Storm
ThrUU the Looking Glass
YAY!Just thought I'd jump back to this.
A definition which is rather nonsensical within the context of my particular brand of panentheism, don't you think?Since I'd define a miracle as something like "a special exception to the normal laws of nature caused by God", IMO, a miracle is necessarily outside "the rules".
That said, I do believe the rules are a hell of a lot weirder than you do!
Granted, see above.In keeping with this, I also think that for us to claim a miracle, we also have to have a reasonable idea of what those "rules" are, otherwise, we wouldn't be able to say when they've been breached or not.
Agreed.This is a big part of why I reject the entire idea of miracles. IMO, if an unexpected event happens, it's always more reasonable to chalk it up to our less-than-perfect understanding of the laws of nature (and try to revise our understanding to account for what happened) than it is to say that we know the laws of nature well enough to determine that the event did violate them.
... especially because the whole way that we deduce the laws of nature in the first place is by observing and measuring what happens and what doesn't. An unexpected event is just one more data point to add to the mix in figuring out how things work.