My previous two postings were about religion: Heaven and Miracles. As this is Sunday, let me continue by focusing on the matter of miracles, with a note that there are various semantical views, but for now, let me focus on the supernatural, or input of God, aspect. For greater detail about this subject, you can read my religion chapter in SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity. I explain biblical miracles, too, as for example:
- How the Red Sea parted.
- How Jesus walked on water, and converted it to wine.
There are sensible natural phenomena or basic sociological explanations, which you can read by clicking on the above.
Were those three football miracles reported on yesterday really miracles? Sure, by popular usage of that term. In that book above I thus went to the almost ludicrous extreme by citing two everyday happenings:
- Why placement of a bar of soap (in a cloth bag safety-pinned to the mattress so it can just be left there) and below the bed sheet to prevent leg cramps.
- That a Schick Quattro razor can last essentially forever.
I'm living proof about both. My Schick is in its sixth year of daily use, now on a second blade. I changed a couple of years ago just to see if the shaving quality would be better. The improvement was minimal. If the Catholic Church can bestow sainthood to high officials whose major procedural qualifiers were to pray for three individuals who had terminal illnesses, but somehow went to to live (this was termed a miracle), how could they miss, for many of them applied their sanction to thousands, if not millions. In degree of impossibility, relative to a few blessed souls who lived (but remembering that many, many more passed away), I think it's a higher order miracle for a bar of soap to prevent leg cramps or a razor system to operate well for more than five years.
Is this matter one of philosophy versus science? Not really, for 250 years ago David Hume said:
...no evidence would be sufficiently ironclad to demonstrate a miracle.
Hume is a philosopher.
American belief:
- 90% (read my posting on Heaven) of Americans believe in Heaven and an afterlife
- only 20% of Americans truly believe in pure evolution
- three-fourths of Americans still believe there was a more intricate conspiracy responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and
- more than not feel there are ghosts.
It would thus be a waste of time to ask how many of you believe in miracles, for this is an abstruse term with many meanings. But, for the record, something on the order of 3/4 apparently expect miracles. Many blame Oprah.
Well, this is not quite the expected Sunday sermon, a day of worship. On the other hand, only 20% of "us" regularly attend church, so something is amiss here anyway. While some worry about our broken government, I am more concerned about our beliefs, and mystified about why.
While I'm into miracles, let me add a couple more college athletic ones:
WHAT A MIRACLE WEEKEND!!!While I'm into miracles, let me add a couple more college athletic ones:
- The Rainbow Wahine volleyball team finished their season as tri-champs for their league, and will host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament beginning this coming Friday. The miracle is that they were selected to host. In the past, the selection committee found a away to send this team somewhere, like Green Bay, Wisconsin.
- Tonight, the Rainbow Wahine basketball team played 7-1 Minnesota, and, somehow stuck in there until the final 4.6 seconds when Minnesota hit a 3-pointer to take a 3 point lead. Then, Shawna Lei Kuehu responded with a miracle 3-pointer just as the horn sounded. In overtime, Hawaii prevailed by 6 points.
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