Non-Christian Miracles

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Rereading all of this, I'll share an experience I had in 1986. Christian (Which I no longer am), but the other experiences I've had fall under other categories than 'miracle', and I'm just putting it out there that stuff happens. I don't doubt that other people of other religions have their experiences.

In 1986 I was a church going Christian who was renting a small unit for $70 per week, payable on Mondays.

I was short for rent only once in that year, and the following experience only happened once that year. Came a Sunday and I was short for $30, payable in 24 hours. Being a Sunday, at church, and with no other options, I prayed for $30.

After church, a lady came up to me and passed me an envelop claiming God wanted her to give it to me. You know what comes next. $30 in the envelop. Simple. Neat. And given the amount and timing... 'coincidence' just doesn't cover it.

Stuff happens.

There's no such thing as miracles, not even Christmas ones. WWIII is coming, and there is no Santa, no elves and definitely no guardian angels to come save us. It's all just a bunch of unrealistically positive BS that only happens in the movies.

Spontaneous Remission happens; explanation unknown other than it's basically placebo taken into an extreme.
Only few possible theories in context of certain medical conditions -- but it becomes different when it's around severe injuries, incurable or congenital disabilities, a sharp turn from severe mental illnesses...

The rest are series of coincidences, or statistical anomaly over certain situations that made some people question reality, existence of higher power and other sorts of phenomenon into some sort of conspiracy that had saved or healed people.


But sure.
I would definitely like the idea that there is some sort of mechanics, reasoning, physics or an actionable and observable metaphysical processes to be able to manifest such event or phenomenon.


I definitely don't believe miracles are limited to any religious beliefs or practices, nor are limited to certain 'special' nor 'chosen' people.
That it's all perception.


And oh yeah...
I personally perceive myself as lucky; luckier than average at least.
And it resonates so far in my life, and I'm not the only one who's observing.

... I'm not a devout follower of any religion, I am not a practioner of any ritual, I am not even one of these psychologically profiled optimist who usually sees positive outcomes that also uses infectious charm and quantitive resilient-presevere types of opportunism as an expression of luck.
I'm not even one of those super grateful people who's easily impressed and easily pleased.

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Thanking Jesus for things healing your sunburn is just stupid. Did Jesus just appear and healed it? No, the human body is actually capable of healing itself naturally. Or what if was a severe sunburn that landed you in the hospital? You're not going to give any thanks to the medical people who helped you to heal? But then again, if you live in the US you have to pay them, so they're not really doing you any favors. And in Canada you have to wait for eternity unless you're literally dying, and sometimes even if if you are and then you do die.

And then there are children who are dying from cancer. What makes you think Jesus or God cares about your whining about a sunburn, which you could have easily prevented with sun protection that a fairly sensible human being would have used, when they clearly don't care about kids who didn't do any wrong wasting away and suffering the horrible side effects of chemotherapy in the hospital?

I wonder what some people who don’t believe that miracles or healing happen what do they think of stories of reported cases of miracles or healing from those who don’t even ask for a miracle but get one.

This has happened in Lourdes for example this case about Bernadette Moriau who never asked for a miracle but was given one and been proved. You can read more about the case here.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-wor ... s-miracle/

^ She may have gotten better but that doesn’t prove that it was a miracle.

Sometimes things just improve/heal on their own, perhaps especially when hope, a positive attitude, and/or a belief that miracles can happen are present - the placebo effect. IMO, the 70 alleged miracles (or even the 7,000 unconfirmed ones) at Lourdes aren’t really that impressive considering how often people go there for healing - the thousands upon thousands every year. 5 million people annually make a pilgrimage there. Sure, they aren’t all seeking healing but a fair amount are. Coincidences, misdiagnoses, stuff going into remission or getting better for whatever reason, etc. happen. In other words, I think that just because the cause of an improvement is unknown or can’t currently be explained by science doesn’t mean that a miracle was responsible for it. God of the gaps is applicable here.

Here’s an interesting account from 1987 which could further call into question some of those 70 alleged miracles:

Modern science hasn’t proclaimed anything a “miracle” and they haven’t done so at Lourdes.

International Lourdes Medical Committee “is not entitled to pronounce a cure ‘miraculous’; this can only be done by the Church. The bureau may only pronounce that a cure is ‘medically inexplicable’.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lourdes_Medical_Bureau

Miracle:

I agree that the bureau said that this particular case was currently “medically inexplicable” and that the Catholic Church declared it a miracle.

IMO, there’s a lot of wonder in the world whether miracles happen or not. The universe never ceases to fill me with awe even though I don’t have any supernatural beliefs.