“Since your sister has a terminal cancer stage, don’t you think you should try to accept God as your savior? It might help your sister, I have seen numerous miracles happened to people who did so” my friend asked me. He was hesitating at first because he knew that I am a Buddhist who is not just a born Buddhist but I do study different religions and I come up to my own conclusion that Buddhism fits me with all its logic and peacefulness. I knew he had all good intention to help my sister so I sincerely said thank you to him but I politely declined.

I always believe in miracle that sometimes and somehow it happens to some people but I also always have questions about the miracle. With all due respect, I raised some questions to him as he mentioned about the miracle in the Christianity. Is miracle belonged to specific religion groups? Or is it subject to our own personal experience? I asked him if God is really the only one who performs miracles, why so many people who accept God as their savior are still facing death from all kinds of terminal diseases. If miracle is belonged to only Christianity, why we have heard so many people in every religion experience their own miracle as well. There are people who convert from Christianity to Buddhism experience miracle, or vice versa.

I do not think miracle is belonged to any religion. I would say miracle is like public goods like air but it depends on how one can tap it for their own benefits. Most of stories I have heard, in particular in term of recovering from fatal sickness, have almost the same pattern. They are facing desperation, then they are introduced to something that elevates their hope and without any explanation, they are getting better. So I told my friend that in this case their own hope (psychological power) might trigger their own immune system to fight off any disease. However, it is still called miracle because they do get recover from their terminal sickness but is it from God? In this case God might not be the one who performs the miracle but to believe in God might do it. Also to claim that all people who converted into Christianity have survived from near death experience is like saying that every cancer patient who receive the chemotherapy will survive. Those miracles are spread by a small fraction of people who luckily experience it while the majority of the people have failed but they do not have a chance to talk about it.

I think the key to miracle in this case is the belief and hope. But will everyone get it? To make this issue more complicated, I believe our personal past and present Karma that we have committed is the key to hinder or facilitate the miracle. But I stopped my conversation with him just that.

Tae Athikomvittaya