The uncommon life
Popular historian and self proclaimed former Christian-turned-atheist, Dr. Bart Ehrman, in his debate with Dr. William Craig, clarified that a historian’s job is not to tell “what” happened, but what was “most likely” to have happened.
He goes on to explain why that makes it impossible for him to hold to the idea of a historical miracle.
If the historian is looking for what is most likely to have happened, then he could never accept a historical miracle since miracles are never the most likely thing to have happened… “by definition.”
I can totally see his point. Though not anywhere near as well trained in history as he is, I am very well trained and even more experienced in human lives.
In this, I have come to accept an oxymoron… and apparent (though not literal) paradox.
Everyone has an uncommon life.
Everyone’s lives are extraordinary.
Everyone’s lives are filled with coincidences that strain even the most credulous person’s sensibilities.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that maybe the most unifying factor in people’s lives is that we all have experiences… often defining experiences… that are extraordinarily unlikely.
In my experience most people who can stomach the concept of a miracle believe that they have experienced them.
It seems that everyone has experienced million-to-one odds… and been the one… in multiple experiences!
This level of “oddity” is so “common” that it inspired Tom Clancy once said that “the difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”
Mark Twain is given credit for “…Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.”
So, at FBC Tyler, we are about to embark on a few weeks of looking at some of the “extraordinary” lives in the Bible… the likes of Paul, Jesus, Mary, Zacchaeus, David, and others… and at the same realizing that their lives are extraordinary…
Just like yours… Just like ours.
Eric Metaxes new book Miracles grapples with these same issues. How we define a miracle and how we experience them matters. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in a far-ranging discussion on miracles of all types, whether they be the “miracle of biology, cosmology, or what we call coincidences.”
Sounds interesting.
For Me it comes down to Optimism/Pessimism and/or acceptance/control…
Optimists see miracles and feel they have received them, Pessimists can’t see miracles because they never get the ones they want; which leads to acceptance/control… People willing to accept miracles; both, see and receive miracles because they accept what comes on it’s own terms and in it’s own form… Controllers will not see/receive what they cannot control… Faith needs no control but instead relinquishes control to something more powerful than it’s self… something that can “do miracles”… Controllers wrestle and strangle the “life(miraculous)” out of things so it can be controlled ultimately. Then they drag the dead carcass into the shade, dig a hole, and bury it there where it will remain forever…. Until someone who believes in miracles witnesses it’s miraculous resurrection..
That is an interesting perspective… so you would say the miracles are real, but some people are unable or unwilling to accept them?
Miracles to me are the fingerprints of God…. It’s how I know he is real… so They(miracles) are as real to me as God is…. Now let me be clear…lol… The telephone, light bulb, and the television are all miraculous to me… But I realize that my limits to know some things do not confirm them as miraculous… however, the ability to harness this information and take it from intangible theory to tangible object/systems “is” miraculous… to me anyway…