This article first
appeared in The Universe
An Open Ended Universe
By
Dwight Longenecker
Fortean Times is
an irreverent, weird and wonderful
magazine that reports strange happenings
all over the world. In Fortean Times you
can read about the abominable snowman
and conspiracy theories, weeping Madonnas,
stigmatics, ghosts and goblins. You
can read about angels and aliens, UFO’s
and crop circles as well as stories
of miracles and monsters, myths and
magic. The great thing about this magazine
is that it reports all these strange
happenings with the right mixture of
humour, belief and doubt.
The editors understand that there
are lots of gullible people out there.
They realise there are hoaxers, charlatans,
frauds and people who are willing to
cash in on the superstitious crowds.
In addition, there are some people
who are sincerely fooled and others
who are simply crazy. Despite all this,
the editors also understand that strange
things really do happen. There may
be hoaxers and tricksters, but they
are only believable because there are
other genuine events in the world that
defy explanation according to the usual
natural laws of science.
The Catholic Church’s
position on the supernatural is actually
very close to the editors of the Fortean
Times. When faced with supposed
supernatural activity the Church does
not deny or affirm. She does not say
all weeping Madonnas are a trick, nor
does she say they are an authentic
miracle. She withholds judgement. When
someone claims to see the face of Mother
Teresa in a bagel or the image of the
Virgin Mary in the glass of a tower
block the church authorities usually
do not comment. Faced with stigmatists,
miracle workers, incorrupt bodies and
heavenly apparitions the Church doesn’t
deny or affirm. When a supposedly supernatural
occurrence is so prominent that the
church is forced to comment she always
advises caution. We are told to look
for all the natural explanations first.
So when Pope John XXIII’s body was
exhumed and found to be incorrupt the
Vatican officials quite wisely said
it was ‘remarkably well preserved’,
and didn’t suggest that there was necessarily
anything miraculous about it.
The church takes the safe
middle ground. In contrast to this
balanced view there are two extreme
positions taken in our society. The
skeptical person says, ‘Miracles cannot
happen because there is no such thing
as miracles.’ On the other hand, the
gullible person believes every ‘miracle’ that
comes along and is amazed by every
strange event without question. Our
society is awash with these two extreme
views, and we desperately need the
sound and sensible middle way.
Those
who take a materialistic view deny
the supernatural altogether. Some
scientists believe the fixed laws of
science can explain everything, and
that miracles are therefore impossible.
Some psychologists suppose that supernatural
incidents are all in the mind—ignoring
the fact that some supernatural events
are witnessed by thousands. More open-mided
theorists admit that strange things
happen, but insist that these are simply
natural events for which we do not
yet have an explanation. This is a
better answer, but it also doesn’t
account for all the facts. Some supernatural
events are simply strange, one-off
miracles, and there is no other explanation.
The skeptics have their
position strengthened by the huge numbers
of people who are willing to believe
in any ‘supernatural’ event. Fortune
tellers, astrologers and ‘urban shamans’ are
making loads of money with their so
called supernatural gifts. Alternative
therapists, spiritualists and angel-counselors
are drawing more and more people into
various forms of occult worship and
superstition. The shelves in bookstores
are loaded with books on witchcraft,
casting spells and black magic. The
supernatural is big business, and two
old sayings are true: ‘There’s a sucker
born every minute’ and ‘Once people
stop believing in Christianity they
don’t believe in nothing they believe
in anything.’
In
the face of facts, the Catholic view
is the most sensible.
Like Fortean Times, Catholics
believe that ‘there is more in heaven
and earth…than the philosophers have
dreamt of.’ There is a real supernatural
realm. However, we try not to be gullible.
We believe in miracles, but we don’t
go chasing after them. We are dubious
when faced with reports of supernatural
events. We admit that there is much
within the natural world that we don’t
fully understand. We acknowledge that
the human mind is complex and mysterious,
and that much that passes for ‘supernatural’ may
have more to do with the workings of
the human mind than the workings of
God. At the same time we do not deny
the possibility of miracles. Indeed,
we embrace the greatest miracles that
the world has ever seen: the incarnation
of God as a human being and his resurrection
from the dead.
To
deny miracles and to be gullible
are both wrong. Instead
we should live happily with the possibility
of miracles. If we believe in a God
who made the world, then it is no problem
to believe that he might sometimes
interfere with the world he has made.
Miracles are not a contradiction of
nature. They are the confirmation that
there is someone bigger than nature.
A miracle reminds us that creation
is alive and open-ended. Anything can
happen. With God nothing is impossible.
The universe is therefore much more
like a party than a stage play.
Catholics are people who
live quite easily with the possibility
of miracles, while not being that impressed
by them. The attitude of St Thomas
Aquinas illustrates the best Catholic
attitude to supernatural events. During
his lifetime a nun became famous for
her ability to levitate. Thousands
flocked to the monastery to see the
nun floating up by the ceiling. Thomas
Aquinas was taken to see the amazing
sight, and after witnessing it he simply
shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘I
didn’t know nuns wore such big boots.’
This simple and humorous
approach is the best way to deal with
reports of the supernatural. Yes, we
believe strange things happen. There
are many things we can’t explain. Some
of them may actually be acts of God
in our lives. But after all is said
and done we turn to the miracles we
know he has done and is doing in our
lives every day: the miracle of his
birth among us, and his continued miraculous
presence in our lives through the Mass.
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