The Secret to Miracles

Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

A brilliant scientist passed away and found himself in a final interview with God, to review his life and deeds. God commended him for his contributions to mankind, and his respect and love for his family, then asked if he had any questions or comments before they began. The scientist pondered for a moment, and decided to bring up something he had been thinking about a lot the last few years of his life. He said “You know, God, we don’t really need you anymore.” God raised His Divine Eyebrows and said “Really now?” The scientist then explained “Well, yeah. We’ve made such incredible advances in science. We can cure diseases. We can manipulate elements. We can even create life.” God nodded His Head. He had been observing all of these advances. The scientist concluded “We really just don’t need you. We’re grateful, and all, for what you did for us in the beginning, but we’ve got it from here.” God continued to nod, looking at the scientist thoughtfully. Then He said “That’s wonderful. You know, I’d like you to show me how you create life.” The scientist, sensing a challenge, left his chair with determination and immediately knelt to gather some earth with which to form a man. “Ah, ah, ah!” said God, “Get your own dirt.”

I’ve been thinking about this joke lately, and about miracles. In Jesus the Christ, James E. Talmage writes: “We arbitrarily classify as miracles only such phenomena as are unusual, special, transitory, and wrought by an agency beyond the power of man’s control.” So few phenomena are considered miracles because so much is explained by science. To someone living a hundred years ago, computers would be a miracle. To someone just before that, electricity would be a miracle. Today these things are easily explained, (I don’t actually have the explanations, but I know I could find out if I Google it) so they’re not really considered special at all.

When we look at the world, do we see a miracle? When we see a sunset, do we marvel that the world revolves so neatly around a star that provides the perfect proportions of heat and energy? Are we astonished that our eyes can transmit images to our brain which interprets them and sends out corresponding signals so that we feel pleasure at the beauty of the sight? Isn’t that a miracle? I know that some people have trouble believing that God formed man because they say man came from primordial ooze or descended from apes. But however the materials of the earth were brought to form a human being, isn’t it a miracle that everything came together perfectly for the development of a species that could create something like Google?

Alma 30:44 “…yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea , and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a a Supreme Creator.”

This post feels sort of jumbled, but these are just some of my random thoughts this week.