The recognition of a miracle is traditionally thought to require a solid understanding of natural law. Only by knowing what is possible and impossible in the natural order can one identify an event as extraordinary, seemingly violating or transcend those laws. However, this approach encounters a deep conceptual problem: it assumes that the natural world is the only domain with regularities and intelligible laws.
What if the supernatural itself operates according to its own system of order, one that is coherent but different from our own? In that case, an event that appears miraculous to us might be entirely lawful within the supernatural realm.
More radically, there could be other layers of reality—beyond both the natural and the supernatural as we conceive them—where the event originates. From the perspective of these higher realms, even the supernatural might not fully comprehend how the wonder occurred. It could give it more wonder than it gives us.
Thus, grounding oneself solely in nature is insufficient for reliably identifying miracles. If there are realities beyond our own, each with their own rules, then what seems like a violation of nature might merely reflect our limited viewpoint. Miracles, in this sense, are not just transgressions of natural law but intersections with realms whose regularities are hidden from us. To truly understand them, one would need a grounding not only in the laws of nature but potentially in the laws of multiple layers of reality—a task that may be fundamentally beyond human comprehension.
Premise 1: To identify a miracle, one must understand the laws of the system in which it occurs.
Premise 2: Skeptics assume the natural universe is a closed system with fixed laws, so miracles cannot occur.
Premise 3: Believers often assume the natural universe alone defines what is lawful, ignoring the possibility that the supernatural has its own laws.
Conclusion: Therefore, both skeptics and believers risk misjudging miracles by assuming their understanding of natural law is sufficient to evaluate events that may originate from realms with different laws.
Premise 1: To identify a miracle, one must fully understand the laws governing the system in which it occurs.
Premise 2: We cannot fully know all laws, whether natural, supernatural, or beyond.
Conclusion 1: Therefore, we cannot definitively judge whether an event violates the laws of its system.
Conclusion 2 (practical): We must either suspend judgment about its miraculous nature or assume the most natural explanation consistent with what we know.