernatural being that is not a god. Thus, the term “divine intervention,” by contrast, would refer specifically to the direct involvement of a deity. In casual usage, “miracle” may also refer to any statistically unlikely but beneficial event, (such as the survival of a natural disaster) or even which regarded as “wonderful” regardless of its likelihood, such as birth. Other miracles might be: survival of a fatal illness, escaping a life threatening situation or ‘beating the odds.’

Supernatural Acts-

A miracle is a violation of normal laws of nature by some supernatural entity. The logic behind an event being deemed a miracle varies significantly. Often the Hindu religious text, (and also the Bible or Quran,) states that a miracle occurred, and believers accept this as a fact. Many conservative religious believers hold that in the absence of a plausible, parsimonious scientific theory, the best explanation for these events is that they were performed by a supernatural being, and cite this as evidence for the existence of a god or gods.

Views about Miracles-

Aristotle rejected the idea that God could or would intervene in the order of the natural world. In his Theologico-Political Treatise Baruch Spinoza claims that miracles are merely law-like events whose causes we are ignorant of. We should not treat them as having no cause or of having a cause immediately available. According to the philosopher David Hume, a miracle is “a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent.” Many philosophers, state  that “The claim that God has worked a miracle implies that God has singled out certain persons for some benefit which many others do not receive implies that God is unfair.” If God intervenes to save your life in a car crash, then what was He doing during earthquakes and volcano eruption?. Thus an all-powerful, all-knowing and just God, would not perform miracles.

Imagination-

Miracles do not really occur. Rather, they are the product of creative story tellers. They use them to embellish a hero or incident with a theological flavor. Using miracles in a story allows characters and situations to become bigger than life, and to stir the emotions of the listener more than the mundane and ordinary. The Hindu milk miracle was a phenomenon considered by many Hindus as a miracle which occurred on September 21, 1995. All religions report numerous and equally credible miracles. Each religion establishes itself as solidly as the next, thereby overthrowing and destroying its rivals. Furthermore, the more ancient and barbarous a people is, the greater the tendency for miracles and prodigies of all kinds to flourish.

Hallucination-

A collective hallucination is a sensory hallucination induced by the power of suggestion to a group of people. It generally occurs in heightened emotional situations, especially among the religiously devoted. The expectancy and hope of bearing witness to a miracle, combined with long hours of staring at an object or place, makes certain religious persons susceptible to seeing such things as weeping statues, moving icons and holy portraits, or the figures of God in the clouds.

There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, ascribe malice or good- will to every thing, that hurts or pleases us. This is generally  known as Pareidolia. It is a type of illusion or misperception involving a vague or obscure stimulus being perceived as something clear an distinct.  A little bit of critical thinking, however, should convince most reasonable people that a potato that looks like the Hindu god Ganesh, a cinnamon bun that looks like mother Teresa, or a burnt area on a tortilla that looks like Jesus are accidents and without significance.

Human Nature-

No matter how scientific or rational a civilization became, belief in miracles would never be eradicated. Human nature is such that we love the marvelous and the wondrous. Human nature is also such that we love even more to be the bearer of a story of the marvelous and the wondrous. The more wondrous our story, the more merit both we and it attain. Vanity, delusion and zealotry have led to more than one pious fraud supporting a holy and meritorious cause with gross embellishments and outright lies about witnessing miraculous events.

While there are still many people today who believe in miracles, no modern historian fills his or her books with accounts of miraculous events. It is improbable that the report of even a single miracle would find its way into such texts today. Indeed, only those who cater to the superstitious and credulous, such as a few newspapers and a good portion of the rest of the mass media, would even think of reporting an alleged miracle without taking a very skeptical attitude towards it. The modern scholar dismisses all such reports as either lies or cases of collective hallucination.

However, one cannot believe a miracle occurred if one had already drawn a conclusion in one’s mind that miracles are not possible at all. For example, if a woman, who do not believe in ghosts, will claim   it to be some sort of hallucination if someone tells her they have seen the ghosts. when a miracle is reported the probability will always be greater that the person doing the reporting is mistaken, deluded, or a fraud than that the miracle really occurred. To believe in a miracle, is not an act of reason but of faith.