The Miracle of Life    -    Chris Snuggs

What is the definition of a miracle?

1) an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs

2) an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment

If you believe in God as we were supposed to at WHS then you do not need to worry about "miracles", since every “miracle” can be attributed to him, her or it. The problem arises for those who are not believers, because life itself is “miraculous”.

Habit is a wonderful thing and can help overcome many problems. We are for example used to being alive and so find it natural - but it is FAR from that: it is simply miraculous whether in divine terms or not. To start with, life in the Universe seems to be vanishingly rare - or even unique. Believers tell us that statistically there must be other planets with living beings. FINE, but there is as yet NO PROOF OF THAT WHATSOEVER. For all we know life on Earth is UNIQUE in the trillions of stars we know about.

HOW can any of the following be explained without invoking "GOD"?

  • We are composed of atoms themselves composed of almost unimaginably-small particles.
  • WHERE did they originally come from, and HOW did the original particles coalesce into atoms? By CHANCE? SERIOUSLY?
  • Were just ONE of those particles slightly different in mass or other characteristics then atoms as we know them would probably not have formed in the first place - therefore NO LIFE AS WE KNOW IT WOULD EXIST ANYWHERE.
  • We are taught (except by religious fundamentalists) that humans evolved. WHY? Surely seafood were self-sufficient and happy enough. Why did one crawl out of the oceans and start to evolve into humans via a myriad of other life forms?
  • Take the human brain composed of circa 1026 atoms (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). It sometimes goes wrong, but for most people for most of their lives all those atoms work together to do everything necessary. Is that not astonishing?
  • Take MEMORY. We have such vivid memories of many experiences: so clear that if one closes one’s eyes one can almost feel oneself reliving the experience. Yet memory is just a particular combination of atoms - but HOW did they form to create a memory and WHY do they usually stay in that formation for strong memories?
  • WHAT exactly makes us think that object A is more beautiful than object B?

If the above is not “miraculous", then I do not know what is. Again, if you believe in God then there is nothing to wonder about: it’s all totally normal - but if you don’t, then it is all just beyond comprehension. Humans do not seem to like incomprehension, so perhaps "GOD" of whatever colour was invented to avoid the issue.

The thing about my education at WHS is that I was never really led to understand just how unique and miraculous life is. Every single thing one looks at is composed of atoms miraculously combined into an object or matter of some kind? One tends to take all this for granted thanks to our old friend HABIT, but it is MIRACULOUS. EVERY SINGLE THING I SEE, HEAR, TOUCH or EXPERIENCE is a “miracle” - and once that as far as we know is UNIQUE IN THE UNIVERSE. I do not remember any teacher talking about this in these terms. That is a fact, not really a criticism. Perhaps one can or even should go one’s whole life without bothering to ask these questions, but we seem to be programmed to ask questions about everything under the sun - and the puzzle bothers me.

As for “Nisi Dominus Vanum”, a belief in "GOD" was supposed to be normal, but it has always been difficult for me, and I found it slightly amusing that for our religious assemblies boys of non-Christian faiths could be excused attendance - but there was to my knowledge never any reference to ATHEIST boys being included in that category! We were kind of ignored!

I love Jesus - a role-model for the ages, and much of Christianity is beautiful: the Commandments, the message, the churches, the worship, the music - but for me it’s just a way of explaining the miraculous - which I cannot do without evidence. The beautiful thing, however, is that if one can see every thing, every feeling, every event as a "miracle" then the daily routine and sometimes trudge of life becomes beautiful and astonishing - except in the face of "EVIL" - and that is another story!