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July 26, 2005 Marcus Tullius Cicero, (106 BC—43 BC), the famous Roman statesman, orator and philosopher, enunciated an argument purporting to disprove the existence of miracles. Here is part of the entry from Encyclopedia Britannica about his argument: “Miracles were denied even in classical antiquity. Thus, Cicero asserted that ‘Nothing happens without a cause, and nothing happens unless it can happen. When that which can happen does in fact happen, it cannot be considered a miracle. Hence, there are no miracles.’” Basically, what Cicero is saying is that nothing that actually happens is a miracle, and therefore when something happens we know it is not a miracle. This is another instance of begging the question, for Cicero is merely adducing a little word game as a legitimate proof. He is saying, “Things that cannot happen do not happen.” This is not particularly informative. Cicero’s fallacy lies in assuming that a miracle is something that can never happen, but what people who believe in miracles are actually saying is not, “Something that can never happen just happened.” What they are saying is, “Something that cannot ordinarily happen has happened under the influence of a supernaturally gifted person.” This claim cannot be argued away by resorting to a play on words. Cicero was indeed correct in his conclusion, but the reasoning that led to it was wrong. What needs to be done is to put the miracle claims to the test. It can be established only empirically that miracles do not happen. We have to make a clear distinction between what can be demonstrated by an exercise in logic and what can be demonstrated only empirically, that is, by observation of the real world. For example, pure reasoning will enable you to deduce the formula for the planar moment of inertia of the cross section of a rectangular joist or beam, but only testing materials will enable you to estimate the allowable unit stress in a particular kind of material, be it wood, plastic, steel or concrete. So we have to check out the miracle stories to see if they are credible. We cannot reason them away. Since no one can be everywhere at once to research all the miracle stories that have been told in the world, he must use a statistical approach. In other words, he must sample a good number of cases in which miraculous powers have been alleged, and judge on the merits objectively. When he does this, he finds that miracles stories are pure nonsense, as Cicero no doubt knew from personal experience. Cicero’s little word game, though, does nothing to advance the cause of those who know that miracles don’t happen. Religionists make the mistake of repeating miracle stories from the Bible without proving that the Bible is true in the first place. Such miracles we can discount prima facie. Another trick they use is passing off ordinary events as miracles. They say, “The birth of a child is a miracle. The blossoming of a rose is a miracle. Therefore, we have no reason to doubt the Flood or the Exodus, since they are just other miracles.” We can discount this too. The other trick religionists use is fabrication of supposed miracles. A dead nun, Edith Stein, healed a girl from the grave. Mother Teresa cured an ovarian cyst by using a picture of Jesus. We can discount all this too. If we keep checking and checking, we’ll find that indeed there are no miracles. There are no specially gifted people who make ordinarily impossible things happen. There are no miraculous cures. There are no raisings of the dead. Objective experience by an intelligent mind does indeed reveal that there are no miracles. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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