I came across the following quote yesterday, attributed as a French proverb (i.e., a short expression of popular wisdom originating from French speaking countries)

“There are no miracles to the man who does not believe in them.”

I view miracles as “an event not explicable by natural or scientific laws.”   Often these have religious associations but that is not a mandatory attribute of miracles.

Dissecting the Quote

Typically proverbs state in simple easy to digest terms simple common sense principles.  In this case the point of the proverb is if you do not believe there is a valid explanation for an occurrence,  you are unable to accept that it occurred.

Miracles are typically positive.  For example if a person were unharmed after falling six stories we might say it was a miracle they were not dead (i.e., it is not readily apparent how they survived).

Given the outcomes are generally positive believing in miracles might not be a bad thing; However, having a valid explanation for an event, a root cause seems to me to be the more logical approach.

Interesting Circular Discussion

It is human nature to explain why things occurred.   When we don’t have a natural or scientific explanation readily at hand an easy way to handle this conundrum is to call it a miracle.

In and of itself labeling an event a miracle is in fact explaining the cause as miraculous (mysterious and unexplained).  This label becomes the explanation.

For me believing in miracles, or not is irrelevant.   More important is the ability to measure/document the occurrence (proof if you will).  If there is a metric proving the event occurred (e.g., a video of the six story fall with no damage) I can believe in it – even if I cannot explain it.