ADVANCING FROM THE MODERN QUEST FOR MIRACLES TO A POST MODERN SCIENCE OF THE MIRACULOUS

Abstract

The mechanical model of the Universe that so dominated the modern era effectively banished the deep wondrous and miraculous to a distant realm outside daily existence and experience of psyche and creation. Modern religion responded by defining miracles as essentially "divine interventions contradicting nature's laws." Bur what if existence itself is miraculous and wondrous and our capacity for awe, reverence, gratitude and "isness" itself were the true meaning of the miraculous? Is this not what the mystics teach and what post-modern science is destined (0 teach us as well?
Approached with an appropriate sense of wonder, we can see the depth of the miraculous within nature and within human nature in particular. Modern science removed the fantasy that we and our earth occupy the physical center of the universe, but post-modern science has demonstrated that we do live right in the middle of the scale of things, and we have the creative powers (0 discover our place in the scheme of things. Reawakening awareness of the sacredness of being, the sacredness of existence, enlivens our sciences to recognize the light of the multitude of divine sparks. Awakening wonder empowers compassion, and sparks our creativity (0 heal the damage we have done by believing we were masters of the world, when we are actually embedded in the web of creation.
We will explore these and other questions about the miraculous within nature In general and within human nature in particular.