Don't know what happened to my yesterday replyn to this... I'll try to reconstruct.
Easy enough....first there are loons everywhere, and no group or class is immune...since most people on the planet are believers in God, the sheer numbers demonstrate we have more loons.....
Second...miracle is one of those words thrown around that has different meanings and contexts...there is a difference when one says "Hillarys' comeback is a miracle"-vs- something attributed to God.
Since I know where you are coming from, I will assume we are dealing with the theological context of "miracle"
mir·a·cle /ˈmɪrəkəl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[mir-uh-kuhl] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.
2. such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.
I bolded the portion above that is relevant to your example.....
Relief of constipation does not fit with this description.
I quite agree that when investigating a particular idea that a dictionary definition is a good place to START. But unless you have total faith in authority, testimony and 'the word' then that is all it can be - a starting point. I think the definition simply captures the vagueness that the concept embodies.
"
surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause."
most words in this definition need some sort of qualification, further explanation or comment.
'surpasses' implies that there is a 'gradient' of 'powers' that is apparently endless (?). This seems to be supported by the use of 'all known' - implying that there may be powers which we do not know about (sure, everyone I guess would agree to that) - but on the historical evidence we will get to know about them. The last 400 years have seen a phenomenal (and accelerating) increase human knowledge: it is more than likely that in the next generation we will learn much more. So what was a 'miracle' now will be part of known powers then. 'Miracle' seems on that basis to be something fluid.
'ascribed to supernatural cause' is redolent with vagueness - WHO can perform the ascription? Patton does not accept that an old guy (a lifelong devout catholic, ex-master butcher, ex-local councillor) can do this - he's 'a loon'. So who can make this ascription validly? What counts as evidence of miracle? Acorn0101 tells us "constipation sometimes cures itself naturally" - so must the event be something that NEVER happens 'naturally'? In that case an earthquake that occurs to turn a battle or darkness at noon that saves a fugitive are not miracles. In the spirit of these miracles, we must ask why was THAT constipation cured AT THAT TIME? The supernatural cause is of course a problem. There is absolutely no theory of how the unknown supernatural can 'cause' physical events, yet here we are to attribute a cause. I will not bother to ask all the empty questions associated with this - but will point out that a supernatural 'domain' has been assumed by Jim by his prayer and religious hagiography.
If we take up the 'miraculous' timing of the event, and acorn's point, 'knowing' is a problematic thing here as well - I would invite anyone to explain in detail the psychologoical/physical events that resulted in the 'natural cure' occuring
just then. Even if we knew exactly how these things happen naturally, we cannot KNOW what happened here. Even if we take the easy answer of 'placebo', as suggested, I fail to see how that operates here. Also (straying further into Acorn's post) there seems to be all sorts of issues about how 'minor' or major an event needs to be to qualify as a miracle: what have we got - cancer-good-constipation-bad?
I think we need to clarify just why poor Jim can't have his miracle. Under precisely which conditions is the event debarred - without debarring other 'acceptable' miracles?
