Introduction

These are some thoughts on miracles, initially provided by Brian following a discussion on the subject by the Bristol Christians in Science group.

Details

• Several examples were given as personal testimony such as (apologies if I've left some out) ...
• Miracles of timing:  
• Getting urgent medical appointments in a miraculous way.
• Several people said that many of the miracles they had experienced fall into this category. 
• Miracles of healing:
• A girl who had many bone fractures in a road accident, was confined to wheelchair, wanted to act as bridesmaid, was desperate and prayed one night in despair for healing, sensed the Lords presence.and slept soundly. The following morning, she found she could walk without support, was then a bridesmaid and met her husband at the wedding.
• Mass healing event in Nigeria - people who have not been able to see throughout their life, brought to sight.
• (From the previous session) Young girl in African village brought back to life after having  (something missing here)
• Paul said that many of the healing miracles he had seen involved pain stopping.  One example was of a lady who had suffered pain in her back for several weeks, which the doctors had been unable to do anything about and the lack of sleep was causing extreme distress; after a simple prayer, she slept well that night without pain, and it did not return.  We can think of possible physical mechanisms by which this might have taken place, but the basic reality is that she was suffering from pain and exhaustion before the prayer, and not suffering afterwards.  Is anything else relevant?
• Paul has experienced two personal miracles of healing.  Firstly, following prayer in a healing service and maybe twenty minutes of fairly intense physical reaction, he was healed of a longstanding allergy to milk which was making social interaction very difficult.  Secondly, two weeks after an extended period of prayer by the church, he was healed overnight of a very distressing problem which the doctors were convinced was caused by an endocrine imbalance but which was steadily getting worse despite nearly three years of treatment; the doctor was told that the problem had stopped overnight after prayer, and replied that "We must assume that the treatment is finally working."  
• Miracles of support:  
•  Person who decided to support old people in Albanian village received support to build an old peoples home following TV documentary shown in Holland/Belgium.
• A 'Secret Millionaire' was directed to support three Christian charities in Bristol, giving the largest donation in the program's long history; the 'reason' for the selection consisting of an absurdly long sequence of improbable events.  
• (Opinion - Brian) What was interesting to me (Brian) is that none of the above strongly contradicted known physics in any fundamental way - in that timing was fortuitous, healing was enabled (but the human body does heal) and so on.  
• People do have conditions which, if left unattended, will result in significant harm, death etc. but which may also in the end achieve unexpected recovery.  No one would claim a miracle when doctors had already predicted a recovery - such recovery would be seen as a demonstration of medical competence.
• We are necessarily talking about cases where the medical profession don't have a biological cause-and-effect explanation for a positive recovery (e.g. "spontaneous remission").
• What about the other side of the coin: those cases where the patient unexpectedly fails to recover, despite a positive prognosis?   Presumably, these tend not to be taken as a miraculous outcome - but where relatives would tend to ask questions of medical negligence or incompetence.
• Tina asked if maybe God tends to act as mercy, directly where there is no other form of support?
• That might explain why medics don't tend to see miracles as such.
• Also, Medics are trained observers and will have incorporated all manner of healing events as phenomena, even those events that can be formally examined/described, but which don't always necessarily follow causal chains  e.g. have biological cause and effect mechanisms fully worked out and explained (e.g some actions of chemicals/drugs?).
• However, the subtlety here is that because such phenomena can be classified/measured/observed, they might just simply be pragmatically absorbed into the available healing vectors routinely witnessed by medics (and therefore deemed "rational").  We know that spontaneous and unexplained healing does take place: we can't claim this is all miraculous (back to the 'God of the gaps' problem) but on the other hand, it is possible that some of them (maybe even all of them) really are miracles.
• The implication is that it might be possible that some physical healing vectors are in fact miraculous - but which appear sufficiently reliably and commonly to be accepted without further reductive explanation.
• There seems to be two big problems with miracles.
• Some people do not believe that God does miracles, at least not in the modern world: it is probably necessary, as a Christian, to believe that a few of the miracles in the Bible actually took place - the resurrection being the most obvious example.
• But, if it is accepted that some miracles did take place, what is the conceptual difficulty with believing that other miracles have taken place? The issue seems to be more a feeling that, in a scientific universe, miracles should not take place.
