Evidence/Skepticism of God
From the standpoint of what’s widely documented and studied, there isn’t anything that fully meets the strict criteria for a “verified miracle” — that is, an event directly violating natural laws, independently verified, and impossible to explain by science, probability, or human action.
That said, there are several categories of events that are sometimes cited as miraculous or extraordinary:
1. Spontaneous Medical Recoveries
Example: Cases of cancer or other terminal illnesses that spontaneously regress without known medical explanation.
Sometimes documented in medical literature (e.g., “spontaneous remission”).
Limitation: While rare and unexplained, these events could have unknown natural causes or statistical anomalies; they are not definitively supernatural.
2. Apparitions and Visions
Example: Marian apparitions (like Lourdes or Fatima).
Thousands of witnesses claim extraordinary experiences, sometimes with reported physical effects (healing, stigmata, or unusual phenomena).
Limitation: Difficult to verify objectively; heavily influenced by perception, expectation, and culture. No independent scientific validation confirms a supernatural cause.
3. Religious Phenomena with Physical Correlates
Example: Incorruptible saints’ bodies, weeping statues, or claimed Eucharistic miracles.
Limitation: Many of these are observed but can often be explained through natural preservation, environmental factors, or fraud.
4. Prophetic Predictions
Some people claim prophecies in texts or dreams have been fulfilled.
Limitation: Most are vague, symbolic, or retroactively interpreted, which makes them unreliable as evidence for a supernatural source.
In short:
The closest “verified” examples are medical anomalies like spontaneous remission, because they are documented in peer-reviewed literature.
Even these are extraordinary but not unambiguously miraculous, because natural explanations may exist that we don’t fully understand yet.
That said, there are several categories of events that are sometimes cited as miraculous or extraordinary:
1. Spontaneous Medical Recoveries
Example: Cases of cancer or other terminal illnesses that spontaneously regress without known medical explanation.
Sometimes documented in medical literature (e.g., “spontaneous remission”).
Limitation: While rare and unexplained, these events could have unknown natural causes or statistical anomalies; they are not definitively supernatural.
2. Apparitions and Visions
Example: Marian apparitions (like Lourdes or Fatima).
Thousands of witnesses claim extraordinary experiences, sometimes with reported physical effects (healing, stigmata, or unusual phenomena).
Limitation: Difficult to verify objectively; heavily influenced by perception, expectation, and culture. No independent scientific validation confirms a supernatural cause.
3. Religious Phenomena with Physical Correlates
Example: Incorruptible saints’ bodies, weeping statues, or claimed Eucharistic miracles.
Limitation: Many of these are observed but can often be explained through natural preservation, environmental factors, or fraud.
4. Prophetic Predictions
Some people claim prophecies in texts or dreams have been fulfilled.
Limitation: Most are vague, symbolic, or retroactively interpreted, which makes them unreliable as evidence for a supernatural source.
In short:
The closest “verified” examples are medical anomalies like spontaneous remission, because they are documented in peer-reviewed literature.
Even these are extraordinary but not unambiguously miraculous, because natural explanations may exist that we don’t fully understand yet.