First, let me make it clear that this essay is NOT about how you can get the miracle that you are praying for. If that is what you thought, you might want to skip this essay and study what the Bible has to say about miracles. The point of this essay is to show how miracles are consistent with 20th century science. The problem with the world is that it still believes in the 19th century understanding of the world. In the 19th century paradigm, miracles would be impossible. When you find an atheist claiming miracles are impossible it is because they still believe in the 19th century paradigm here in the 21st century. So, although, this won't directly help you get the miracle you want, it can reassure you that miracles are indeed possible.

To start, take a look at the following 20 second video:



What did you see? You're probably going to say you saw one palm tree bending in the breeze. But that was a video. You really saw 435 images of the tree. Well, that's a video. Now what if you were on the beach (in Carolina, just east of San Juan, Puerto Rico). You look at the palm tree. Would you be seeing a whole series of images just like in a video? Or would you be seeing just one tree where the parts are moving around in the breeze? The standard assumption we make about the world is that we see parts moving around. But is that assumption right? Maybe when you are right there on the beach you are seeing a whole series of different, unique images. We just make the ASSUMPTION that we are looking at a single tree whose parts are moving around. Is there some way to tell if you're seeing one tree with parts moving around or a series of images just like in a video? It turns out there is a way to decide this.

This issue was settled by a physicist/mathematician, Hermann Minkowski in 1908 although often people say Einstein gets the credit because it is used in his theories of special and general relativity. But hardly anyone knows ALL about the consequences of this result. While the mathematics is used by physicists all the time, there are other important consequences that have never really leaked out to the general public. Some physicists who specialize in time and Einstein's theories of relativity know about them as do philosophers who study the issue of time. It is only in the last 15 years or so that more people have been paying attention to the consequences. The answer is that we ARE viewing one 3D image after another, after another. The universe is just like a video that we are watching except it is a 3D video and each "image" in the video is huge. Each 3D image is a snapshot of the entire universe at a given moment in time! Now, in a video, as you start to watch it, everything you're going to see in the future is already out there for you to see. Then when you are half-way through the video, the part that you watched is still there. Physicists found that the universe is really of huge block of everything that has ever happened, is happening now or will happen in the future. They call it the block universe or sometimes the blockworld. So they say that the past, present and future are all equally real. There is absolutely nothing that makes the present special except that it is what we see NOW. In philosophy, the idea is called eternalism and goes way back in time to the Greek philosopher, Parmenides of Elea.

This result is really shocking and very hard to believe but physicists who study the issue know that Einstein's theories of relativity can only be true if the block universe is true. Now there are critics of this result who just can't believe that the future of our universe, our Earth, - ALL OUR LIVES - are already out there but they do concede that Minkowski's result is telling us that the future IS already out there. And so, some of them are looking for ways to change that result. It is a difficult thing to do because relativity has been tested over and over and over and it has always given the right answers. Then, when you consider that special relativity fits in perfectly with the rest of physics, if something is wrong about special relativity, then a whole lot of other physics would be wrong as well. I've put together a collection of quotes by physicists taken from books, research papers and web sites to confirm this result, see my little essay: Science Points to the Blockworld. I also have a whole collection of short essays on the subject you should find helpful: The Haunted Mansion: Basic Christianity for Modern People Essays.

The alternative to eternalism is presentism. In presentism, only the present exists, the past is gone and the future is not out there yet. It is the 19th century position on things. So, now, if you believe in presentism, (as almost everyone does), if you were on the beach in Puerto Rico and looked at the palm tree, you would say that you simply see parts of the tree moving around. You'd say that the palm tree consisted of lots of particles, and the particles are simply moving around as time passes. Any one particle simply changes it position as it moves from place to place. You'd say the particles are being moved around by forces. On the other hand, if you believe in eternalism, you'd say that there is a complete set of particles in each of the 3D images of the palm tree and none of them are moving around. Every particle in every 3D image is frozen in place forever. None of those particles ever move. Nothing in the block universe ever moves. Again, we get the impression that things are moving around because we are seeing one 3D image after another.

There are huge consequences to the discovery that we are living in a block universe. For one thing, it's easy to see that your consciousness (a property of your soul), is moving through the block universe and that's why it looks to us as if things are moving around. So we have a great argument for a human soul, something not made of matter, something not part of the physical universe. Then you have to wonder how our block universe came to be in the first place. It is simply too complicated to have happened by chance. You really have to figure that it was created by intelligence. So our universe really has to have a Creator. Then you have to wonder why the Creator created this universe.