• If it is believed that God should not intervene to change what would otherwise happen according to the laws of nature, then why is it okay for people to do the same? When I take an antibiotic, I intervene to kill off bacteria which, according to the laws of nature, would harm me.  Why should it be okay for me to intervene, but not okay for God?  Especially when it seems that, most of the time, He intervenes through using the laws of nature - the Red Sea parts because a strong wind blows.
• For those who believe that miracles do take place - or who are challenging those who believe it - then the biggest problem is not that miracles take place, but that they so often do not - and the ones which do take place so often seem to be less worthy than the miracles people claim to see.
• Paul strongly objected to the validity of this criticism. We are passing judgement on the quality of God's decision making, when (firstly) we have no right to pass judgement on God, and (secondly) it seems obvious that He must be taking into account factors and issues we know nothing about.  Children do not understand their parents' priorities and spending decisions, but children are much closer in knowledge and understanding to their parents than we are to an omniscient God.
• Of course, when people start to criticize God, most of the time they are criticizing some person's (or some group's) claims about God.  The sort of criticism that God comes in for is when it is claimed that He answers one prayer to find someone a parking space but  turns down another prayer to heal someone of cancer.  It is impossible to tell if He actually does intervene to provide parking spaces, but the difference in worthiness of the two requests seems to offend some people.  This seems more like insensitivity on the part of the people claiming answered prayer than a genuine theological difficulty about the nature of God.
• It may be that this issue can also be seen as arising from the type of God being believed in and the nature of the relationship we have with this God. If God is interested in the details of my life (and if He has counted the hairs on my head, this seems possible), then talking with Him about the details of my life would seem a reasonable part of the relationship.  Telling my Heavenly Father that I would appreciate something is not the same as commanding God Almighty to do what I demand.  I can ask my wife to do something without treating her as a servant, and there is no reason why I cannot do the same with God - especially when He commands me to make requests of Him.
• Perhaps we ought to see prayer more as an expression of our relationship with God, and less as a list of tasks we have lined up for Him to do.
• And perhaps we ought to see miracles more as an expression of God's love for us, and less as a means by which He can prove that he exists. 
• (Opinion - Brian) The discussion didn't really touch something that I (Brian) am personally interested in - Miracles and Science as such.  What interests me is the dividing line between new physics and what are claimed to be miracles.  These seem not to arise so much - i.e. no-one these days controls the weather as Jesus did.  Some might say that Jesus was simply a clever person who understood how weather works and simply calmed people until the storms abated (which they will anyway).  Personally that is maybe how someone these days might try to perform that act (i.e. via psychological mechanisms) - but the Biblical accounts don't ever suggest that - Jesus on several occasions commanded the weather to change - and it did so, presumably immediately.
• I wonder if we shouldn't be discussing more carefully about how science and faith can be brought harmoniously together, it may help us understand how to better contribute to the wider and more urgent consideration and understanding of  how God acts in the world and what it could be working towards [Beware, Eschatology ...].   It is important to avoid falling for the classic "god of the gaps" fallacy - just because we don't scientifically understand something now, doesn't mean we wont eventually.
• There was a lot of debate around the power of prayer in the form of a petition for God to act supernaturally (i.e. miraculously) to bring about some situation in the world that the petitioner is requesting or is particularly anxious for or desirous of.  I find that a lot of evangelicals particularly follow this pattern - but always seem to find it hard when there is a "No" answer.  Miracles, if they happen at all, are related to the fulfilment of Gods Plan.  I wonder if that is what they are really - actions that only happen because they are events that God needs to happen but which would not otherwise occur naturally?  All of Jesus's ministry is essentially an example - as is the creation of our Universe for that matter. 
• The key question around both prayer and miracles etc. is concerning God's actions and interventions within our Universe.  No one can truly come to faith without the intervention of the Holy Spirit - so what is blocking that?  Is the pursuit of an intellectually rational and credible science fundamentally anti-God (I don't agree with that entirely - but plenty of people seem to).  Perhaps this is the question we should be asking in the back of mind - and potentially where our discussions are leading us?

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