Reply To: Which miracle do you believe?

[Gurnelista]

Ah, the debating soc again…

Bill, most sensible folk don’t accept that ‘miracles’ exist, at least in the god-given supernatural sense.

Importantly, we shouldn’t think that just because we can’t understand or fully explain something, that it must be evidence of a god at work (if ‘scientific’ evidence matters at all to the religiously inclined). For example, I can’t properly explain to you how my tv or radio works, but I know it isn’t down to magic, or a deity transporting him/herself through the ether to a box of miracles! I know there’s a scientific explanation, even though I don’t know what it is.

I also know there are many natural phenomena which are gradually being explained to us, as scientific knowledge of the Earth, planets, and life advances, thanks to some great investigative science. You only have to listen to say, Cox, Packham, or Attenbrough to hear explanations of evolution in layman’s terms, to understand we know far more now than even just 10 years ago, never mind what our parents or grandparents’ generation knew.

There are lots of complicated papers online about the biology and chemistry involved in the creation of bacteria and simple cells. There’s also a good thread on it here.

https://www.quora.com/How-did-the-first-uni-cellular-microorganism-come-into-existence-on-Earth-which-eventually-led-to-all-the-other-organisms-on-Earth

Or, you can dismiss it all and say it was because of some Latin folklore creature described in a book called the ‘bible’, who worked his magic, Harry Potter-style.

The pleasures of a simple, comforting explanation should not be underestimated. Come to think of it, it’s a bit like the way some folk still think, or rather believe, that all Britain’s woes at present are down to small boats, immigration and the EU, rather than 14 years of economic mismanagement by Cameron, May, Johnson and Truss!