When something inexplicable happens, like an image of Jesus in a wet stain on the wall, it is referred to as a miracle. If the image is of, say, a frog, people would say it's a coincidence. If the same magician who pulled out rabbits suddenly stopped, looked at you and said, "That remote controller you've been looking for is folded within your hide-a-bed," you'd call it magic.
I define magic like this: when you don't understand how something works, and this something isn't common enough to accept as a matter of fact without the understanding. A miracle is same as magic, plus having a spiritual or emotional significance to the observer.
The definition mainly reflects the belief system and the education level of the observer. If a church congregation prays for rain and it rains - it's a miracle. If a group of people do a spell and a rain dance, and it rains - it's magic. If you look at your dirty car and say, "I wish it would rain tonight, so I don't have to wash it," and it rains, you might call it a coincidence if you're an atheist, magic, if you're a Wikkan, and a miracle, if you're a Christian.
If I asked, "What is ball lighting?" you might say, "It's... eh... a shiny ball flying around?" Or if I asked, "How does a Venus Fly Trap know when to shut the trap if it has no nervous system?" you might honestly admit, "Beats me." But do we consider those things magic? No, we say, they are 'nature'.
A magician pulling 50 rabbits out of a tiny hat - is it magic? Anyone older than 5 would say, "no, it is skill."
Everything that happens in the universe has some mechanics of how it happens. The words "magic" and "miracle" are definitions given to an event by the observers within the context of those observers' beliefs and education.
No comments:
Post a Comment