One week in 2008 the Orlando Sentinel carried a story of what was basically a non-fatal, freak accident that very well could have been fatal. The word “miracle” appeared in the headline. A boy had been following behind a heavy-duty lawnmower when a long, thin shard of metal shot out from beneath. The projectile nearly flew completely through the boy, but didn’t. After piercing his pancreas and abdominal aorta, it stopped. Because the projectile didn’t have the necessary momentum to continue its flight, the piece of metal sealed its own hole in the boy’s aorta. Otherwise he would have bled to death.
The newspaper dutifully reported the father’s conjecture: God had has hand on the boy. While the boy came very close to dying, he didn’t, thus a god was involved.
Critical thinkers and non-believers in miracles might venture to wonder why the god hadn’t completely deflected the path of the metal shard, sparing the boy all trauma. It is actually as much a miracle (i.e., highly improbable event) that the boy was not only hit, but hit above the waist. Most mower accidents of this kind involve injury to the lower legs.
Of the fat pie slice of a direction it could have flown in, the projectile seemed to have zeroed in on the worst target possible. The vital organs of an innocent boy. But it only “seemed to have zeroed in” if you bother to inject meaning into what was an accident.
In cases such as these, thoughts of miracles are a cognitive Band-Aid placed over an ugly truth that could have been uglier. In reality, miracles have nothing to do with truth, besides masking it.
Because people like to read and hear about improbable events (the seemingly miraculous), news agencies repeat them. Next story: Video of a cat that rescues a drowning mouse! Now that’s news!
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