Hawkeye

Why bother trying to explain miracles with science? How can you explain something that violates the laws of nature (miracles) using something that relies on said laws (science)?

intel2000

Thank you sir. My sentiments exactly. This also brings an interesting point to light for me. I dont think Im ever going to tell my beliefs on this board, see what kind of responses I get.....

intel2000

I agree, that his 'hand' would be all over anything he created, but I wasnt referring to the Theist idea of God, rather the Christian idea of a personal God who intervenes in the world.

Fortuna

But (here is a possible exception),

Sometimes we read these fantastic stories, and we say to ourselves,"OK, what REALLY happenned there and then". In other words, we seek a naturalistic explanation because we actually don't believe that a miracle took place. But, perhaps it was definitely something out of the ordinary,but those ancient people could not explain it except to say "godmustadidit". All we are doing is speculating that 1) if something happened, and if so, 2) what really happenned. Take the Oracle at Delphi for example.
Perhaps she went into fits, screaming, dancing wildly, seizures etc, and then uttered some ambiguous phrases that the devouteen seeking advice heard what he/she wanted to hear, or perhaps later mis-interpreted it. In the meantime, the priestess at Delphi was inhaling semi-toxic gases from a venthole in the earth.(thus explaining the screaming, dancing, seizures), and a simple mis-interpretation on the part of the devoutee for the prophecy part.
Certainly some back then called it a miracle.

I suppose all of this is a rather long winded way of saying that those of us who look for naturalistic explanations don't really believe in miracles anyway. In other words, we will reject any small amount of "goddidit" in favor of a natural explanation.

Or more simply, "there are no miracles, just unexplained events".

But now, another can of worms. suppose that a god used a natural means to initiate something miraculous. Take your water canopy example. Let's say for the sake of argument, lets say the water canopy is held back by a heavenly plastic polymeric film,
Someone who claims to be Neptune appears, fashions himself a hang glider out of wood and imported silk, takes a running start off of Mt Veruvius, gets caught in the updraft of the hot gasses coming from the volcano, sails his way up there and punctures the heavenly polymeric film with his trident.

Suppose that this whole series of event was witnessed by a writer who later records that Neptune came and broke the sky, and the rain poured down for 40 days and 40 nights. Meanwhile a group of virgins nearby, knowing death was at hand, did their yada yada yada, and were within moments drowned because of their iniquities.

Just a far out example.