Joy Laxton: Miracles and the Nature of Blinding Belief

 

In C. S. Lewis’ essay “Miracles,” from his book “God on the Dock,” Lewis states that “whatever experiences we may have, we shall not regard them as miraculous if we already hold a philosophy which excludes the supernatural” (Lewis, 1970, pg. 11).  He explains how individuals conform their experiences to match what they believe in, for example if one does not believe in the supernatural, but sees a ghost, they will likely explain it away and conclude it to be a hallucination (this is of course just an example and does not mean that in this case, the ghost was not actually a hallucination).   He suggests that because of this, experiences do not alone form belief and that seeing is not in fact believing.   Further, he states “No doubt most stories of miracles are unreliable; but then, as anyone can see by reading the papers, so are most stories of all events. Each story must be taken on its merits: what one must not do is to rule out the supernatural as the one impossible explanation” (Lewis, 1970, pg. 11).    

This made me consider our discussion in class of the quote: ‘To turn back to the things themselves is to return to that world prior to knowledge of which knowledge speaks” and ponder whether individuals can be blinded to the true nature of experiences because of their preconceptions and determined beliefs (Merleau-Ponty, 1956, p. 60).  It is interesting to consider how seeing may not be believing in a world where I feel this is highly valued.  In addition, it is intriguing to see how powerful the mind is in allowing one to believe what they truly want too. 

I do not mean this analysis to suggest that their is no objective truth, but simply consider the mind's power to avoid or miss it.

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