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[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin mīrāculum, from mīrārī, to wonder at, from mīrus, wonderful.]
noun
Nickname of Haydn's Symphony no. 96 in D (1791), so called because it was said (incorrectly) that at its first performance the audience miraculously escaped being injured by a falling chandelier (the incident actually occurred in 1795 after a performance of his Symphony no.102).
For more information on miracle, visit Britannica.com.
(Latin, miror, I wonder at). Augustine propounds a subjective definition of a miracle: it is ‘whatever is hard or appears unusual beyond the expectation or comprehension of the observer’. It is only our habits of mind, therefore, that prevent us from seeing the entire cosmos as the miracle that it is, and that it would appear to be to someone who could see for the first time. In the medieval period the idea arises that a miracle is something special, ‘contra consuetum cursum naturae’ (contrary to the usual course of nature). The rise of the concept of hard, mechanical laws of nature in the 17th century set the stage for the definitive account of Hume in his famous essay ‘On Miracles’ (1750): ‘A miracle may be accurately defined, a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent.’ Hume argues that it can never be reasonable to believe in such an event on the evidence of human testimony, at least when that testimony is being used in support of a system of religion. For a miracle needs to be quite outside the normal run of things, whereas human ‘knavery and folly’, the kind of thing that leads to false or misunderstood reportage, is a recognized and regular natural occurrence. So the chance of any report being due to knavery or folly is always greater than the chance of it being due to an event that is quite outside the normal run of things. Hence, they provide the better explanation of the testimony. Hume was aware that a consilience of independent and otherwise creditable testimonies might reasonably lead to people supposing that something they would have regarded as miraculous has actually happened, but he thought the condition was never met in religious contexts, where enthusiasm, piety, and other emotions clouded judgement.
The display of a wide range of miracles is described throughout Buddhist scriptures. The ability to perform such miracles is said to derive from the attainment of supernatural knowledge (abhijñā) and psychic powers (ṛddhi) as a culmination of lengthy practice of meditation (samādhi). In the earliest Buddhist sources, the display of one's miraculous abilities is discouraged or even forbidden by the Buddha. Later textual sources, however, especially those emanating from Mahāyāna circles, take a different view and regularly commend such miracles, particularly when said to be performed by the Buddha, as an appropriate means of demonstrating his unlimited powers and bringing beings to salvation. Many accounts of miracles are also mentioned in connection with the lives of the tantric adepts (siddhas). See also Pāṭihāriya; ṛddhi.
Miracles, in the biblical sense are signs and wonders, the extraordinary events that inspire awe and open the world of the divine. By the Middle Ages the differentiation between the natural and supernatural had been made and miracles were redefined as the invasion of the supernatural into the world of the natural. As the concept of natural law and an orderly universe developed, the word miracle gradually took on the meaning it has had for the last three centuries—an event that occurs outside the laws of nature as we know them. Christian theologians tended to view a miracle as an event caused by God laying aside one of his own laws out of his concern for humanity.
David Hume (1711-76), the great Scottish philosopher, defined a miracle as "a violation of the laws of nature." The idea that nature follows certain laws and the consideration of whether or not those laws can be violated set the issues of a modern debate. Alfred Russel Wallace, prominent nineteenth-century scientist, in his book On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism (1881), assumes the existence of natural law and objects to Hume's skepticism by arguing that since we do not know all the laws of nature we cannot rule out the possibility of an unknown law overcoming a known one. He suggests that a miracle is "any act or event necessarily implying the existence and agency of superhuman intelligences."
Contemporary observers of the progress of science have developed a different approach to the question of miracles. They note that the idea of natural law is a concept imposed upon nature by scientists, who have observed its regularities. A miracle, they say, is a religious affirmation in the face of an extraordinary event that affects the individual positively. Calling an event a miracle is but one evaluation among several (e.g., coincidence, trickery) that can be made about the occurrence.
