Another problem that may arise in explaining what miracles are is how valid a miracle is. Some believe that even the smallest things in life are miracles, but there are others who would rebuke such a claim, believing only big events to be real miracles. There is no real agreed way of proving what is or is not a miracle, although the Catholic Church has tried to work around this. The Church does try to be very cautious though, not wanting to just approve the validity of any alleged miracle. It maintains particularly strict requirements in validating the miracle's legitimacy. They even have a committee to oversee the process, being called the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Numerous miracles have indeed been claimed to be true by the Church. An example of a miracle that the Church accepts is the ‘Miracle of the Sun’, which occurred near Fátima in Portugal on October 13, 1917, where a large crowd of around 85,000 people witnessed the sun dim, change colours, spin, dance about in the sky, and appear to plummet to earth, radiating great heat in the process. After the ten-minute event, the ground and the people's clothing, which had been drenched by a previous rainstorm, were both dry.
It is not only a Christian thing to believe in miracles though, as they are preached about and believed by the people of numerous faiths, including Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and Buddhists. They all generally agree that miracles are supernatural events that just cannot be comprehended by most ordinary people.
Although, the idea of miracles themselves have been disputed throughout history, from the Jews who wouldn’t believe in Jesus during his time of living, to Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson – the founding fathers of the American Revolution, to even present day examples, such as the Atheist (and outspoken critic of the Church) Richard Dawkins. Also, many people often doubt the authenticity of miracles when such disasters can take place in the world, with the scholar Heller taking such an opinion, asking "If God intervenes to save your life in a car crash, then what was he doing in Auschwitz?"
However, then some may take up the point of how Jesus stated many times throughout the Gospel of how important faith was to the happening of miracles, and this is obviously backed up by the Christian Church.
Overall, I think that it is fair to say that miracles are extremely difficult to explain because no one in this world truly knows what exactly a miracle is, and maybe that is how you know something is a miracle – because it is incomprehensible.
