I want to state categorically from the start that I do not believe either that miracles were possible in the past or that they shall somehow commence to occur at any time in the future. The main obvious problem is that whoever claims the authenticity of miracles is without any doubt affirming that the laws of physics, which as far as we know govern the entire universe, have at times been contravened in the past each time a miracle was supposed to have occurred, and naturally the same anomaly must arise inevitably in all future miraculous claims.

One should appreciate that throughout the past millennia different religions have claimed for their own the occurrence of miracles and it does not require the brain of an Einstein to realise that miracles everywhere were and still are man-made. Nevertheless, they certainly serve a very important purpose: that of keeping believers manifestly credulous and, more importantly, permanently awestruck. And when people are reduced to that state of mind they can be more easily controlled and manipulated. Not even the much publicized innumerable failed attempts to produce blood-weeping Madonna statues (invariably human blood of course) mostly in Italy and Malta during the past two decades, seem to have been enough to open the eyes of the unfortunate blind faithful. I find it amazing that every time a miraculous cure is claimed, in a clear attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the faithful, the purveyors of miracles that stage-manage the alleged cure invariably introduce, when it becomes propitious of course, a representative from the scientific community who, in the case of a miraculous cure is usually a medical doctor and who, it must be assumed, is appointed by the church authorities themselves or their fellow colleagues. Towards the end of the usual mise-en-scène, this so-called representative of the scientific world, whosoever s/he might be, declares with great authority that the cure in question cannot be explained by medical science, when it is a well known fact that medical science today is neither 100 per cent foolproof nor claimed to be infallible by self-respecting medical scientists.

Towards the end of his life, the great thinker Thomas Paine, when citing miracles in his famous treatise The Age Of Reason, wrote thus:

“Of all the modes of evidence that ever were invented to obtain belief to any system or opinion to which the name of religion has been given, that of miracle, however successful the imposition may have been, is the most inconsistent. For, in the first place, whenever recourse is had to show, for the purpose of procuring that belief [for a miracle, under any idea of the word, is a show] it implies a lameness or weakness in the doctrine that is preached. And in the second place, it is degrading the Almighty into the character of a showman, playing tricks to amuse and make the people stare and wonder. It is also the most equivocal sort of evidence that can be set up; for the belief is not to depend on the thing called a miracle, but upon the credit of the reporter who says that he saw it; and therefore, the thing, were it true, would have no better chance of being believed than if it were a lie.”

The first edition of The Age Of Reason was printed in Paris in 1794 and it represented the result of years of study and reflection by Paine on the place of religion in society. The author was no atheist but was of course familiar with the fact that the clergy in many countries were on the side of oppression and served the vested interests in the interest of reaction. The future of progress was thus greatly hampered unless their influence was curbed.

Returning to our times, I am pretty certain that if it were possible to bring Thomas Paine back to life after more than 200 years, to Malta, he would find the present unappetizing social religious situation, complete with the latest miracles and blood smudged statues of the Holy Virgin so intriguing and so similar to his own times, that he would probably write a long unflattering treatise on the subject.

Vladimir Cini

MARSAXLOKK