According to Hume, no amount of human testimony can prove a miracle. Hume's philosophy created a scientific environment in which the evaluation of an anomalous extraordinary event could only be explained as a phenomenon already understood. It is on this basis that, in spite of a popular belief in the paranormal, many scientists generally refuse to investigate the nature and evidence of so-called miracles. This resistance is odd since the history of human progress demonstrates that, as Charles Richet stated, "the improbabilities of today are the elementary truths of to-morrow." The truth of his statement was amply demonstrated in the lives of great scientists, many of whom had to fight an entrenched scientific community for recognition of their discoveries in an era in which the process of accepting new facts was very slow. Galileo (1564-1642) was persecuted and declared "ignorant of his ignorance;" the evidence of his telescope was rejected without examination; Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), born the year Galileo died, had to fight for so long for recognition of his theory of gravitation that he nearly resolved to publish nothing more and said; "I see that a man must either resolve to put out nothing new, or become a slave to defend it." Modern science is replete with stories of people who were ridiculed by their contemporaries for their extraordinary ideas and discoveries and otherwise outstanding scientists who thought the ideas of their younger colleagues to be mere ridiculous flights of fancy.
Belief in the reality of miracles has always been a cornerstone of religion. In former times it was sufficient to have faith that the divine power that created the universe of matter could also transcend its laws either directly or through the agency of particular humans. However, the religious skepticism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—built in large part by the emergence of science and later sustained by its obvious success in changing the world through technology—threw doubt on the reality of all miracles, sacred or secular.
Part of the present-day opposition to claims of the paranormal is based on the brilliant achievements arising from applied scientific laws, reinforcing confidence in the logic of the material world. From this viewpoint, many agnostics and atheists deny the possibility of either religious miracles or secular paranormal happenings, claiming that both are the result of malobservation, superstition, or fraud. Meanwhile many religious authorities have upheld the validity of biblical miracles as indicating God's omnipotence and intervention in human affairs. For example, Vatican Council I(1870-71) denied that miracles are impossible. However, many theologians, responding positively to the world of natural science, have taken the view that miracles are no longer necessary in modern times as evidence for religious faith. Even the Roman Catholic church, informed by its own experience as much as by modern scientific worldviews, champions the idea of caution in evaluating apparent miracles in modern times, since it would be foolish to ignore the possibility of misunderstanding or deception. Ever since the claimed miraculous healings associated with pilgrim centers like Lourdes, the church has been careful to insist on satisfactory scientific and medical evidence over a prolonged period of time before placing official confirmation on any claimed miracle.
Through the twentieth century a spectrum of approaches to the question of miracles have been put forth. Older supernatural worldviews have survived and are still championed by conservative Christians. Paranormal events are judged to be either godly miracles (within the context of the Christian community) or devilish deceptions (occurring elsewhere). More liberal Christian leaders have suggested that while miracles are possible, they are rare, and tend to occur spontaneously.
A growing body of believers, members of metaphysical, Spiritualist, ancient wisdom, and other occult religious groups—as well as many parapsychologists—tend to accept the existence of genuine paranormal events, but define them as purely natural events that science is slow in defining. Some would accept basic ESP, but not take the additional step and offer a positive evaluation of evidence for spirit communication or human survival. Of course, a small but vocal group deny the existence of all paranormal or supernatural events.
The problem of the distinction between religious and secular "miracles" remains a matter of polemics between conservative Christians and other religionists. Parapsychologists, Spiritualists and liberal Christians may point to the many reported miraculous events in the Bible as descriptions of paranormal events that also occur in modern times. Conservative believers accept as miraculous only those events with a clearly established religious purpose and reject all other claimed paranormal happenings. Some conservative Christians claim that all psychic phenomena are mere simulacrum of the miraculous—the work of devils or deceptive spirits counterfeiting real miracles. Of course, non-Christians resent such accusations.
Extraordinary events—miracles to the believer—are the common property of all religious traditions and the nonreligious alike. Every religious community can produce accounts of extraordinary occurrences to strenthen the faith of their believers. Most religious traditions also de-emphazize miracles as secondary to the development of a mature relationship to the transcendent and the performance of spiritual, moral, and social duties within the human community. In such a context, miraculous events may be helpful signposts or motivators at some point, but they do not take the place of spiritual development. In fact, too much attention to the miraculous (or long-term focus on psychic events) may actually be a hindrance to spiritual progress.
Sources:
Ebon, Martin, ed. Miracles. New York: New American Library, 1981.
