God Squad: Is it a miracle? That depends

In the Old Testament, there are any number of instances of persons holding conversations with God. Are these to be considered miracles, or simply the manifestation of an individual's conscience?

-- C., via email

The philosopher Maimonides, as well as the Bible itself, taught that all the prophetic conversations with God recorded in the Hebrew Bible (with the exception of Moses') were just dreams. However, your question raises the ancient and thorny problem of whether the miracles in the Bible are true.

Here are our choices. All of us must prayerfully reflect on which view best suits our minds and souls. Deciding about miracles is a big part of our journey toward or away from faith. You can believe:

1. The miracles in the Bible happened exactly as described. The advantage of this belief is that it frees a person of faith from having to decide which sections are true and which are false. The disadvantage is that it forces a person to believe things that couldn't possibly be true, like talking snakes and the splitting of the Red Sea. This view pits our rational minds against our believing souls.

2. The miracles in the Bible are all false. The advantage of this belief is that it doesn't force people to believe things that violate the laws of nature. The problem is, this belief is not religious because it limits the power of an omnipotent God to perform miracles. Also, some miracles, like the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, are essential to Christianity.

3. The miracles all have a kernel of truth but are not true exactly as described. The advantage of this belief is that it doesn't force people to kill either their faith or their reason.

4. The miracles are true even if the events in them didn't actually occur. I believe the Ten Commandments are true, and a miraculous gift from God to establish a moral life, even if Moses didn't live for 40 days on Mount Sinai without food or water. The story of the Garden of Eden is true in its teaching that we should follow God's commandments and that our sinfulness makes this difficult, even if there was no garden and no talking snake.

The Story of Noah and the flood is true in that it teaches us to care for the world and limit violence so we can thrive, even if all those animals didn't actually book passage on the ark. The advantage of this view is that it allows us to understand Scripture as a mixture of absolutely true moral laws, along with legends that teach us important life lessons about compassion and hope, yet preserves our right to treat impossible events as impossible.

5. Miracles can be very fortunate events in our lives that resist complete understanding. When a sick person is healed in a way medical science can't fully explain, we feel the miraculous touch of God. This isn't proof that God healed the person but the understandable reaction of those who've benefited from such acts of grace and healing. The problem is, it doesn't explain why God doesn't heal all sick people or why God healed that person.

In my view, you don't have to kill your mind to save your faith. As for the biblical stories, I don't reject them as fables but always try to ask myself, "What does God want me to learn from this story?" I always find a kernel of meaning in even the most phantasmagorical biblical account.