If We Don’t Believe in Miracles
It is impossible to see them.
A miracle is more than just an unexplained event. It is an event that impacts a life or lives that comes from something beyond known processes. It disrupts the expected or inevitable based on tracking the course of events and then predicting what will come next.
Miracles can’t be studied scientifically because they cannot be reproduced. They are one-offs.
Having said this, if we have a certain understanding about how the universe operates, then the idea that miracles exist actually can make complete sense.
That “certain understanding” is also called our “worldview” or “ideology.” These are our underlying suppositions. We may not be able to articulate them, but they drive our thoughts and actions. If I really want to dig into my worldview then I can look at my actions and consider what my thoughts were that led me there.
A radical change in worldviews, I think, is what the word “conversion” describes, and anytime a true conversion takes place it is like starting over. This rationally explains the idea of being “born again.”
Now we Christians think of conversion being in only one direction, from not believing in God to believing in him, but it goes the other way as well. Many seem to lose their faith when they encounter a new and different group of people they want to join. After all we are social creatures. Our lives are lived in relation to others - even if we are seeking to live a hermit’s life.
I guess my point is we live in relationships with others both good and bad and both influence us. Some come to believe in God when they are attracted to or influenced positively by someone’s words or actions and others reject God for similar reasons. But then it is also true that negative relationships drive people toward and away from God as well. We are influenced down to the core of our worldviews by others. Once internalized to become our worldview this is when we own it. Others influence, but we own our worldviews.
In Summary
There are many ways to look at basic worldviews. One is to think about miracles, which actually leads to the deepest, most fundamental question of all. Do we believe in God or not? This is, as far as I can tell, the deepest influencer of human behavior. We define ourselves and our relationships with others first and foremost on this specific and often buried question.
The rejection of a real and personal Higher Power enables our appetites to drive our actions. In this way, this single question, “Who is God to you? will determine whether your life’s journey is toward goodness or depravity.
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
John 3:1-15 (ESV)
Note how Jesus discusses both natural invisible processes and one-off events (aka miracles) to persuade a world-centric, reality- based, academic to fundamentally change his worldview.
