urban@trwspp.UUCP (06/16/83)
Second-hand anecdote. A friend of mine tells of a student who was a believer in Nichiren Shoshu (sp?), in which the believers chant (a rather hypnotic droning) for miracles. To show him how it worked, she told him the story about how one morning she was on her way to school. Her car broke down, so she started to walk to school. Unfortunately, it started to rain, so she took shelter at a bus stop and began chanting while she tried to hitch a ride. Sure enough, a miracle: withing several minutes, someone picked her up. Sometimes a miracle just requires you to lower your expectations a little. Mike
gaj@duke.UUCP (Gary Jackoway) (01/13/84)
Consider, for a moment, a world where miracles happen with great regularity. Where a construction worker might fall off a building and float gently to earth. Where someone attempting suicide may suddenly find that the skin on his wrists are too hard for the knife to pierce. Where a great battle would suddenly be avoided by a wall 20 feet high magically appearing between the poised troops. What sort of religions would blossom in this environment? Certainly, belief in some force greater than human would be acknowledged. What would the affect be on science? A world where every rule seems subject to the most obvious and blatant exceptions -- could science flourish? Now, lets move along the continuum of worlds with less and less stupendous miracles. No longer are people plucked out of life and death situations by physical means. Instead, there are subtler influences: one's dog might lick his face just as he is contemplating suicide; a song might be suddenly heard as a celebration of life instead of just lyrics; perhaps even the beauty of a single flower, seen clearly at a critical moment in one's life, may change one's course forever. Living in such a world, it may be easier to deny the existence of forces beyond this world, but is it really? Humans are very sensitive to their surroundings, if they allow themselves to be. The wondrous beauty of nature and the human spirit seem to rise above the pain and suffering that appear to make up human life. Just a thought. Gary J.