"I Need a Miracle!"

We all could use a miracle.

Maybe we screwed up at work, big-time. Or we did something head-shakingly stupid to our romantic partner. Or we have end-stage cancer.

We could use a miracle.

Desperation for a miracle may explain why some people believe in faith healing despite science's unanimous dismissal of it. Alas, faith healing's “miracles” may represent only cherry-picking. Of countless attempts, a tiny percentage will “work” by chance—some people do heal when science predicted they wouldn't. And the faith-healed may have been helped by the well-documented placebo effect.

Of course, only a small percentage of even religious people believe in faith healing. But by definition, all religious people believe in the miracle that there is a God: a supernatural entity that is all-seeing, all-knowing, and omnipotent. The Encyclopedia Brittanica states, “Belief in miraculous happenings is a feature of practically all religions."

A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion found that 79% of the people surveyed believe in miracles such as the Biblical parting of the Red Sea, guardian angels, or Jesus walking on water. At least 22 people have claimed to have seen Jesus in their food. The Pew survey found that 65% believe in miracles having nothing to do with God, such as ghosts, voices from the dead, or reincarnation.

The search for a miracle despite the odds may also help explain the popularity of astrologers, those purveyors of the improbable positive.

So what should we do?

We live in an era in which science and logic have long scoffed at miracles, yet many people still believe in them. That says that people derive benefit or the belief would have died, as did the belief that the earth is flat.

Whether or not we personally believe in miracles, we probably know at least one person who does. Kind reader, unless a person's belief in miracles makes him or her reject a worthy intervention such as appropriate medical treatment, it’s wise to not try to disabuse such people. Are we not all not entitled to longshot hope?

Philosopher David Hume explains why we all could use a little belief in the possibility of miracles: "The passion of surprise and wonder arising from miracles, being an agreeable emotion, gives a sensible tendency towards belief in those events.”

Modern life is demanding, even scary, exacerbated by the looming specter of the omicron variant. Especially as we enter the holiday season, we all could use a little pixie dust.

I read this aloud on YouTube.