Hello everyone!
This week in my Chemistry class we learned about the concept of “viscosity” and “surface tenison” which allows certain bugs to walk on water…
This got me thinking:
What if we could prove that certain “miraculous” events recorded in history actually happened?
Can we prove this through science?
First, let us define what a miracle actually is.
One definition says a miracle is “a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency”, where another says it is “a highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences.”
The occurrence of a miracle brings on a sense of “surprise”, which can be synonymous to “highly improbable”, since things that are likely to happen generally are not surprising.
These sorts of “miracles” occur every day with technological innovation and safety precautions:
All of these inventions have enabled people with certain disabilities to do the thing that they were disabled from. Blind people can see, lame people can walk, and deaf people can hear.
Now let’s draw a comparison between miracles of today, versus the miracles that are reported to have happened over 2000 years ago.
There are some very big controversial miracles in the bible that seem hard to believe. In today’s age, the miracle of a lame person being able to walk is lacking the “wow” factor that it had maybe ten years ago, simply because artificial limbs are a relatively common treatment for lame people, so the public is accustomed to seeing them. Over 2000 years ago, there was no such thing as an artificial limb, nor was there such a thing as technology!
However, these “miraculous” events could have very plausible, scientific explanations, such as the chemistry behind turning water into wine or making a blind person see.
This is the recording of text when Jesus of Nazareth turned water into wine molecules:
1On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
4“Woman, a why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
5His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. b
7Jesus said to the servants,“Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
8Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, 9and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
(John 2: 1-11)
A molecule of “wine” is 88% water, and 12% ethanol.
So “wine” is not a substance that is vastly different than water, only slightly. In the same way we have technologically innovated artificial limbs for people without them, so Jesus may have fermented the jars of water in an instant. Could it be that “faith” is actually a force that can create matter out of nothing and defy physics?
This is the recording of Jesus making a blind man see using clay and saliva:
1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7“Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
(John 9: 1-8)
In this story, Jesus used the combination of saliva with mud, or clay, in order to create a healing solvent that cured a man who was blind. A molecule of saliva is rich with an enzyme called amylase which dissolves starch into sugar (glucose) in the mouth. In severe cases of low blood sugar, which is the concentration of glucose in the blood, eyesight can be damaged severely:
“…blood sugar in diabetes…changes your ability to see.” (medicinenet.com)
Betonite clay, or “medicinal clay”, can be used to “detoxify and heal the body”. Marie Boulerand, a world traveler who has been using clay for healing for the past 25 years, puts it this way in her blog, “Clay is the most ancient healing remedy and hygienic substance used by humans and animals since the creation of life on Earth.”
Maybe the combination of saliva, clay, and faith cured this blind man from his blindness. The saliva may have curated a high blood sugar for the man, the clay may have healed the broken pieces of the man’s eye, and the man’s faith may have catalyzed the process, quickening the normal pace and making this chemical reaction seem almost instantaneous.
In both of these “miracles”, it seems that a trend may be a chemical process that is sped up so fast that it seems to happen instantaneously.
The question is how could a chemical reaction be catalyzed so quickly?
The answer may be that there is something about “faith” that defies physics, and adds an element of time into our world that could not be seen otherwise.
Today, it seems that we do not need to call on “faith” to perform miracles, because we have become so technologically inclined. However, what if we could scientifically prove that faith is the same thing as these technological innovations, except maybe on a different plane of understanding? What if “having faith” to turn water into wine, or to heal a blind man, really means to expedite a chemical process, with little or no use of material, but only words and simple “belief”?
If this is true, I would much rather invest myself in faith than in technology! It is so simple to use and costs nothing except a simple belief in one’s heart, in one’s soul.
Perhaps, this is why we are called to “believe” in things that seem impossible, and it is in this belief where the impossible becomes reality, and where reality is perceived as the ultimate miracle.
Thank you so much for reading- until next week, keep searching!