Do We Need Miracles?

Last week, I took up the question of possibility of miracles. I drew on some of the insights we have gained from philosophy and science to conclude that the popular arguments against the possibility of miracles have not conclusively proved that such a phenomenon is not possible. However, this is not to say that we can conclusively assert the genuineness of claims of miracles made by individuals.

In his book THE POWER OF YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND: HOW IT WORKS AND HOW TO USE IT (2004, California, ANAPHASE II Publishing), Harry W. Carpenter gave an account of what he and the doctors that took care of him at Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago saw as a miraculous healing. As a nine-year-old boy, he had developed a disease which heart specialists at the hospital diagnosed as an incurable ailment and the parents were asked to take him home. At home, his condition deteriorated so badly and quickly too that he was losing wait rapidly and getting weaker by the day. His parents, who were irreligious and never attended church, contacted a member of Christian Science (a Christian denomination that believes in miraculous healing through prayers and mental exercises that worked on one’s subconscious mind). Carpenter said he could not remember exactly what the man did but that he recalled him saying, “everything is possible, you will be healed.” That was it, the disease left. Few months later, he said, one of the specialists at the hospital where he was diagnosed of the disease wrote a medical paper on the unexplainable healing, and on the day the expert presented the paper, he brought him to stand on the stage as evidence of the claim.

While one may not be in the position to dispute Carpenter’s claim, it does not conclusively show that whatever phenomenon he experienced was miraculous. For instance, there is the possibility that the diseased condition in question is indeed reversible, and that the conclusion of medical science in this regard is erroneous. First, it should be noted, as I stated last week, that despite its marveling degrees of achievement in understanding human anatomy and physiology, science is yet to cover so much ground in terms of unraveling the “mystery” of our biology. Some experts believe only about 10 percent of our biology has been understood, while others think what is known is only as little as 2 to 5 percent. On this account, caution should always be applied in giving supernatural explanation to any phenomenon that appears to defy what science currently knows about nature and how it functions.

The human body has an inbuilt mechanism to correct its problems. Science has told us so much about this, but it will be preposterous to assume that what science tells us about this natural phenomenon is all there is about it. In my last week’s article, I cited examples from relativity and quantum physics to show that while science has achieved a lot in telling us about nature, its limitations are so significant that we can never claim to have fully figured out nature. In other words, our limited knowledge of nature implies that just as we cannot for sure say that miracles are not possible, we also cannot for sure conclude that specific unexplainable phenomena we encounter are miraculous. One may say that we lack sufficient knowledge to affirm or deny.

Another point to make here is the question of the relationship between mind and body – the psychosomatic phenomenon – whereby the body affects the mind and vice versa. In this regard, it has been noted that our body can get diseased or healed of its disease simply as a result of our state of mind – what we think, what we believe and what we expect. This is exactly the reason every medical student must take at least a course in psychological medicine as part of their professional training. This is not a phenomenon our biological and social sciences can claim sufficient understanding of yet. In their very insightful book, BIOFEEDBACK: TURNING ON THE POWER OF YOUR MIND (1973, New York, Warner Books), Marvin Karlins and Lewise Anderews gave a report of their research into the psychosomatic phenomenon, presenting mind-blowing incidents of healing of medically incurable ailments after the patients have worked on their state of mind. The authors noted that this phenomenon is one that is still largely to be understood by modern science. But then one may also argue that our little understanding of this phenomenon should as well make us to be cautious in concluding that what has happened in any such instance is not miraculous. I agree.

Let me, at this juncture, say that belief in miracles, like every other religious belief, is personal, and that the devotee’s right to freedom of religion and thought should be respected. While we can engage in all this mental exercise and debate, it may amount to some degree of arrogance to seek to impose our own interpretations on what others experienced or believe they have experienced. Therefore, I am restricting myself to only showing reasons why we should be cautious as to how hastily we jump from the known to the unknown. And there are practical reasons why this caution is important.

One is the sanity and healthy functioning of the individual. Being too readily disposed to miraculous expectations can make one behave and think in ways that are dysfunctional and harmful to themselves and others. I know a student who got admission in my school to study mass communication, but in the course of vetting of her papers, it was discovered she had no credit pass in literature, meaning she was deficient as per the requirements. She was therefore advised to change to another department. However, this religious and churchious girl going by the nickname “Jesus baby”, decided to stay on and be receiving lectures in a department she had been denied admission into. Those close to her told me she kept saying “my lord will do it for me.” She was expressing her uncompromising belief in the miraculous. Fortunately, by the time I decided to invite and speak to her, this little girl had finally taken the wise path of accepting the offer of another discipline as made to her by the university. She appeared to have taken the wise counsel of those around her. She has since graduated.

