Harry Potter Forums

Posts: 1525 · Posted: August 16, 2008 9:11 am Post subject: Do you Believe in Miracles?

I personally don't..... But good things do happen to good people.
_________________

Posts: 16555 · Joined: Jul 22, 2008 Location: England Posts: 16555

I do

_________________

"If you think that Satan is a rare and exotic person in
*~~our lives, then you are in the wrong religion"~~*

Posts: 9356 · Posted: August 16, 2008 9:31 am Post subject:

i see miracles everyday when my kids smile at me.
_________________

Posts: 4813 · Joined: Mar 1, 2008 Location: in La La Land =] Posts: 4813

of course i do. it was a mericle that i made it out of a tornado alive. it's a mericle that all i have is asthma and not lung cancer.
_________________
Sig by RJ (Evanesco)

Posts: 11287 · Joined: Aug 1, 2007 Location: Sharon, PA Posts: 11287

I don't believe in God; consequently, I don't believe in miracles.
_________________

Please support the Diabetes Walk

Posts: 1525 · Posted: August 16, 2008 12:50 pm Post subject:

Posts: 17117 · Posted: August 16, 2008 12:54 pm Post subject:

it doesn't have to mean something divine...it derives from miraculum, the latin for "something wonderful"

I believe in wonderful things
_________________

They say home is where the heart is, so your real home's in your chest. --Captain Hammer

Posts: 9356 · Posted: August 16, 2008 12:57 pm Post subject:

Posts: 11287 · Joined: Aug 1, 2007 Location: Sharon, PA Posts: 11287

These are the only definitions given at dictionary.com:

mir·a·cle Audio Help (mĭr'ə-kəl) Pronunciation Key
n.
An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God: "Miracles are spontaneous, they cannot be summoned, but come of themselves" (Katherine Anne Porter).
One that excites admiring awe. See Synonyms at wonder.
A miracle play.

Naturally, a lot of things excites admiring awe, so I assumed that the maker of this thread wasn't talking about that. In that case, everybody would have to belive in miracles. The only other option is a divine miracle. The word may mean "somethine wonderful," but that is only because religious tests used latin. So obviously, the word would have a Latin root. The doesn't change the fact that the word itself has a just as much of a religious connotation in todays world as it did in the the past.
_________________

Please support the Diabetes Walk

Posts: 4457 · Posted: August 16, 2008 1:11 pm Post subject:

Nope. When a plane crashes and kills 95 of the 100 passengers, the 5 survivers claim that the fact that they're alive is proof of miracles. Those 5 people talk about it for the rest of their lives. The 95 people who died don't get the chance to talk about how their deaths disprove miracles. You don't hear about them. You don't hear about the twins that were born conjoined at the face and suffocated some 40 seconds after the umbilical cord was cut.

10 people contract a type of cancer with a 90% mortality rate. They all pray to live. 9 of them die and 1 of them lives due to the 90% mortality rate. The one who lives claims that it's a miracle and that god saved him. It's not - it's just probability. Had none of them prayed, then 9 of them would have died and 1 of them would have lived. Sometimes it's the jerk who gets to live, and the 9 generous people who get to die.

That's reality in a nutshell.
_________________

Posts: 17117 · Posted: August 16, 2008 1:12 pm Post subject:

Noun

* S: (n) miracle (any amazing or wonderful occurrence)
* S: (n) miracle (a marvellous event manifesting a supernatural act of a divine agent)

from http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=miracle

but good point that everyone would have to believe in the "something wonderful" definition...but also your definition just allows that it is attributed to a divine act, not necessarily that it is. so I believe that things could happen that inspire awe in people and that are miraculous. I haven't really fully worked out yet how far I think "God" is involved in our world...so I don't know yet if I believe miracles would be divine. ah wow convoluted thoughts.
_________________

They say home is where the heart is, so your real home's in your chest. --Captain Hammer

Posts: 11287 · Joined: Aug 1, 2007 Location: Sharon, PA Posts: 11287

Posts: 17117 · Posted: August 16, 2008 1:39 pm Post subject:

that's why I voted "kind of"
_________________

They say home is where the heart is, so your real home's in your chest. --Captain Hammer

Posts: 3442 · Posted: August 16, 2008 1:57 pm Post subject:

i dont really believe in miracles... i believe more in luck... miracles have all this god let you live, or god commanded that this good thing happen. i may believe in god, but i dont think hes gonna spend his whole day handing out good things that we proclaim a miracle. so i believe in luck. numbers just make more sense.
_________________

Posts: 3091 · Joined: Nov 27, 2006 Location: Buffalo,NY! Posts: 3091

miracles yes. but not holy miracles.
_________________

Posts: 1028 · Joined: Aug 21, 2007 Location: Hogwarts Posts: 1028

huh I dunno sort of I guess, but I've never seen anything miracle worthy but I've heard of stuff so like i said sort of.
_________________

Posts: 25164 · Posted: August 16, 2008 2:39 pm Post subject:

I believe in miracles... not necessarily miracles done by God, though. I like Bella's definition of "something wonderful..." so I voted kind of.
_________________

I know the distance is a factor, but I stretch as often as I can and my goal is to reach your hand any day now.
I love you, Kevin. ♥

Posts: 26944 · Posted: August 16, 2008 2:49 pm Post subject:

I voted "kind of"

I see wonderful things happen all the times.

Sometimes wonderful things happen, with no rhyme or reason. Good luck, miracle, or mere coincidence, call it whatever you want, but if it makes me happy enough to glow on the inside so I can feel it in my fingertips the word "coincidence" seems lacking.
_________________

Blame it on a simple twist of fate. ~ Bob Dylan
"To commemorate a past event, you kill and eat an animal. It's a ritual sacrifice. With pie." ~ Anya <3

Posts: 17117 · Posted: August 16, 2008 3:01 pm Post subject:

^very nicely worded. it almost seems that to say miracles don't exist...you're taking all the beauty out of incredible things...but that's just me, and my conception of miracle.

like a coincidence would be running into somebody you hadn't seen in years

a miracle would be if that person changed your life or like stopped you from wanting to kill yourself or something.
_________________

They say home is where the heart is, so your real home's in your chest. --Captain Hammer

Posts: 3282 · Posted: August 16, 2008 6:40 pm Post subject:

If Al Michaels said it, sure do.
_________________

Posts: 8213 · Joined: Dec 28, 2006 Location: New York Posts: 8213

Kind of.
_________________

Posts: 2745 · Joined: Jul 15, 2008 Location: In a House Posts: 2745

Definetly. Miracles don't happen to everyone, their rare. And yet they happen everyday. Having a child..... surviving cancer....how do you think this whole world came to be?
_________________

"I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
thanks to evanesco for the sig, and to JKR for the quote!

Posts: 4813 · Joined: Mar 1, 2008 Location: in La La Land =] Posts: 4813

Posts: 4457 · Posted: August 16, 2008 8:49 pm Post subject:

Harry Potter Forums

Harry Potter Community and Bulletin Boards