(October 10, 2018 at 3:39 pm)LadyForCamus Wrote:(October 10, 2018 at 3:02 pm)SteveII Wrote: Your definition of supernatural is wrong. You're actually creating your confusion by defining the word so it makes no sense.
su·per·nat·u·ral
ˌso͞opərˈnaCH(ə)rəl/
adjective
- 1.
(of a manifestation or event) attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.
There is nothing in the definition that limits its interaction with natural things (those things that are governed by the laws of nature).
Further, a miracle is not a violation of the physical laws, it is an effect in the natural world with a supernatural cause. To say it another way, a physical law describes the expected effect given certain conditions. If there is a supernatural cause, those certain conditions obviously do not obtain.
Redefining something as ‘beyond scientific understanding’ is neither an explanation, nor a positive descriptor of the particular thing in question. Let me ask you, how do we make the determination that something is beyond science’s ability to explore?
I'm not redefining anything. That is the definition.
The best way is context. Events contrary to what we know about the laws of nature are more likely miracles when there is a context that suggest a supernatural cause. For example, if Jesus tells a crippled man from birth to stand up, take up his mat and walk, that would seem more likely a miracle than not.
If a whole church is praying for a little boy (like my brother-in-law) who had a brain tumor and on the morning of his surgery he had a CT scan for the surgeon to map his cuts, there was no tumor. Never came back. That might be a miracle.
If someone looses their car keys and prays and then finds them. Probably not.
Looking through a microscope at a some sub-atomic particle that isn't behaving as expected would never be thought of as a miracle--there is no context to think that it would be. That concept is called epistemological naturalism and that is how a Christian who is also a scientist would approach his/her work.