Of course they do, at least as far as I'm concerned. But that's just one man's opinion and also a function of my definition of miracle, which is a positive outcome or turn of events that can not be explained in any other way and to which we ascribe special importance in our lives. The great theologian, Paul Tillich, called them signal events in our lives. Like Tillich though, I am more circumspect, about claiming to understand how God or Her/His agents make miracles happen, what they mean or the specific reason why they occur. But lots of people are not so hesitant, and that's what makes this story from Hawaii so interesting.
When Audrey Toguchi's doctor told her she had six months to live, she made a pilgrimage to pray at the grave site of Father Damien, a Catholic priest who died in 1889. Months later her cancer was gone -- putting the missionary on a path to sainthood....The Vatican conducted an extensive review and concluded Toguchi's recovery defied medical explanation. Pope Benedict XVI agreed and approved the case as Damien's second miracle, opening the way for the Belgian priest to be declared a saint.
Everyone seems to agree that this was a miracle by my definition, but how does one make the leap from "wow, what an amazingly wonderful occurrence that I personally attribute to divine intervention", to "a rigorous inquiry has determined that since science can not offer an explanation for this event, not only do we believe that God is responsible, but that the dead missionary before whom this woman prayed is also responsible for her miraculous recovery"?
How does the Church do this? This is not just some individual shouting "it's a miracle" in a moment of particular joy. It's not even a case of feeling touched by divine intervention. It's the Catholic Church making a claim about the factuality of something that is by definition, beyond such explanation. How does this work? How is this not precisely the kind of flimsy thinking that provides those who mock belief with the ammunition they seek?
And no, I have no issues with the Catholic Church, at least not about this. Like any 2,000 year old institution, it has done some horrific things and some magnificent things. Like any great tradition, including my own, it has moments of which to be proud and those of which to be ashamed. I just don't understand how the absence of one kind of explanation is the same as proof for the presence of another. In fact, that leap is often the divide which needlessly separates believers from non-believers.
Ms. Toguchi's Doctor made an interesting observation:
"For the true believer or faithful, this is a miracle. For the true skeptic, this is a random or very unusual coincidence. For the doctor and scientist, we call it complete spontaneous regression of cancer."
This doctor separates the theological or anti-theological claims of either side and focuses instead on the phenomenon of the cancer's disappearance instead. It's as if he can appreciate the miracle more because he is not locked into an interpretive battle about how it occurred. I wonder of that isn't good advice for all of us, whatever side we are on theologically. I wonder how many miracles we all miss because we are more interested in how they confirm or deny that which we already believe, instead of simply appreciating how wonderful they are.
There is a Midrash (ancient rabbinic tale) that describes the burning bush which Moses sees when tending his father-in-law's flocks. The Rabbis teach that the miracle was not that the bush was burning without being consumed, because it had been burning since the beginning of time. The miracle was that Moses noticed.
Miracles are around us always if we allow ourselves to see them - to see them not as proof for some larger ideology which needs shoring up, but as the possibility of so many wonderful things that are beyond current explanation, but not beyond current celebration.
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
Here is further proof of how God helps people in difficulties of all kinds: SMALL MIRACLES by Askin Ozcan. Thirty stunning stories of small miracles from the author's own life in different countries.
ISBN 1598001000
Available at www.bn.com , www.amazon.com under the author's name.
In response to Malachi Hamavet about miracles: it appears you are an agnostic on the subject of miracles - would that be fair to say? I have one to offer you and I would like your guess as to the possibility factor of coincidence in this. Before I start I should let you know I am a Christian and therefore we differ in some things but the God we believe in is the same, although viewed differently in some aspects, and He is all-powerful. This in itself allows for miracles.
I have a broken relationship which I am trying to repair in which my Lady is very troubled and bitter concerning things which have happened in her life and God. She did not possess the Word of God in paper form and it was my heartfelt desire to buy her a leatherbound giant print Bible upon which I could inscribe her name. She has 1/2 her sight in one eye only and cannot read a regular print one even with a magnifier.
Upon going to purchase one I found the one I wanted to be far beyond my means and I was disheartened. Now here comes the miracle: without even praying the next Monday I walked into the church office and on the counter was a brand new leatherbound giant print Bible. No one at the church knew I needed it - a lady whom I didn't even know at the time dropped it off saying she had never used it and just felt someone needed it. Of course they gave it to me for my Lady. Possible coincidence? Maybe. What came next takes it beyond the realm of probability.
I had wanted to use a particular script for the imprinting and I asked the pastor if he knew of a store which could imprint which might have it. It turned out that he had recently purchased an imprinter from a store which went out of business, and upon looking, it had the exact type I wanted to use.
These two things in themselves substantiate God's active working, but the greatest miracle is that He gave us a written word to reveal His care for us in providing a salvation. We differ on whether that salvation has been accomplished yet but not on the fact that He promised it and will accomplish what He promised. Not only did He have to give us that written word in order for what I described to have happened, it was apparently directed to one individual - showing personal concern and care by the God we believe in.
You may choose to remain agnostic in the face of evidence like this if you choose, as it didn't happen to you - for me it would be blasphemous to doubt such an obvious miracle. In addition I would not attempt to decry other apparent or claimed miracles unless I knew them to be false beyond a doubt - I would fear the reaction of the God I claim to believe in to my arbitrary doubt and unbelief.
Jeremiah Price
I don't have a problem believing in miracles, per se. In fact, I do believe they happen.
It's the approach in absolutes - if it's not one, then it's the other, that irritates.
The Rabbi described it well when he talked about automatically assigning the word "miracle" to something that did not have a patent or otherwise easy explanation.
In my mind, it's kind of like the discussion of evolution versus creation. They should not necessarily be viewed as mutually exclusive, yet so many people want to see it that way, as either one or the other. Maybe the real answer is something in between.
I believe that we live in an incredible universe that is based on a creators thoughts, but that it is all governed by laws of nature that were put in the place from the start. I do not claim to know this amazing God, nor that I would even be able to comprehend this being due to the limitations on my knowledge. If this God is LOVE, then it makes no sense to me that God would help some and ignore so many others. I was raised as a Catholic, and so many good things in my life I attributed to God...Two great parents, a nice house, vacations, an education, but then as I grew older, I began, more and more, to see the incredible advanteages that I had over most of the world! I did not do anything to have such a comfortable life while many others suffered. I had prayed and received meaningless material consumer goods while God did not answer the fervent prayers of mothers and fathers in third world countries for food to feed their babies! I have listened to people pray to Saint Anthony to find a lost credit card or wallet...It turns up and they are on their knees in thanksgiving. It does not follow what I have experienced. Miraculous things have happened to me, but I do not see them the way I once did. I must be the miracle for others...A figure in the sky is not going to magically do it! We must look into our spirits and make the miracles! I think god is there...not just in the hearts of Christians but in all those who love regardles of their beliefs. When we all accept this, only then will the miracle of peace happen!
Nietzche once famously said "God is dead" some years later Nietzche
was dead...Nietzche is still being read and God is still being discussed. Nietzche did not mean the literal death of God he was stating that science had replaced God. Another wise man once said
"I think therfore I am" but it would have been as true to say I am therefore I think. If God is the infinite and science is the finite
then both are true but neither can be proved. Every question answered
opens the door to another question, this process goes on into infinity. The infinite and the finite are the same and yet neither holds the answer to the other. We will never know if there is a God
we will never know if there is not a God. By answering the question,
we ask the question. We are infinite and we are finite that is the only truth we can be sure of, which means we know nothing, and by admiting we know nothing, we have learned all there is to know.
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