Miracles, proof of what?

[Flystripper]

Originally Posted by woot

And that reason is that such things are impossible without the suspension of physical laws, and are therefore irrational to believe in. There has never been a miracle witnessed by anyone with the capacity to judge its veracity. How convenient.

Miracles are probably a topic worthy of a different thread. My body of work on this bord is quite limited but most people here would not put me into the "mullah" camp. In fact, I have struggled as of late reconciling my faith in Joseph's call with what we know about his personal history, but that is off the topic.

You say there has never been a miracle witnessed by anyone with the capacity to judge its veracity. Is a scientist the only type of person that is able to judge a miracle's veracity? How about a doctor or a paramedic? I have 2 personal examples of miracles in my life. I hesitate to share them because it is likely my experiences may be judged by those that did did not experience them as being SoonerCougarish.

With that being said, I will share one example. 15 years ago (I was 19 at the time and had just submitted my missionary papers) while on vacation visiting a childhood friend in western Nebraska, I was riding in the passenger seat of a Jeep Wrangler without its doors and top. I was not wearing a seat belt. My friend who was driving, was distracted by some girls that we knew who were following behind us in a convertable. We were horsing around with the girls on the road which caused my buddy to lose control of the car and hit a telephone pole going 40mph.

My friend, the driver, was thrown out of the car through the space where his door would have been. I was thrown through the windshield with my torso resting on the hood of the Jeep. I was concious the entire time and sustained only a minor scratch on my forehead. My friend had massive head trauma which required a 911 call for an ambulence. The girls were too busy being nervous wrecks (pun intended but they were freaking out) and it was before cell phones so I pulled myself the rest of the way through the windshield and ran to the nearest house about 100 yards away. I called the ambulence which arrived fairly quickly.

After attending to my friend, a paramedic asked where the person was that hit the windshield? I replied I was that person. At that point all the medical folks freaked out and rushed to attend to me. They worried about internal bleeding and trauma to the brain and the like. To make a long story short there paramedics freaked out but I was unhurt.

One paramedic who claimed he had 15 years of experience said to me it was miraculous and that "in all of his 15 years of experience he had seen nothing like it." I would have just chalked it up to luck, but my mom is very religious and reminds me all the time how we had a family prayer before I left that no physical harm would come to me while on my vacation (she brings up this experience even more now that she knows my LDS faith is wavering)

Anyway, there are times when things happen for which there is no explanation. Sure that paramedic was not an expert in physics, nor was he an engineer that designed windshields. However, he had witnessed countless accidents over 15 years and his shock over lack of injuries is not discounted with a wave of the hand. Could it be luck? maybe. Could it be divine protection? Who knows? I know that I don't know for sure either way, but "miracles" that defy explanation do happen and people who are somewhat qualified do observe them all the time.

The other experienceI referenced involves my sister and her heart surgeon but I will save that one for another day.