Hi Dumbseeker, I’m maybe the one dumb here, but the way I read
"Is that true? Do they believe in miracles actually happened?
that is actually asking if anyone believes that miracles happened? My answer would be “Yes” (the pious,) “No” (the scholarly) and “Both” (the esoteric.)
Speaking as one who believes that they have witnessed a miracle, maybe two, I will nevertheless say that the pious are forced by their faith to believe, else thay have no faith. The scholarly, despite some moosh of logic on here, do deal with scriptures, but are forced to do so from a very 2+2=4 perspective. From that standpoint, inclusive of more than pious factors, it would seem unlikely that there were miracles in the sense of supernatural events. From the esoteric standpoint, the miracles could have happened, likely didn’t, but in either case bear a lesson which if understood results in spiritual transformation, *that *being the miracle.
We have to remember a few things when we are considering this question. One is that God is ALL. Does He need to use signs and wonders to get His point across, as if Creation itself is inadaquate? Hmmmmm…Maybe, I don’t know.
Take an old Bibles and cut our the Gospels, slice the four of them into their chapters and verses, and line them up four at a time, M,M,L,& J. Do you have any questions? Appearently some do. They are called scholars. Usually they wear the glasses of their particular denomination, each one claiming to have the “Truth.” Wow.
Then line up the four from your Bible, if you read Latin or Greek or Aramaic, with other translations and with the thousands of existing copies of the Gospels, none of them the original works. More questions. Is faith sufficient for these? Clearly for many it is. I’d hazard that most of those questions, however, are not cognized by the average christianist in the street, whatever their denomination.
For some, faith is not sufficient or it is narrow in its understanding. Arguements ensue, proofs are bandied about, and so on. Then we read, as in the *San Jose News *of May 5th, 1969 “In the All Nations Barber Shop in Fresno California, two men shot each other to death over a disagreement as to the true meaning of certain passages of the Bible.”
Esoterc readers bypass all of this, as they have somewhat of a Gnostic take on things, a stance which clearly those of our faith are not happy with and tend to call heretical. On the other hand, their explanation is by far the simplest and easiest to live by once it is understood. It is not understood, as far as I can tell, even in the Catholic Encyclopedia. That may not make it right, I’m just saying that by my lights it is not undertood, or if it is, no one Catholic is saying.
The point is that the question is usually in a yes/no, right/wrong format. Perhaps there is more to it than that. I have shown at least three possibilities which have a wide range of variations. We must also consider that as Arthur C. Clark said "Any sufficiently advanced technology appears to be magic. Take your remote control and TV back two hundred years, talk to the farmer who couldn’t see the stam engine because he didn’t beleive it, or chat with a cargo cultist if you don’t believe this. Or, talk to me. I practice NLP and in ten minutes can “cure” a raging phobia. Not magic. Technique.
All that is* not *to deny miracles. But I have seen what others have called “Oh look!!! A flying saucer!!” and shown, despite my belief in them, that it was no such thing. And, like I said, I’m pretty darned sure I’ve seen a miracle or two. So all I am advocating here is that we think and allow thought. Who said “It is great luck for leaders that men don’t think.”? It was Adoph Hitler, and we know what happened there.
So if you think you don’t need to learn Greek or Latin because “God writ the Bible in English and it’s good enough for me,” (actual quote) then have your simple faith and that is fine. Great accomplishments have thus been achieved. But don’t stand in the way of someone who might wish more dimensions and depth to their knowledge.