Now besides videos taken with a camera, there are animated videos created by human artists and often made using sophisticated computer graphics programs. Take a look at what happens at the beginning of this little video . The video contains a number of miracles. Just looking at the first one is enough. Wile E. Coyote is chasing the Roadrunner. The Roadrunner is going so fast he creates a cloud of dust. Wile E. Coyote follows him but does not see that he going to run off a cliff because of the cloud of dust. When the dust clears, Wile E. Coyote is just hanging there in mid-air. He gets a panicked look on his face. Then he falls. So he falls after having been suspended in mid-air for several seconds. This doesn't happen in the real world. In the real world you would fall immediately.

You can do ANY sort of thing you want to do in an animated movie. Superman can fly. Wile E. Coyote can take a beating and never die. Then I always loved to see the Veggie Tales videos where the vegetables appeared to be telekinetic! They could move things around without having any arms or hands at all! They could suspend a tea cup and saucer in mid-air and drink from the cup! It's impossible in our real world but it is easy to do in an animated movie.

Now think of our block universe as being just like an animated movie. What we call the "laws of physics" can be produced just by creating 3D images that follow certain patterns. Now the Creator of the universe has chosen to follow certain patterns in making the universe. You know, things fall according to the "law" of gravity. Charged particles attract and repel according to the "laws" of electromagnetism. And so on. The amazing thing is, when the Creator does follow these patterns, you can get atoms, molecules, stars, planets and life. Then once people discover what the patterns are, they can build spaceships, computers, cell phones, cars, the internet, light bulbs and all sorts of interesting and useful gadgets.

So now, just think, "Does the Creator have to follow the 'laws' of physics in our block universe all the time?" Well, no. He can place whatever particles He wants at any place He wants in every 3D image of the universe just like an artist can place anything he wants into the frames of an animated movie. Generally, the "law" of gravity is a good thing to have. It makes planets form. It keeps air on the Earth instead of drifting off into space. It keeps us all on the Earth and forces us to work with each other. But the Creator doesn't have to use the "law" of gravity pattern all the time. So Jesus can walk on water. Jesus can float up into the air. Other types of miracles can happen as well. Jesus can heal the sick. For instance, suppose someone has a deadly cancer. Can Jesus get rid of it? Sure. In one 3D frame of the universe a person can have a deadly tumor and in the next frame it simply does not have to be there! Drawing in normal tissues in place of the tumor is no harder than drawing in the tumor. And creating new things, like bread and fish out of nothing is easy too. Now these miracles violate the "law" of the conservation of mass/energy and the conservation of mass/energy is a good thing to have around in general. In general, you don't want things disappearing willy-nilly. You want to count on things being found exactly where you placed them. You don't want to have to worry if you car will be there in the morning when you have to go to work! And you don't want to see a rock appear in the middle of the road as you drive to work!

Here is another example. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to worship the golden statue made by King Nebuchadnezzar, the king had them thrown into the fiery furnace. They didn't get burnt up. They didn't even have the smell of smoke on them. How? OK, a lot of very energetic (hot) molecules were headed toward their bodies. What could be done? The hot molecules could simply disappear. Or stop in their tracks. Or be reflected away from them as if they were reflected by a mirror. In this situation the "law" of conservation of momentum and the "law" of conservation of mass/energy were being broken. Normally, momentum has to be conserved, and that's great because it enables us to build all sorts of useful mechanical gadgets. It makes it possible for your car to keep going once it is going. It makes it possible for a spacecraft to keep going once it is going. But in this miracle, the usual patterns were not followed and that was good for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego!

Or another nice Old Testament case is when the Israelites fled from Egypt. Their shoes and clothing did not wear out. If you simply look at the laws of physics at the level of quantum mechanics, eventually all the atoms in the shoes and clothing will become dislodged and the shoes and clothing will fall apart. But it doesn't really have to happen. Those patterns of quantum mechanics don't have to be followed. Oh, it's good that God follows the patterns of quantum mechanics most of the time because then you can make useful electronic gadgets, like computers and cell phones that work (until they break!).

So to summarize, God has created a world with "laws" of physics that are really just patterns He follows very closely. These patterns allow Him to accomplish His goals for this world most of the time but from time to time He departs from the "laws" and does what we call a miracle. Miracles are as easy as non-miracles and there are no "laws" of physics that have to be broken to do them. So it really is true that all things are possible with God!. Now it is also a safe bet that in Heaven, God can allow a whole lot of "miraculous" things to happen all the time. That will make Heaven pretty interesting!