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.
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