Do miracles exist?

Since time immemorial, human beings have woven stories that tell of real, but at the same time extraordinary events., for which, apparently, there is no explanation. These are stories that are generally spread by different religions. They narrate unlikely situations, which are almost always related to healing miracles.

All religions, including the most reflective ones like Buddhism, have stories of this nature.. To the stories about miraculous cures are added others about teleportation, apparitions, disappearances, prophetic messages, apocalyptic announcements and a long etcetera.

For believers, all these “miracles” acquire the value of evidence or proof of the existence of a divinity.. Although religion is a matter of faith, and faith is precisely believing in that for which there is no evidence, the truth is that these types of stories are frequently spread that narrate prodigies and that religious followers use them as a more foundation for your beliefs.

Philosophers and scientists are skeptical of this type of manifestations. His main criticism is that believers systematically refuse to practice true verification methods for these phenomena. Those who certify them, almost always, are the same religious or believers and they do so through methods that are not scientific in the strict sense.

Miracles and Marian apparitions

Within the stories of miracles that are spread through different media, The so-called “Marian apparitions” stand out, which are reported with relative frequency. Regardless of the sacred value that the Virgin Mary may have for believers, she does not fail to draw attention to the nature and messages that are spread through these apparitions.

There are patterns that are common in Marian apparitions. They almost always occur before very humble people, with little education, never before ecclesiastical or scientific authorities. Believers will say that the Virgin chooses the simplest because they are more virtuous. However, it is a fact that is not overlooked by an objective observer.

On the other hand, If the messages of these apparitions are taken into account, we should conclude that the Virgin has a clearly political mood.. We are talking about a politicized virgin, who made a very clear position in 1917 against the Soviet Union (Virgin of Fatima), or in favor of peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Medjugorje). Mexicanists have also indicated that the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe coincides with a great catechization effort by the Spanish colonizers.

The fact that the Virgin Mary makes appearances only in America and Europe, never in Africa, Asia or Oceania, does not cease to attract attention. Nor the fact that Marian messages basically contain threats: announce terrible events for the world, and urge to stop them through religious conversion and prayer.

There are even priests who question the validity of these phenomena and they qualify them as situations that are closer to paganism than to the religion itself.

Miracles and the desire to believe

Religious beliefs are an intimate matter that deserves the greatest respect and that is part of the freedom of conscience that every human being has. There are hundreds of cases of people who are cured of illnesses thanks to their beliefs.

Religious people will say that they are miracles, where God’s intervention is proven. Non-believers will argue that those that are cured are diseases of a psychosomatic nature, which directly involve the nervous system. In other words, what improves is autosuggestion.

Most people who report these “miracles” are not lying.. They really experience what they say they experience. However, there are reasons to think that all this happens in his mind, rather than in reality itself. There are, for example, hysterical blindnesses that can effectively be cured in the same way as they originate: through a strong psychological experience.

There are also cases in which some kind of fraud becomes evident. or, in any case, a desire to believe that goes beyond the evidence. There are numerous episodes in which religion has had to recognize that it made an error that science points out.

For example, The Church had to admit that the theories of Copernicus, Galileo or Darwin were true. On the other hand, science has never had to recant in favor of religious beliefs.

The true value of faith

Everyone must be a believer or an atheist, according to what their conscience dictates. However, true faith does not need wonders to be firm. And much less does it require fear to maintain itself. The same goes for atheists, who may be atheists for fear of believing.

Maybe we all need to understand that There are everyday miracles, much stronger and more valuable than extraordinary events. Living, breathing, loving, laughing, suffering and being able to move forward despite everything are the great miracles that we should all celebrate every day.

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Images courtesy of Vladimir Kush