Modern miracles: Introduction
Influential French scientist and mathematician Blaise Pascal, his niece, Marguerite Perrier, suffered from a severe and long-term fistula in her eye that let out a repulsive odor. At a monastery on March 24, 1656, she was completely healed in a dramatic way, with even bone deterioration vanishing immediately. There was medical and eyewitness evidence; the diocese verified the healing. Even the royal physicians examined her, and the queen herself declared it a healing. In the following months, eighty other miracle claims followed. So here you have miracles that were recent, public, and attested by many witnesses and even physicians—all of which met a critic like David Hume’s criteria for evidence. But ultimately he dismissed all of this as irrelevant. Why? On the grounds that miracles simply aren’t possible because they violate nature. Now, this is a classic case of circular reasoning.
There are many case studies for miracles but they are a nightmare often to get hold of. Here are some I was able to quickly gather that are popular and recent with levels of documentation or points of contact. For a grand list of eyewitness miracles and medical & documented miracles, see Craig Keener’s 2 volume work Miracles.
