The word “Miracle” is very overloaded. C.S. Lewis defined it as “an interference with nature for supernatural power.” However, most people refer to it as an event that has a very low probability of happening and has significance in their life. Most miracles are God’s special providence, not events breaking the physical law. There are natural explanations for them. For example, a friend of mine was involved in a car accident. At the time of the accident, the door window was open, and he didn’t wear a seat belt. He was thrown out of the car through the window during the accident. Had he put the seatbelt on, he would have been trapped in the car and died. To him, this is a miracle. However, no physical laws were broken in this so-called miracle.
It is hard for thinkers and scientists to accept supernatural miracles. Some people would go to the extreme and try to find natural explanations for all the miracles described in the bible. Some possible explanations include the following:
- Exaggeration: For example, feeding five thousand with five loaves and two fishes. They asserted that no supernatural events occurred. Many people had food with them. Initially, they hid it and refused to share, but when they saw the generosity of the minor child with five loaves and two fish, they all decided to share their food, and hence with the contribution, they could feed five thousand people.
- Magic trick: Miracle didn’t happen. Jesus used magic tricks to trick us into believing the impossible had happened. Maybe he swapped the water tank for wine ahead of time.
- Hallucinations: Things didn’t happen as described in the bible. People experienced mass hallucinations. For example, the bible described that the sun stood still while Joshua and the Israelites pursued their enemy. Some people interpret that the Israelites were so excited while pursuing the enemy that they experienced mass hallucinations and thought the earth stood still for them.
- Using technologies that were not available in ancient times: If we can travel in time to the ancient world with our cell phones, with all the things we can do with the cell phone, the ancient people will surely think that we can perform miracles. Perhaps Jesus had some advanced medicine that helped Him to heal the sick.
You might find them very laughable, but many people hold views like those. A lot of Christian scientists do not believe in supernatural miracles. Some people do not want to go against the church’s teachings; they believe that all supernatural miracles have ceased since the apostles’ days. This belief has no basis in both theology and science. I believe in miracles recorded in the Bible, which are still happening today. Miracles have played a crucial role in the Christian faith. Our faith would have no hope if Jesus did not rise from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection is definitely a supernatural miracle, and there is just no possible scientific explanation for someone to rise from the dead. The Roman soldiers were not stupid; they ensured Jesus died when they took him down from the cross. On top of that, they had soldiers guarding the tomb to prevent his disciples from stealing the dead body. The empty tomb shows that Jesus had risen from the dead.
If God is good, why did He not create the physical laws perfectly so that He would not need to intervene through miracles occasionally? According to our model, God interacts with the world constantly through quantum events, and therefore, there is potential for Him to influence the events of the world. However, why does He choose to interact in such a drastic way that appears to violate the physical laws that He so faithfully upholds?
In theology, a miracle is often defined as “an event of an extraordinary kind, brought about by a god, and of religious significance.” In this definition, the keywords are “religious significance.” Miracles are not meant to be proof that God exists. In Matthew 12:38-40, Jesus refused to perform miracles to demonstrate His authority to the nonbelieving Jews. Nor are they patches to fix the imperfect world. There is a deeper meaning behind all miracles. As I have stated many times in this book, I believe that God is faithful to His physical laws. The laws of physics are universal, they apply equally to you and me, and they are the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. He doesn’t interact with the world like a magician and changes the physical laws whenever He feels like it. Since God is the creator of the universe and miracles, by definition, are rare and of religious significance, I am willing to accept the notion that God suspends physical laws temporarily to perform acts with religious significance. However, there are still other possible explanations.
- Hidden physical laws.
Some argue that our understanding of the physical laws is not perfect, there might be some physical laws that we haven’t discovered yet, and God uses those hidden physical laws to carry out miracles. Another variation of the same theme is that physical laws, as we know them, are an approximation only and not the whole truth. For example, in everyday interaction, Newton’s law describes very well the motion of objects. However, when the object’s speed is close to the speed of light, it needs to be modified by relativity. The laws of nature have some hidden variables or regime changes that we are unaware of. One of the most common supernatural miracles is in the form of healing a terminally ill patient. We all heard many testimonies that God healed terminally ill patients. Maybe it happened to you or your loved one too. Many medical doctors use the phase supernatural miracle when they face otherwise unexplainable recoveries. Our current understanding of the human body is very limited; how mental affects the physical is unknown. Maybe God didn’t suspend the physical laws and use some presently unknown biological effects to heal sick persons.
- Opening the “back door.”
During my Ph.D. research, I studied an effect called quantum tunneling. Electrons usually don’t go from one material to another without physical contact. But when two metals are very close together with around 1nm distance (around a hundred thousand times smaller than the human hair), electrons can flow between the two metals even in a vacuum. This quantum tunneling current decreases exponentially when the distance is increased. In principle, this effect happens even when the metals are far apart, but the probability is very low. Very often, the possibility of an event happening follows a bell-shaped curve. A bell-shaped curve depicts a normal probability distribution. The width of the bell-shaped curve (sigma value) describes how far off we expected the value derivate from the nominal value. 99.7% of events happen within the bell-shaped curve’s plus and minus three sigma. Things can still happen well outside the three-sigma range, but the possibility is very low.
In physics, nothing is impossible; the so-called impossible events are merely events with a low probability of occurrence. However, things are different with God. Everything is possible. As discussed in the previous chapter, one of the possible mechanisms where God interacts with the world is quantum events. God can use the “butterfly” effect to bring about miracles. However, we should note that God’s interaction with the world through chaos is slow and subtle, but “supernatural” miracles are dramatic and quick.
Laser is immensely powerful. One can look at a 40W tungsten light bulb forever without damaging your eye. However, a 5mW laser can damage your eye even if the laser light is eighty thousand times lower in power than the light bulb. In a standard light bulb, all the photons coming out are not in phase; they cancel each other out. Laser is powerful not only because it is focused, but photons that come out of the laser are said to be coherent, i.e., they are in phases and reinforce each other rather than cancel each other out. Likewise, everyday materials are made up of billions and billions of microscopic entities. A branch of physics called statistical mechanics uses statistical models to calculate the behavior of microscopic entities. For example, in a liter of air, there are about 2*1022 molecules (there are 22 zeros). The molecules move in different directions, colliding and canceling each other. Air pressure is the statistical calculation of how many air molecules hit a unit area. Like a laser, if all the air molecules are moving in the same direction, reinforcing each other rather than canceling out each other, the air pressure can easily knock you over. Even if the effect of a single quantum event is minimal, if God arranges all the quantum effects, opening the window in the same direction for all microscopic entities, then the impossible can become possible. Miracles can happen without breaking the physical laws.
Having laid out two possible explanations of miracles, I still prefer the straightforward explanation that miracles occur because God suspends the physical laws. Miracles are not random events but rather significant ones, and as the sovereign God, He has the right and ability to suspend the physical laws, which are also His creation. The first possible explanation requires adding an unknown to explain another unknown. While the second explanation may not violate the literal interpretation of the law, it goes against the spirit of the law. Events with an extremely low probability of happening still require divine intervention. Therefore, accepting that the creator God suspends physical laws to bring about significant events is more logical. It’s important to note that God can still use other mechanisms besides suspending physical laws to perform miracles. Miracles are rare and hold divine significance, but regular physical laws still govern everyday interactions.