A Miracle by Definition

But the changes in the religion have more to do with the propaganda value of the event than with the event itself.Take a fairly well-known miracle, the resurrection of Jesus. There is little or no evidence that it happened or that Jesus even existed. The course of the religion was influenced by people's belief in the event. Faith being the evidence of things not seen, it doesn't seem important for the miracle to be seen at all.So another definition of "miracle" might be, "An event, real or imagined, in which people have faith."

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I don't think "human nature" is the right way of looking at it. I suspect that the people who believe in levitiating priests, etc. are a different subset from people who ask how a stage magician levitates.Myself, if I saw a priest levitiating, my first question would be, "How does he do that?" and my second question would be, "What's the scam?" The possibility of a "miracle" wouldn't enter my head.

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You're looking at it backwards. If there is evidence of a scam, it's a scam. If there is evidence of some natural cause, it's natural. If there is no evidence of either, the cause is unknown.My point was that one subset of humanity attributes the unknown to "supernatural" causes. It isn't fair to tar us all with the same brush by calling it "human nature".

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It is "human nature" to be defensive when we are attacked, or to eat too much when food is abundant.It is not human nature to attribute all unexplained phenomena to "miracles". It is human nature to try to figure it out. If anything, those who jump to the "miracle" conclusion have a stunted curiosity. So, a miracle could be dfined as, "a lazy explanation for an unexplained event."

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