Comments on: Can a rational person believe in miracles?

By: mark johnston

mark johnston — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:21:42 +0000

We have many people here in california that have won lottery more than once.A man call Skip in Northern california won 15 million Saturday,cal. super- lotto;then won 270,000 in cal’s. fantasy 5. He said it was a good week? He was unemployed on food stamps a the time.He feeds many now days

By: mark johnston

mark johnston — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:11:36 +0000

I have witnessed many miricles! Healings, the impossible in every day forms daily.starting with speaking in tounges.

By: corneliu

corneliu — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:45:58 +0000

in my religion are many miracle and some of them have a physical part too.This part is not really important, or at least is not important for itself.
there is one physical miracle which i have experienced and verified: the blessing of the water, I have seen the entire process, I took the water and that water is still clear and good to drink after more than 2 years, there are some other miracles with a obvious physical part you can see on Internet:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Za9-uX4b8&feature=related (The miracle of the Snakes of the Theotokos which appear every year on the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos on the Greek island Kephalonia), the holly light from Jerusalem, which happens every year at a certain date(“The miraculous appearance of the Holy Fire occurs every year on Holy Saturday in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem. Holy Saturday is the day before Orthodox Pascha, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.”)(http://oode.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/miracleofholylight/), which is attested from at least 1000 years(recently some Russian scientists studied the event and the result is “absolute miracle”, they say:http://www.spc.rs/eng/Russian_physicist_first_register_electrical_discharges_during_descent_holy_fire), the reverse of the Jordan river, this can be experienced and can be seen by anybody who goes there (miracle takes place in the Holy River Jordan on the day before Epiphany Day, during the Blessing of the waters.)(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfmrqZwUjCQ) (it happens twice a year at precise moments), the cloud from the tabor mountain, also happening every year, there are also to be seen the holly relics of the saints, some saints have their body preserved entirely for centuries and even more (there are to many)(notice that their bodies were not artificially preserved, they were first buried and sometimes accidentally found after centuries)(“Holy relics are a clear anticipation of the transfigured body after universal resurrection. The very fact that the bodies of the saints are kept in a state of incorruptibility is a foretaste, an anticipation of their future incorruptibility after resurrection and after their full theosis, deification.”)(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bFKFrf0sHE&feature=PlayList&p=35882665C5368D97&index=1)
the citations are from youtube because i don’t speak English too good, there are many videos showing those miracles and others, but the best way is to ask yourself what a miracle, is, why god would do miracles, to study them, to see what is a false miracle and a false one, and if you want to see and touch with your one hands and souls, to go and experience the miracles, like apostle Toma. Sorry for my English

By: Presh Talwalkar

Presh Talwalkar — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:54:53 +0000

Scott: Well said. I especially agree with this statement: "As I have already addressed most people attempt to use miracles to establish the existence of this supernatural agent, but that just results in circular logic." Pratik: I suspect the best prior would be to consider natural causes which can be estimated by things like actuarial tables. Then see how much chance is leftover for real miracles. In the milk drinking miracle, something like capillary action would probably have a like high chance of being correct.

By: pratik

pratik — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:18:15 +0000

Yes, I would define a miracle as something like a 25-sigma event, although just one one side of the distribution (a negative, unlikely occurence I guess you can’t call “miracle”…)

But how do you work out the conditional probabilities and the distributions? Take the “miracle” of idols in temples in Wales here in Britain drinking milk about 14 years ago. A rational person might might need the probabilities of idols drinking non-milk products, idols drinking milk given that they have never drunk milk before etc…for a rational person to have these worked out through Bayes might be a miracle in itself…