Miracles and Ghosts
Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe in ghosts? You would want to imagine that seeing one would make you decide if they exist or not. Unfortunately, that may not be so. This excerpt from a book I am reading puts it into perspective. Read below:
In all my life I have met only one person who claims to have seen a ghost. And the interesting thing about the story is that the person disbelieved in the immortal soul before she saw the ghost and still disbelieves after seeing it. She says that what she saw must have been an illusion or a trick of the nerves. And obviously she may be right. Seeing is not believing.
Miracles, By C.S Lewis
For this reason, the question whether miracles occur can never be answered simply by experience. Every event which might claim to be a miracle is, in the last resort, something presented to our senses, something seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted. And our senses not infallible. If anything extra ordinary seems to have happened, we can always say that we have been the victims of an illusion. If we hold a philosophy which excludes the supernatural, this is what we always shall say. What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience. It is therefore useless to appeal to experience before we have settled, as well as we can, the philosophical question.
Consequently, even if you witnessed someone being raised from death, you would most likely belief that he was not fully dead. If you witnessed someone being healed of a deadly disease, you would likely add that to the statistics of people who survive terminal illnesses. If you want to explore the philosophical question of the existence or validity of Miracles, read this book Miracles by CS Lewis.
