Today my daughter asked me why God doesn't do miracles anymore. I told her that miracles happen every day, but they often go unnoticed.
Then she clarified, why aren't there any more miracles like those in the Bible?
I find this question profound and rather important. Think about it. There are no more burning bushes, no walls of Jericho tumbling down, no parting of the Red Sea, no water into wine. All the great miracles that were supposed to inspire faith have passed. We are left with a book and preachers. Since most Americans don't read good books, and most preachers are about as welcome as a kick to the groin, I think that we really need something.
If God were to consult an agent (and I am not really trying to give the Lord advice--I'm just tinkering, hypothetically), I think that the agent would try to arrange something big for the Big Guy. This doesn't need to be a full-blown "Comeback Tour" (I'm not ready for that one, yet; so please leave the pale horse at the stable for a while yet), but something to attract the media's attention would be awesome. How about just a "Studio Album" of sorts, or a spot on Leno, just to remind us all that He's still got it? That would be great, and I sure as Heaven would download it off of iTunes (I wouldn't dare pirate it. His wrath makes an RIAA lawsuit look like a single grain of sand in the darkest chasms of space).
This isn't a challenge. It's just a wish. While I'm wishing, I wish I could drop 80 pounds and win the lottery. Since I eat like a pig and don't buy lottery tickets, I guess I'm just left with the one. Still, that would be cool. Even cooler would be if the miracle was that I lost 80 pounds and won the lottery.
One thing that annoys me is when people answer the "Where's God?" question with that infantile, "He's everywhere. Just look around. Everything is a miracle!" That's another problem. Too many of God's spokesmen are dorks. Not everything has to be a miracle. It is not a miracle that the sun came up this morning. The Earth spins on it's axis. That accounts for the sunrise. It's not a miracle when a baby cries its first breath. It cries because it's breathing air for the first time. It's not a miracle that American Idol is a popular show. People are stupid and have poor taste.
These and other classic "examples" are awesome (meaning they have the power to fill one with awe--not "awesome" like an ollie), perhaps, but not miraculous. There's some who would say that science has stripped miracles of their meaning. That's nonsense. Science has simply, in some cases, demonstrated how some of the things that were once considered miracles are perfectly natural.
Think about the bona fide miracles recounted in the Bible. Science would have a hard time explaining how Jesus turned plain H2O into fermented grape juice. That's a change that cannot occur naturally. Scientists cannot explain how the Red Sea parted to allow for the exodus of the Jews and the demise of Pharaoh's soldiers. Science would be unable to tell us how a guy with a simple horn could knock down stone walls. Those and others recounted in the Bible are real miracles, and they simply don't happen anymore--at least not until Ben Affleck makes a movie worth watching.
Then there's those who counter with, "What about the fact that there's even a sun and an earth, or that life exists at all. Now that's a miracle."
No it's not. It's a mystery. We don't know the process of creation. You can say that you have faith, but that just means that you don't know, and you don't care to wonder.
When intelligent people ask "Where's God?" They mean, "Why doesn't God do today the kind of stuff that he did 2,000-5,000 years ago?" That's what Natalie asked, and it's a darn good question.
I'm not rejecting my faith. I'm still a half-way good (as opposed to a half-way bad) Christian. In fact, recent events (e.g. the Pope's big--but right-on--mouth) have really energized my thoughts. I'm tired of people who say that a person with faith has no reason for questions and answers. It's always, "You need to have the faith of a child." Well, this whole post started because my six-year-old asked me a question. I'm asking the same question, so it's fair game.
Oh well, I'm tired and cranky, and re-reading anything but C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, Miracles, The Problem of Pain, or God on the Dock (four separate and exceptional apologies--this latter word, "apology" has a classical meaning that the unlearned amongst you or maybe even you yourself have yet to grasp) will not satisfy me.
Golf Guy, do you have something for me?
Actually scientists have some theories on the whole red sea thing. I saw something a few years ago on Discovery. It talked about a huge volcanic eruption (Mt. Etna of Sicily and crossword fame I believe). The eruption was of such a scale that the dust and ash would have blocked out the sun causing the darkness associated with the jews flee. Then the red sea was actually a marshy land that has been mistranslated. The eruption caused a tidal wave from all the seismic activity. As the tidal wave approached the water from the marsh was sucked out to create the wave. The jews walked through and the chasing romans were innundated by the following wave. I'm sure I messed up some of the details but that seems fairly close. It still at the least is a miracle of fantastic timing.
ReplyDeleteNatalie, God does not perform any of those awesome miracles anymore because one of the last miracles he performed, rising from the dead, cannot be topped. That was the ultimate miracle. Anything after that would have been anticlimactic (ask your dad what that means). From that moment on everything became a matter of faith. Yeah, after he rose from the dead he hung around for a while doing some minor miracles to prove he did indeed rise from the dead but that was mostly for the benefit of his closest friends who he wanted to establish His church. He doesn’t think those spectacular miracles are necessary anymore although some of us adults sure think a few here and there would help the condition of the world. But He might not be as concerned with the matters of the world as He is about the matters of the soul. He wants us to believe He has a plan and right now that plan doesn’t include any big show of force.
ReplyDeleteDear Science Guy:
ReplyDeleteThose chaps who pop up about a scientific explaination for the Red Sea are very poor scientists, and they do a disservice to their professional community and ideology.
What a thing for a "scientist" to pop off and say. Hey, I cannot prove this; I cannot even show this in a laboratory; I can't recreate or control the conditions in any way; but I'm going to say that there is a scientific reason for this having happened.
What a anal-rape job of the scientific method. Start with a hypothesis that you cannot test, and then throw it out for the media to digest.
These are the same kind of pseudo-scientists, I suspect, who have brought us all the global warming row and whatnot.
I hate to tell you this Aristos. The scientific method is a farce. It is a nice method to teach students scientific thinking but it is not the only method of doing science. There are a multitude of scientific disciplines that are not conducted with the traditional scientific method. Astronomy, oceanography, paleontology, animal behaviorists etc. Just because it isn't in a lab doesn't mean we can't research it and draw conclusions.
ReplyDeleteI never said that just because something cannot be researched and that conclusions cannot be drawn upon something that is not done in a lab (i.e. in a controlled and replicable environment).
ReplyDeleteYou can research and draw conclusions all that you like. Just don't call it science. The scientific method becomes a farce when "scientists" grow tired of their discpiline and would like to stretch out into philosophy, religion, etc. In doing so, they become bad scientists and make for wretched philosophers, theologians, etc.