Do miracles happen?

Miracles are events attributed to divine intervention. From a scientific perspective, miracles have no place because they violate the laws of physics and are unreproducible via experiments. As such, scientists tend to attribute miracles to the fallibility of human interpretation of events.

Implications to Other Questions

Is the world explainable without God?
Is life a deterministic consequence of physical laws?

Do miracles happen?

Experts and Influencers

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Agree

Experts In Religion

The Catholic Church Largest Christian Church

Agree

The apostles, the evangelists, and the whole primitive Church saw in each of those miracles the supreme power of Christ over nature and its laws.

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02 Dec 1987 Source

John Polkinghorne Physics Professor and Reverend

Agree

If there are such things as miracles, they are rare, one-off events, which is exactly the sort of thing that science isn’t set up to talk about. So the problem of miracles is a theological problem. It’s a question of divine Consistency. God is not condemned never to do anything different, but when God does [so] it must be in a consonant, fitting relationship to things God has done before. Therefore I think that the easiest Christian miracle to believe in now is the resurrection of Jesus.

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29 Jan 2008 Source

Experts In Science

Antonello Colangeli Doctor

Agree

I am a doctor. I am a rational man. But I can only say that all those signs, all those coincidences, that led me to my son, must have been sent from God.

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10 Apr 2009 Source

Experts In Christianity

New Testament Christian Specific Bible

Agree

Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.

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Before 100 A.D. Source

Disagree

Experts In Religion

Paul Collins Catholic Priest, Author, Radio Host

Mostly Disagree

...whenever the media calls me and asks me to comment on miracles, I tend to get a bit restless and I tend to squirm a little in the seat. ... I think in a skeptical, questioning world like ours, a world where science in many ways is, if you like, the dominant paradigm, I think that within that context, miracles don't quite make so much sense.

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11 Jul 2008 Source

Experts In Science

Steven Weinberg Nobel Laureate in Physics

Disagree

There do not seem to be any exceptions to this natural order, any miracles. I have the impression that these days most theologians are embarrassed by talk of miracles, but the great monotheistic faiths are founded on miracle stories—the burning bush, the empty tomb, an angel dictating the Koran to Mohammed—and some of these faiths teach that miracles continue at the present day.

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21 Oct 1999 Source

Richard Dawkins Evolutionary Biologist, Writer, Atheism Activist

Disagree

Any belief in miracles is flat contradictory not just to the facts of science but to the spirit of science.

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05 Nov 2006 Source

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1 Point Adam Atlas 25 Apr 2010 Stance on Question: Disagree

I recently learned that a committee of mentally unwell jesters has determined that rainbows, fuckin' magnets, giraffes, and pelicans trying to eat your cell phone shall be classified as miracles, in which case yes, miracles definitely happen.

However, under a more conventional definition — events that violate normal physical causality — no, miracles do not happen. Things might happen that we can't currently explain based on our knowledge of physics, but we must not confuse our ignorance with inherent miraculousness.