Sorry, kanicbird, but this is exactly where my mind went, too.
Where does intelligence come into it? It’s not like we can disprove such stories through sheer reason.
Personally, when I read/hear stories of miraculous/supernatural events, like some of the ones related in this thread, I think that the following are all possibilities:
[ul]
[li]The person is lying or yanking our chains[/li][li]The person was hallucinating, imagining things, or otherwise mistaken about what really happened[/li][li]The story actually happened, but there was a mundane, non-miraculous explanation[/li][li]Something genuinely miraculous actually did occur.[/li][li](or maybe some other category I’ve missed)[/li][/ul]Without knowing anything more, I won’t rule out any of those possibilities. (But I’ve never personally, first- or second-hand, run across anything that I’m convinced falls into the fourth category.)
why not concentrate on the more historical examples? Many thousands of people apparently accepted Miracle of the Sun - Wikipedia as a true miracle. I don’t think any of the adults amongst them are alive anymore, but for decades they obviously were. So you could have gone out and interviewed a whole lot of them. And judging by the descriptions of the vision given, it doesn’t sound like boring pareidolia either.
The only miracle I’ve witnessed myself personally is my own consciousness. I somehow have the capacity to turn experiences and observations into the identity that is me, complete with psyche* and self-awareness. (*avoiding the use of the word soul for the faint hearted).
I don’t believe there are any natural laws that can explain this phenomena.
My home computer is currently behaving in ways I cannot explain. I presume either some mysterious hardware failure, or demonic possession. Either way, an exorcism is in the works - hopefully the replacement will be more angelic. (Though it will be a Windows box, and those work in mysterious ways at best…)
In my walk with Christ, I did incur a great deal of suffering, some would have chosen death instead of the trials I went through. And yes I am very blessed. Just because God did not rescue people from those things does not mean that they are not Loved by God, as God does Love them greatly.
Throughout all my suffering, God lead me to learn things, I learned what Love is, I learned that I was angry at God. I believe that my willingness to learn His ways, and time in prayer when I surrendered to God completely, saying to Him that He can do anything that is needed for me to serve Him, and for Him to do away with my all ways, that allowed me to start seeing His glory here on earth. Though none of those things are really of me in any altruistic sense, just total desperation.
Some things people were around, like the girl who was instantly healed by God. What happened is her and a few friends were at my house, she hurt her back and had to lay on the floor in pain. We were just talking about upcoming events, I think there were 4 of us. I felt lead to pray for her due to her back, I think I was lead to pray in tongues, I did pray softly so no one heard, and was lead to touch her foot. Right after I touched her she asked me if I prayed for her, she said she felt it and she was able to get up with the pain gone.
In Haiti where I was surrounded, I really don’t know what they perceived, nor why they didn’t come after me and just stood around the spot that I was. I do know and have perceived that believers can see things non-believers can not, and the ability to see these things appears to have to do with the level of faith of that person. So there were times when supernatural things happened where some remember seeing it others have no idea, though they were there.
Many events, yes I was alone for, part of the reason IMHO is the relationship between God and the person is a personal one. And God wants us to come to Him personally, and really is not that big on the miracles that make the evening news. It is the personal relationship that He wants.
Such a event happened in scriptures, God pointed out the scripture to me after the event where Jesus slipped away from a crowd where they intended to harm Him. And also reminded me that I asked Him exactly how Jesus could have slipped away from such a crowd many years ago, and the answer He gave was just as it happened to me.
God will lead me to mention such things at certain times, but for the most part, if you go around telling of supernatural events you are usually looked down upon and people tend to think you may be a bit nutty, so it is ineffective.
I also feel that instead of having a really big miracle for lots to remember, He would rather put a lot of little ones along your way.
Many of the miracles I have experienced, including things that many would not consider miraculous, but just ‘happy coincidences’ really started happening when I started to follow the path that God had for my life. One of the things I have learned is ‘obey God and leave the all consequences to Him’. Sometimes God will give you something to do that will end in a dead end, where only a miracle would get you out, which He gives you.
I believe that it is following God’s Holy Spirit is what leads to many miracles, and why most people don’t experience them, as if you are not following God, but yourself, God is not going to make the way, as you are making your own way. When God makes the way big things happen, and He becomes responsible for you. God sent me into the streets of Haiti to pray for some children, If I said to Him it’s unsafe for me to go and makes no sense He would have no reason for that miracle of protection and deliverance.
Someone interviewed on NPR was researching this topic (or at least conjecturing). He said people generally agreed that a one-in-a-million type event would be a miracle. The guy then calculated how many discrete events happen in a person’s life. I don’t remember what the number was, but somewhere in the one to two million range. So, it’s not so unusual that a person would have a “miracle” or two during their lives.