Gollum and Eagles: Deux ex machina?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by davem

I'm a bit uncertain about simply classing anything we can't currently explain as a 'miracle' & attributing it to 'God'. This 'God of the Gaps' approach seems a bit superstitious. Many things our ancestors would have classed as miracles because they couldn't explain them are accepted by us as results of natural processes & I'm sure many things which we now call 'miracles' will go the same way.

In short, its a bit presumtious to say what is within & what is outside 'natural law' when we don't know what the parameters of 'natural law' are. Also, if God is 'within', at the heart of, creation, then the 'Divine' is also the 'natural', so its a bit difficult to draw a line between them (another consequence of Incarnation, I suppose)

Maybe its a case not of the 'parameters' of nature, but our perceptions of nature. These may or may not include scientific theories. So to a tribal people deep in the Amazon rainforest it may be a 'miracle' that the sun rises every day, while to us it is explained by science.

And even so, despite possessing scientific knowledge we can still be amazed by the fact that the Sun does rise. If not a literal 'miracle' it is still a metaphorical miracle.

If that makes sense.