# The societal ramifications of an indisputable miracle

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-societal-ramifications-of-an-indisputable-miracle/945858>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 6, 2021, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-societal-ramifications-of-an-indisputable-miracle/945858 "2021-07-06T22:52:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 145

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**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-societal-ramifications-of-an-indisputable-miracle/945858/145 "2021-07-13T06:15:45Z")

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> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> Are there contemporary first-hand reports of how people reacted to supposed miracles?

> [@Velocity](#):
>
> The 1600s isn’t really “contemporary,” but when Miguel Pellicer had his lower left leg restored (which had been missing for two years,) the Catholic church launched an extensive year-long investigation process with numerous witnesses, and then Pellicer was also invited to the royal court at Madrid where King Phillip kissed his restored leg.

That’s a great link Velocity. It underlines the point that most miracles admit a mundane cause and the OP’s hypothetical is by necessity pretty unusual. As the [IMHO thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-now-a-miracle-worker-what-would-you-do-to-prove-this-to-the-world/945929/56) shows, convincing miracles are harder to engineer than you might think, even with supernatural powers.

Anyway regarding the OP, while any miracle would be a media sensation, if it was one and done there’s no reason to call a halt to either civilization or the scientific method. If the miracle contained additional information (eg, evidence for a monotheistic God - something not specified in the OP) that would be interesting. Such evidence could shift beliefs among the scientific elite, although again I doubt whether it would cause a collapse of international western capitalism or scientific progress. From a bird’s eye view, I’d say societal ramifications would be minimal, even with large swings in public opinion.

OTOH, if miracles were common occurrences, we could uncover patterns via the science of Miracleology.

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