The Greatest Miracle

The Greatest Miracle

“Miracles happen, not in opposition of nature,
but in opposition of what we know of nature.”
- St. Augustine

What is the greatest miracle? When I posed this question in a chat room I got the usual answers: love; children (but not adults? How very odd); the human body. I’ve even read that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus is the Greatest Miracle, or any one of his miracles (the raising of Lazarus or the healing of the sick). People purportedly see miracles everyday (presumably acts of kindness, or the answered prayer to some illness). The problem with picking any one, single miracle is that all of them will exclude another. You would have to pick something that is all-inclusive. One cannot pick ‘Man’ as an answer, because it excludes animals.


First we must define what a miracle is. A Miracle is 1) an event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God.
2) One that excites admiring awe.

To answer this question I turn to Mark Twain and his work titled Letters From the Earth (Read it online here: http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/twainlfe.htm). The Greatest Miracle is that of a self-regulating universe. Twain explains what a self-regulating universe this way:

"The invention and introduction of automatic, unsupervised, self-regulating law for the government of those myriads of whirling and racing suns and worlds!"

"That is it!" said Satan. "You perceive that it is a stupendous idea. Nothing approaching it has been evolved from the Master Intellect before. Law -- Automatic Law -- exact and unvarying Law -- requiring no watching, no correcting, no readjusting while the eternities endure! He said those countless vast bodies would plunge through the wastes of Space ages and ages, at unimaginable speed, around stupendous orbits, yet never collide, and never lengthen nor shorten their orbital periods by so much as the hundredth part of a second in two thousand years! That is the new miracle, and the greatest of all -- Automatic Law! And He gave it a name -- the LAW OF NATURE -- and said Natural Law is the LAW OF GOD -- interchangeable names for one and the same thing."

It is gravity, friction, inertia and so on. It is consistent. A star will burn for millions of years and eventually die out, but not unexpectedly. It is a measurable reality. And this applies to every star. There are no exceptions. No unseen celestial hand waving a star back into existence, or out of existence because it serves “his plan or will”.

What is available to one is available to all. This is the spiritual meaning behind a self-regulating universe. There are no exceptions. No judgements. Rain does not decide (does not judge) who is more deserving of its water. It simply rains because that is what it is programmed to do. Wayne Dyer explains that electricity has always existed. We just never had the ability to connect to it.

A self-regulating universe is also the perfect argument against chaos or that this life we live is completely random. If life were random or truly chaotic, then a mortal woman would occasionally give birth to something other than a human child. If life was random and without order, a woman would (and thankfully not) give birth to a ‘68 Buick. Or a pebble, or a Rhino. The possibilities would be endless.

If the processes behind life were random, walls would wink in and out of existence (without the aid of drugs), our solar system would increase and decrease the number of planets it has…oh wait…bad example. Sorry Pluto (too soon?). A whale and a pot of petunias would suddenly fall from the sky, a million miles away, onto some alien world. (That was a tip of my hat to Douglas Adams)

Gravity is available to all, without exception. Even in Science Fiction, the idea of using anti-gravity devices to fly through space works on the principle that gravity exists and is working all the time. These devices simply would not work without gravity, nor would they be necessary.
I often think of my poor vision and the need (or reliance) on corrective lenses. Corrective lenses! They do no such thing. My glasses have never corrected my vision. Crutch-lenses would be more accurate! I do not believe I was predestined to have poor eyesight, nor that this is some punishment where I’ve been centered out due to Adam and Eve’s original sin (refer to my 2 posts on Original Sin for all that business). Some, as of yet, unknown factors caused something to happen to these incredibly complex organs to be somewhat faulty.

Yet as a part of the aforementioned Greatest Miracle, if some factor caused this nearsightedness, it stands to reason that there are is a way to fix it. It stands to reason that the effects can truly be corrected and more importantly avoided for future generations. But then, where would the fun be in that?

So if perfect vision is available to you, then it is available to me as well. Which is a very Buddhist concept, is it not? Consider the Four Noble Truths.

1) Suffering exists.
2) All suffering has an origin
3) All suffering can end.
4) There is a path to the cessation of suffering

Who has prayed for perfect vision and actually received it? This kind of prayer is not the answer, it is a passive way to go through life. But to believe that there is a path out of every kind of suffering, ah, then there is an active participant in this great miracle.

So does this miracle actually kill God? Does it do away with the wonder and awe of creation? According to the second definition of what a miracle is (one that excites admiring awe), I would say no. It actually increases the wonder and awe of the universe. That by throwing a bunch of atoms together, I can have thoughts in my head. Or fingers to type this blog. It staggers and humbles me. That planets maintain their perfect orbits until something interferes with them, this is amazing to me. It amazes me that whatever it is that grows your fingernails, also grows mine (and let me tell you, I am constantly challenging on a daily basis whatever it is that make my fingernails grow). This is why I believe that the biblical idea of Heaven is so erroneous. It is based on special circumstances. In my reality, heaven is available to everyone, just like rain is. The conditions just have to be right.

Does it remove all the mystery from it? Does this suggest that miracles are common-place? When miracles become everyday experiences, instead of rare occurrences, man can truly call himself enlightened.

“Perchance blindness is but a dark thought that can be overcome by a burning thought. Perchance a withered limb is but idleness that can be quickened by energy. And perhaps the devils, these restless elements in our life, are driven out by the angels of peace and serenity.”
Kahlil Gibran’s 'Jesus the Son of Man'