Gopi Krishna. The Secret of Yoga. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
Hill, J. Arthur. Spiritualism: Its History, Phenomena, and Doctrine. London: Cassell, 1918.
LeShan, Lawrence. The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist. New York: Viking Press, 1974.
Nickell, Joe. Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions & Healing Cures. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Press, 1998.
Réginald-Omez, Fr. O. P. Psychical Phenomena. London: Burns & Oates, 1959.
Rogo, D. Scott. Miracles: A Parascientific Inquiry Into Wondrous Phenomena. New York: Dial Press, 1982.
Stemman, Roy. One Hundred Years of Spiritualism. London: Spiritualist Association of Great Britain, 1972.
Thurston, Herbert, S. J. The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism. London: Burns & Oates, 1952. Reprint, Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1953.
West, Donald J. Eleven Lourdes Miracles. London: Duck-worth, 1957.
In Islam, the only miracle associated with Mohammad is the reception and transmission of the Qur'an.
n.
An act or event out of the order of nature and unaccountable, as beating a normal hand of four kings and an ace with four aces and a king.
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
— Albert Einstein (1879-1955).
A miracle, derived from the old Latin word miraculum meaning "something wonderful", is a
striking interposition of divine intervention by God in the universe by which the ordinary course and operation of Nature is overruled,
suspended, or modified. Although many religious texts and people confirm witnessing or prophesying various events which they refer to as "miraculous",
it is disputed whether there are
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 to anything which is regarded as "wonderful" regardless of its likelihood, such as birth.
In this view, a miracle is a violation of normal laws of nature by a god or some other supernatural being. Some scientist-theologians like Polkinghorne suggest that miracles are not violations of the laws of nature but "exploration of a new regime of physical experience".[2]
The logic behind an event being deemed a miracle varies significantly. In most cases a religious text, such as the Bible or Quran, states that a miracle occurred, and believers accept this as a fact.
Some modern day religious believers hold that there is a scientific basis for believing in supernatural miracles. They 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, e.g. God. Therefore, there is probably a supernatural being (i.e., God) that performs what appear to be miracles. However, some scientists criticise this kind of thinking a subversion, or perhaps deliberate misuse, of Occam's Razor.[3]
Many adherents of monotheistic religions assert that miracles, if established, are logical proof of the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent god. A number of criticisms of this point of view exist:
The descriptions of most miracles in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) are often the same as the common definition of the word: God intervenes in the laws of nature.
A literal reading of the Tanakh shows a number of ways miracles are said to occur: God may suspend or speed up the laws of nature to produce a supernatural occurrence; God can create matter out of nothing; God can breathe life into inanimate matter. The Tanakh does not explain details of how these miracles happen.
The Tanakh attributes many natural occurrences to God, such as the sun rising and setting, and rain falling.
Today many Orthodox Jews, most Christians, and most Muslims adhere to this view of miracles. This view is generally rejected by non-Orthodox Jews, liberal Christians and Unitarian-Universalists.
Many events commonly understood to be miraculous may not actually be instances of the impossible, as commonly believed. For instance, consider the parting of the Sea of Reeds (in Hebrew Yâm-Sûph; often mistranslated as the "Red Sea"). This incident occurred when Moses and Israelites fled from bondage in Egypt, to begin their exodus to the promised land. The book of Exodus does not state that the Reed Sea split in a dramatic fashion. Rather, according to the text God caused a strong wind to slowly drive the shallow waters to land, overnight. There is no claim that God pushed apart the sea as shown in many films; rather, the miracle would be that Israel crossed this precise place, at exactly the right time, when Moses lifted his staff, and that the pursuing Egyptian army then drowned when the wind stopped and the piled waters rushed back in.
Most events later described as miracles are not labeled as such by the Bible; rather the text simply describes what happened. Often these narratives will attribute the cause of these events to God.
The descriptions of most miracles in the Christian New Testament are often the same as the commonplace definition of the word: God intervenes in the laws of nature. In St John's Gospel the "miracles" are referred to as "signs" and the emphasis is on God demonstrating his underlying normal activity in remarkable ways.[4]
Jesus can turn water into wine; Jesus can create matter out of nothing, and thus turn a loaf of bread into many loaves of bread, Jesus can revive the lives of people considered to be dead. Jesus can rise from the dead. The New Testament does not explain details of how these miracles happen.