There have been many similar cases, so numerous that each of us may have one or two to tell. When people become too given to miraculous expectations, they risk losing their right sense of judgment that enables one take the right decisions in whatever circumstances they may find themselves. Many years ago as an undergraduate, I was traveling to Lagos on a long bus and somewhere in Ondo or Ogun State, gunshots were being heard ahead of us and vehicles started parking by the roadside. Words had it that a robbery operation was going on. That was in a broad daylight! Passengers were alighting from their vehicles in case it became necessary to run for cover. As I stood to look ahead to possibly see what was happening, a woman sitting directly behind me spoke as though she was rebuking me, “Are you afraid? I’m not afraid of any harm, I am a chosen.” In 2020, during the early days of COVID-19, I was in a commercial vehicle and heard a woman boasting that she would never observe any of the recommended safety protocols because being a believer such diseases are not for her.

My common sense as a human created by God tells me that as mortals we are vulnerable to all sorts of harm from natural and manmade causes. And like all living entities, including plants, we humans live always with possibility of becoming sick as a matter of our biological configurations. Being sick is not evidence of unholiness or irreligiosity. Therefore, it is only commonsensical that we take advantage of all God-given resources, including medicine and our running feet (for escape from harm) to protect ourselves whenever necessary and possible. Anything to the contrary is taking the belief in miracles too far.

The second reason I think we need to apply caution while seeking and hoping for miracles is related to possibility of manipulation and exploitation. Once any fellow mortal is seen as possessing the power to miraculously affect life of others in terms of temporal cravings like health and finances, the possibility are high that he assumes a near-god status. Hence, he may begin to manipulate and exploit people who desperately see him as the supernatural source (or at least medium) of solution to their problems. Nollywood has done well to depict this fact in many of its productions over the years. I remember one of such movies where Ejike Asiegbu played the role of the purported miracle worker. One of his victims saw hell; he was flogged, abused and eventually had his wife taken to bed by the healer. This is only a movie but it bears no exaggeration in terms of depicting what happens in reality. In her book, PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENCE (1974, Northamptonshire, Aquarian Press),  Dion Fortune reported how so many individuals around the world have been inhumanly manipulated, economically exploited and sexually abused by their purported spiritual healers. We do not need to begin to recount the uncountable cases of such in Nigeria including where adult men and women are made to go naked in streams to be bathed by the “miracle workers” in order to heal them or open financial doors for them. Some years ago, someone told me about a family who lost a member to a disease that was commonly treatable because the “miracle-performing” pastor asked him not to accept medication as his case was spiritual and not physical.

Lastly, there is this very important question as to whether miracle is what we actually need as mortals wandering this earth in search of meaning; a search for which we have embraced religion. The religious journey is a journey to discover the ultimate meaning of our sojourn in this universe of God. Our emergence and ontological placement in this sphere called life is one that remains a mystery to us – who am I? Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where am I heading to from here? Answers to these questions elude our sensory knowledge; they are metaphysical questions, to borrow the words of philosophers. These questions in one form or the other inevitably bother every homo sapiens. They are unavoidable, firmly planted in the core of our being as conscious entities, as compellingly observed by existentialist philosophers from Soren Kierkegaard and Martin Heidegger to Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.

Long life, good health, financial breakthroughs and all the temporal goods for which we seek miracles cannot satisfy this craving for the ultimate meaning. Its satisfaction is what various religions have tried to captured in the idea of SALVATION. The pursuit of this goal (in its various imaginings in different religions – paradise in Christianity and Islam, Moksha in Hinduism, Nivarna in Buddhism etc.) is the soul of religion. St. Augustine of Hippo aptly captured the essence of this Christian goal in his famous statement, “You have made us for yourself oh Lord and our souls are restless until they rest in you.”

My point here is that miracle-seeking disposition, if caution is not applied, undermines the very essence of religion which is to find a meaning that transcends the incurably unsatisfying allures of wealth, financial breakthrough and all temporal goods which our unending desires for leave us in endless pain. With unmoderated desire for the miraculous, the mortal who embraced religion to be free from the enslavement of the material becomes even more enslaved to the material. He routinely describes the material as “vanities” but keeps on romancing with vanities through his brand of faith that is focused on miraculously realizing the material.

The material should be realized, but focus should be on doing this through applying our brain, our labour, and managerial skills. Good health should be pursued through taking the right health actions including building and equipping health facilities. Poverty should be fought through the right economic policies and good governance in general. Life and property should be secured through building a robust security architecture. All these are necessary so as to put a stop to the embarrassing situations where people give testimonies of getting miraculous opportunities to travel out of Nigeria for healthcare, rewarding jobs and better security. These countries got these things through application of brain and labour while we in Nigeria need miracles to partake in them.

As a Christian, I believe all this unmoderated quest for miracles is a wrong approach to Christianity if attention is paid to the essence of that great religion.

Henry Chigozie Duru, PhD, teaches journalism and mass communication at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria.