Cock and Bull

A rooster crows and immediately afterwards, the sun rises.  Therefore, the rooster crowing CAUSED the sun to rise.  This follows that, therefore this is responsible for that.  Post hoc ergo propter hoc:  one of the most popular and infamous of logical fallacies.

A French nun prays for healing to the spirit of Pope John Paul II and, subsequently, is "miraculously" cured of Parkinson's disease.  

Therefore, by time-honored post-hoc reasoning, the prayer to John Paul II actually brought about the cure from the disease.  

And therefore, also, John Paul II must be "in heaven" and, not only that, but a powerful force in heaven--i.e., a saint.  

Consequently, the current pope, Benedict XVI, is going to "beatify" his predecessor on May 1--signaling the Church's intention to put JPII on a "fast track" to sainthood.  Subito.

I don't have any problem with people wanting to honor John Paul II with another title.  Though I almost always disagreed with his theology, I admired his sincere attempts to further peace and social justice.  So, if people want to light candles to him and talk to him about stuff, I couldn't care less. (After all, I talk to my deceased mother all the time.)  No, my gripe is about the faulty logic.  Because there is simply no RATIONAL justification for concluding that Sister Whosit's intercessory prayer to JPII had any cause/effect relationship with her recovery from Parkinson's. One thing just followed the other, that's all.  Pure coincidence unless proven otherwise.

Nor, when we read the various medical reports, is there any certainty that the good nun actually suffered from Parkinson's.  But let us grant that she did.  Let us grant, even further, that the disappearance of Parkinson's was not medically explainable.  

I.e. it was an anomaly.  Something that seemed to defy the usual rules.  Something that medical science, at this point in its development, is unable to understand.

OK.  A "miracle," if you like.

Thousands, perhaps millions, of such anomalies / miracles occur daily, weekly--everywhere and in every domain of earthly experience.  But because we cannot immediately assign a natural cause to these phenomena, are we therefore justified in assuming that some sort of supernatural  intervention has occurred? 

That is indeed a leap of "faith."  

Is it not much more likely that the cause of these so-called miracles lies in some unusual (but naturally occurring) jerk, twitch or glitch in the normal patterns of the universe--an anomaly which, because of its rarity, has as yet not been recognized and cataloged scientifically?  

True believers are familiar with "explanations" involving imperfect human reason. They are, for instance, constantly telling us skeptics and doubters that all the incarnadine and seemingly senseless evils of earthly life DO, indeed, have an explanation--but an explanation available only to God--an explanation that, because of our "fallen nature," will forever lie beyond human ken.  In other words, they are suggesting that "natural" disasters have "supernatural" justifications/causes--causes we can never know or appreciate.

I, on the other hand, am suggesting that so-called "supernatural" phenomena may very likely have "natural" causes--but causes we do not YET (and may never) have the skill to ascertain. 

Of course, none of this discussion applies to the "miracles" recounted in the Bible or (I assume) other collections of mythological tales.  THESE miracles are not really anomalies.  Rather, all the evidence suggests that they are complete, albeit pious, fabrications--invented by storytellers and theologians in order to assert (or prove) the omnipotence of a particular god or his agents.  We simply do not witness any such phenomena in the real world of 2011--not even in the devoutest of convents in France.  In 2011, praying to either John Paul II or your Heavenly Father will NEVER (I can assure you), bring your dead friend back to life.  Bathing in Lourde's waters will NEVER (I can assure you) give you the power to walk on those waters.  Invoking Yahweh to make the sun stand still will NEVER (I can assure you) afford you the extra hours you need to smite your enemies and/or get a good tan.

So don't ask for the impossible when you pray.  And be careful about assuming that there's anything more than a coincidental connection between the cock's crowing and the sun's rising.  Above all, please don't give in to all the cock and bull reasoning that ascribes anomalous "miracles" (which do exist) to divine intervention (which almost certainly doesn't).