Aristotle rejected the idea that God could or would intervene in the order of the natural world. Jewish neo-Aristotelian philosophers, who are still influential today, include Maimonides, Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon, and Gersonides. Directly or indirectly, their views are still prevalent in much of the religious Jewish community.
In rabbinic Judaism, many rabbis mentioned in the Talmud held that the laws of nature were inviolable. The idea of miracles that contravened the laws of nature were hard to accept; however, at the same time they affirmed the truth of the accounts in the Tanakh. Therefore some explained that miracles were in fact natural events that had been set up by God at the beginning of time.
In this view, when the walls of Jericho fell, it was not because God directly brought them down. Rather, God planned that there would be an earthquake at that place and time, so that the city would fall to the Israelites. Instances where rabbinic writings say that God made miracles a part of creation include Midrash Genesis Rabbah 5:45; Midrash Exodus Rabbah 21:6; and Ethics of the Fathers/Pirkei Avot 5:6.
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." [5]
These views are held by both classical and modern thinkers.
In Numbers 22 is the story of Balaam and the talking donkey. Many hold that for miracles such as this, one must either assert the literal truth of this biblical story, or one must then reject the story as false. However, some Jewish commentators (e.g. Saadiah Gaon and Maimonides) hold that stories such as these were never meant to be taken literally in the first place. Rather, these stories should be understood as accounts of a prophetic experience, which are dreams or visions. (Of course, such dreams and visions could themselves be considered miracles.)
Joseph H. Hertz, a 20th century Jewish biblical commentator, writes that these verses "depict the continuance on the subconscious plane of the mental and moral conflict in Balaam's soul; and the dream apparition and the speaking donkey is but a further warning to Balaam against being misled through avarice to violate God command."
In this view, 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 allow characters and situations to become bigger than life, and to stir the emotions of the listener more than the mundane and ordinary.
Littlewood's law states that individuals can expect miracles to happen to them, at the rate of about one per month. By its definition, seemingly miraculous events are actually commonplace. In other words, miracles do not exist, but are rather examples of low probability events that are bound to happen by chance from time to time.
An excerpt from Hagakure, the Book of the Samurai:
When something out of the ordinary happens, it is ridiculous to say that it is a mystery or a portent of things to come. Eclipses of the sun and moon, comets, clouds that flutter like flags, snow in the fifth month, lightning in the twelfth month, and so on, are all things that occur every fifty or one hundred years. They occur according to the evolution of the Yin and the Yang. The fact that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west would be a mystery, too, if it were not a daily occurrence. It is not dissimilar. Furthermore, the fact that something bad always happens in the world when strange phenomenon occur is due to people seeing something like fluttering clouds and thinking that something is going to happen. The mystery is created in their minds, and by waiting for the disaster, it is from their very minds that it occurs. The occurrence of mysteries is always by word of mouth.
The Catholic Church is hesitant extending validity to a putative miracle. The Church requires a certain number of miracles to occur before granting sainthood to a putative saint, with particularly stringent requirements in validating the miracle's authenticity. [1] The process is overseen by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints [2].
Followers of the Indian gurus Sathya Sai Baba and Swami Premananda claim that they routinely perform miracles. The dominant view among sceptics is that these are predominantly sleight of hand or elaborate magic tricks.
Some modern religious groups claim ongoing occurrence of miraculous events. While some miracles have been proven to be fraudulent (see Peter Popoff for an example) others (as the Paschal Fire in Jerusalem) have not proven susceptible to analysis. Some groups are far more cautious about proclaiming apparent miracles genuine than others, although official sanction, or the lack thereof, rarely has much effect on popular belief.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Dansk (Danish)
n. - mirakel, under, vidunder
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
wonder, mirakelspel
Français (French)
n. - miracle
idioms:
idioms:
idioms:
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - milagre (m)
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
чудо, выдающееся событие
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - milagro, maravilla, prodigio
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - mirakel
中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
奇迹, 奇事
idioms:
中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 奇跡, 奇事
idioms:
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 기적, 정말 놀라운 일, (기독교의) 기적극
idioms:
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 奇跡, 奇跡的なでき事, 驚異的な実例
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) معجزة
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