I was thinking about this the other day. To my knowledge, there haven’t been any large-scale divine events recorded since any of the holy books of the current religions of the world.
People can argue that the Japanese tsunami or a drought in Ethiopia counts as an act of God, but no one’s rushing to add those to their religious canon. Anyone claiming to be the next Prophet or Son of God is either immediately dismissed and ignored, or at worst, institutionalized and never heard from again. I don’t count the election of a pope or the raising to sainthood of an individual as acts of God since they are arguably human-driven events.
So I guess my question is three-fold:
[ol]
[li]Why has no major religion recorded a large-scale act of God in their canon since their holy books were written? Why did they stop after some point?[/li][li]What would have to happen for any major religion to say, “Oh, shit, guys, we should add this to our canon!”?[/li][li]Is the lack of any divine event in recent history evidence of a lack of existence of God or any gods?[/li][/ol]
What kind of event are you looking for? Even in the Bible anything distinquishable from modern natural disasters is fairly rare. Didn’t God say there wouldn’t be another great flood like the one Noah rode out? There was something about stopping the sun in the sky, the parting of the Red Sea is in the realm outside of natural occurences though often re-explained in more reasonable manner than is depicted in the movies. So what kind of event does it take?
Plenty of people believe in all sorts of smaller miraculous events. But we have been jaded for a long time. During the War of 1812 a hurricane passed over the Washington DC in the midst of battle and spawned a tornado which may have saved the US army total destruction (very rough on the facts here), but some at the time considered it divine intervention. Plenty of people have gathered to face on the world numerous times, the event didn’t happen, but there were plenty of people who believed it would. The Red Sox won the World Series, we have a Kenyan president, there are all sorts of things still happening that could be considered miracles by some.
[QUOTE=TriPolar]
What kind of event are you looking for? Even in the Bible anything distinquishable from modern natural disasters is fairly rare. Didn’t God say there wouldn’t be another great flood like the one Noah rode out? There was something about stopping the sun in the sky, the parting of the Red Sea is in the realm outside of natural occurences though often re-explained in more reasonable manner than is depicted in the movies. So what kind of event does it take?
Plenty of people believe in all sorts of smaller miraculous events. But we have been jaded for a long time. During the War of 1812 a hurricane passed over the Washington DC in the midst of battle and spawned a tornado which may have saved the US army total destruction (very rough on the facts here), but some at the time considered it divine intervention. Plenty of people have gathered to face on the world numerous times, the event didn’t happen, but there were plenty of people who believed it would. The Red Sox won the World Series, we have a Kenyan president, there are all sorts of things still happening that could be considered miracles by some.
[/QUOTE]
Right, but why isn’t any religion recording any of these events as part of their canon?
[QUOTE=Voyager]
Plenty of divine stuff has been recorded - but today we label it fiction, not religion.
[/QUOTE]
Why? Because we have a better understanding of the world, nature, and the universe now?
Do Roman Catholic saints (and the miracles that must be ascribed to them to make them saints) count? There are certainly many who’ve been canonized within the past hundred years, IIRC.
I think divine events happen every day, but go unnoticed because someone has placed a label on it. When a person with cancer goes into remission for no apparent reason it is called spontaneous remission. This label dampens the miracle. The greatest divine event in my opinion was the creation of the book “A Course in Miracles.” This book is now being taught in many countries and I believe it will be the main book taught in churches someday. It is already taught in many churches now. It was channeled by atheists and is considered to be a divine book sent to us by Jesus. “A book with no contradictions.” As Jesus puts it. So instead of adding to the divine material there is now a new book.
Don’t the Mormons considers sea gulls to be a miracle? But generally it’s tough for older religions to accept new miracles. People more readily accept the greatest of miracles to have happened in the past because they’d be skeptical of secondhand contemporary reports. Even the biblical ones were provided as stories after the event occurred. It’s easier to maintain faith in something that happened long ago that you don’t have to confirm with your own senses.
I think the OP’s question is, “Why aren’t recent events considered miracles?” I don’t think his question assumes that there actually were miracles.
I have a couple hypotheses. For one, science can explain most major disasters. But also, I suspect that very few incidents immediately became canon. I bet most took some time (with perhaps a small cult following) before they were adopted and codified by a large organized group. For example, the New Testament is mostly written long after the death of Jesus.
Of course, the counterexample to my claim is the Latter Day Saints. Oh yeah, and then there’s that little splinter group known as Muslims.
You can already buy a Jesus Toast attachment for a panini maker on the internets and I suspect that a Mary Mother O’ God wall stain attachment for your garden hose or pressure washer will be available before the midterm elections.