MadSci Network: General Biology
Query:

Re: The mechanics of a miracle

Date: Wed Jan 14 15:39:20 2004
Posted By: Dan Berger, Faculty Chemistry/Science, Bluffton College
Area of science: General Biology
ID: 1073933410.Gb
Message:

I hope this is a sufficiently mad question for your scientists! I've been asked to speculate, with the help of science/medicine, on how Jesus performed miracles. I'm not looking for rationalistic/reductionist arguments that expose him as a fraud. Rather, I'd like to know if anyone has interesting hypotheses on how Jesus may have healed people (e.g. through hypnosis), the process he used to exorcise, how he walked on water (e.g. by defying gravity or changing the surface tension of the water), how he fed 5,000 people, how he calmed a storm, and how he made a miraculous catch of fish. Also, can science offer any support for a virgin conception, the resurrection or Jesus' post-resurrection appearances? I appreciate that this is pure speculation, not explanation, but all views are welcome!
Boy, there are lots of bits to your question!
I've been asked to speculate, with the help of science/medicine, on how Jesus performed miracles.
There's lots of "Jesus isn't what the Christians say he is, but he still did all this stuff" speculation out there; you should dive into any number of books on "The Historical Jesus." You might start with the collaboration between N.T. Wright and Marcus Borg, The Meaning of Jesus (here's the US Edition), which gives lots of references. Wright is a theological conservative, Borg a liberal.

However, speculation along that line is often considered rather gauche, because if you think Jesus of Nazareth is who Christians think he is, what's the problem with miraculous explanations? and if you don't accept miracles, you're not likely to think the stories are true anyhow.

I'd like to know if anyone has interesting hypotheses on how Jesus may have healed people (e.g. through hypnosis), the process he used to exorcise...
Typical non-miraculous speculation involves the strength of Jesus' personality: even if someone's illness was not psychosomatic, they might feel better after he told them they were healed. We see that right up to the present: for example, cancer patients who took Laetrile saw a strong placebo effect, even though their disease was unchanged.

That doesn't say much about how Jesus might have raised the dead! But debunkers (and some Christians, like Borg or Funk or Crossan ) discount those stories anyhow.

Speculation about Jesus' exorcisms tends to follow the same trend: today, everyone believes in mental illness, but it's harder to find people that believe in demonic possession... Force of personality, combined with a belief that the exorcism will help, would work "wonders."

I'd like to know if anyone has interesting hypotheses on how Jesus ... walked on water (e.g. by defying gravity or changing the surface tension of the water), how he fed 5,000 people, how he calmed a storm, and how he made a miraculous catch of fish.
As both a Christian and a scientist I don't particularly want to get mixed up in speculation about wild and woolly stuff involving anachronistic (or just plain impossible) technology or psychology... or, for that matter, New-Age neo-spiritualism. Heck, we don't know today how to walk on water or calm storms!

Typically, someone who doesn't believe in miracles will either refuse to accept the truth of things that aren't explainable within a naturalistic worldview--"they never happened!"--or invoke improbable coincidences or mass hypnosis (which are the same thing). Either option is open.

See also one of my previous answers to a similar question.

The only bit explainable without invoking improbable coincidence ("the school of fish just happened to be there" or worse, "the storm ended just as he commanded it to do so") or equally improbable mass hypnosis ("through the power of his mind he convinced a boatload of fishermen that he was walking toward them across the lake") is the feeding of the 5,000. The debunkers' (and liberal Christians') explanation is that Jesus, through the force of his personality, led people to share food they had brought along with others who had none. Whether this makes sense in the context of the Biblical story is up to you.

can science offer any support for a virgin conception, the resurrection or Jesus' post-resurrection appearances?
Oy, vey. Or, as Norwegians might say (I grew up in Minnesota), feh- dah.

Short answer: "No."

  • Virginal conceptions do happen in other species, but there is no medically verified report of any such occurrence in humans.
  • The only theory I've ever heard of that attempts to explain the bodily resurrection of Jesus in naturalistic terms (as opposed to denying it) is Schonfield's The Passover Plot, and its argument is garbage.
    C'mon... a man who went without food for at least 24 hours and was thoroughly flogged before the excruciating experience of crucifixion, faking a death on the cross right in front of Roman soldiers who knew what death by crucifixion looked like and how to make certain of it, then walking (!!) out of his tomb on severely lacerated feet between 36 and 40 hours later and convincing his followers that he was triumphantly risen from the dead?? Give me a break.
  • Debunkers typically explain the reported post-resurrection appearances as wishful thinking or outright lies--alternatively, what we now call "urban legends."

    Liberal Christians who don't accept the Resurrection as described in the New Testament explain that Jesus was somehow immaterially "present" to his followers after his death, and this led them to describe him as "risen from the dead."

    N.T. Wright (see his book with Marcus Borg, referenced above) has done a good job explaining how anachronistic any such views are. Jews in Jesus' cultural milieu would simply not have thought that way any more than they would have described the universe in terms of bubble cosmology.

Long answer, "No, because..."

By definition, miracles are extraordinary (often one-of-a-kind) events without precedent or natural explanation, and they are not reproducible. By this, I mean that, while miracles (or miracle stories, depending on your taste) may cluster around one person or a few people, it is not true that anyone with the requisite training or performing the requisite ritual(s) will be able to observe the same results. (That's what distinguishes miracle from magic, by the way. In magic, as in science, in principle anyone can get the same results as long as they fulfill whatever requirements.)

On the other hand, science is concerned with what can be observed by anyone, anytime, anywhere. (This is, of course, an oversimplification-- but not by too much.) See our FAQ page, especially the Life FAQ and the Evolution FAQ.

Therefore, science cannot say much that's meaningful about miracles per se; hence the answer to your question is "no." Q.E.D. Or, to quote one of our founders (Lynn Bry), "[talk of miracles] is not subject to the hypothesis-driven, nor self-correcting aspects of scientific endeavor." See this previous answer.

Dan Berger
Bluffton College



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