Miracle

==Criticism==

[[File:Narendra nayak-miracle exposure.jpg|thumb|Rationalist, sceptic, and godman debunker [[Narendra Nayak]] during a miracle-exposure program in 2007.]]
[[Thomas Paine]], one of the [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Fathers]] of the [[American Revolution]], wrote "All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for impostors to preach and fools to believe."<ref>The Writings of Thomas Paine, Volume 4, [https://archive.org/details/writingsthomasp00paingoog/page/n321 <!-- quote=tales of miracles thomas paine. --> page 289], Putnam & Sons, 1896 {{oclc|459072720}}</ref>

[[Thomas Jefferson]], principal author of the [[Declaration of Independence of the United States]], edited a version of the Bible in which he removed sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists.<ref>Jeremy Kosselak (November 1998). The Exaltation of a Reasonable Deity: Thomas Jefferson's Bible of Christianity. (Communicated by: Dr. Patrick Furlong). Indiana University South Bend – Department of History. [http://www.iusb.edu/~journal/1999/Paper9.html IUSB.edu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208113540/http://www.iusb.edu/~journal/1999/Paper9.html |date=2007-02-08 }}, Retrieved 2007-02-19</ref><ref>R.P. Nettelhorst. Notes on the Founding Fathers and the Separation of Church and State. Quartz Hill School of Theology. [http://www.theology.edu/journal/volume2/ushistor.htm Theology.edu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016023525/http://www.theology.edu/journal/volume2/ushistor.htm |date=2017-10-16 }} Retrieved 2007-02-20.</ref> Jefferson wrote, "The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent moralist, and the rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems, [footnote: e.g. The immaculate conception of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity; original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of Hierarchy, etc. —T.J.] invented by ultra-Christian sects, unauthorized by a single word ever uttered by him, is a most desirable object, and one to which [[Joseph Priestley|Priestley]] has successfully devoted his labors and learning."<ref>Letter to William Short (31 October 1819), published in "The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes", Federal Edition, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904, Vol. 12, pp. 141–142.</ref>

[[American Revolutionary War]] patriot [[Ethan Allen]] wrote, "In those parts of the world where learning and science have prevailed, miracles have ceased; but in those parts of it as are barbarous and ignorant, miracles are still in vogue."<ref>Ethan Allen, Reason, the Only Oracle of Man, 1784</ref>

[[Robert G. Ingersoll|Robert Ingersoll]] wrote, "Not 20 people were convinced by the reported miracles of Christ, and yet people of the nineteenth century were coolly asked to be convinced on hearsay by miracles which those who are supposed to have seen them refused to credit."<ref>{{cite news | title = Ingersoll on Talmage.; The Brooklyn Clergyman's Creed Discussed Before a Large Audience. | date = April 24, 1882 | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60B11FB3A5A11738DDDAD0A94DC405B8284F0D3 | work = [[New York Times]] | access-date = 2014-01-03 | archive-date = 2014-01-04 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140104071944/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60B11FB3A5A11738DDDAD0A94DC405B8284F0D3 | url-status = live }}</ref>

[[Elbert Hubbard]], American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher, wrote "A miracle is an event described by those to whom it was told by people who did not see it."<ref>Elbert Hubbard, The Philistine (1909)</ref>

Biologist [[Richard Dawkins]] has criticised the belief in miracles as a subversion of [[Occam's razor]].<ref>''[[Richard Dawkins]]. [[The God Delusion]]''</ref>

Mathematician [[Charles Hermite]], in a discourse upon the world of mathematical truths and the physical world, stated that "The synthesis of the two is revealed partially in the marvellous correspondence between abstract mathematics on the one hand and all the branches of physics on the other".<ref name="Kline1982">{{cite book|author=Morris Kline|title=Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RNwnUL33epsC&q=Kline,+Mathematics:+the+Loss+of+Certainty,+p+345&pg=PA345|year=1982|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-503085-3|page=345|access-date=2020-10-19|archive-date=2022-07-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220721122337/https://books.google.com/books?id=RNwnUL33epsC&q=Kline,+Mathematics:+the+Loss+of+Certainty,+p+345&pg=PA345|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Baden Powell (mathematician)|Baden Powell]], an English mathematician and Church of England priest, stated that if God is a lawgiver, then a "miracle" would break the lawful edicts that had been issued at Creation. Therefore, a belief in miracles would be entirely atheistic.<ref>{{harvnb|Desmond|Moore|1991|p=500}}</ref>