Religion
Preface
It seems to me that science and religion are seen as contrary, or mutually exclusive enterprises, and that Christians have a reputation of being superstitious. However, in the natural world, there are many phenomena that cannot be explained by the science, and can only be understood through the lens of religion. I intend to highlight a few, but there are many more miracles that have not been studied in-depth.
There is no miracle more convincing than the one that touches your own life, and I know people who have had an experience like that, and I have also experienced that, although in a much smaller way. What I am trying to say is that if you are someone who is highly skeptical of religion or don't have any footing, this post is unlikely to change your mind, but perhaps it will instill an amount of respect for Christianity. If you are religious, it is possible that this will deepen your devotion and possibly rekindle your fervor in prayer and appreciation for what has been given for you. It is this intersection that I want to explore in this article. Below are several websites that various people have created over the years that discuss miracles, in the scientific and religious senses of the word. Many of them have to do with the Eucharist, or Body of Christ, changing its appearance from bread to actual heart tissue. The Eucharist always begins as unleavened bread, or bread that does not contain yeast. This is a reference to God's command to the Israelite during their exodus from the slavery of the Egyptians in the Book of Exodus. Through the blessing of a priest, the same one that Jesus used at the Last Supper, and the merits of the blessing of priesthood conferred upon him from a bishop, it changes into the actual Body of Christ. It retains its appearance of bread and wine, although as one sees from the below websites, that is not the only form it may take.
Evidence of the Existence of Jesus Christ
This website details some of the miracles directly related to the existence of Jesus Christ such as the Shroud of Turin, the Veil of Manoppello, and the Veil of Veronica. It also details a miracle regarding the Holy Eucharist turning into heart tissue with a distinct AB blood type. This heart tissue can still be observed in a church in Luciano, Italy where it has remained in-corrupt without the assistance of preservers.
This is the most comprehensive list of Eucharistic Miracles ever, compiled by Blessed Carlos Acutis. It details miracles from all over the world, many of which have been thoroughly investigated by doctors and medical experts. In every instance, the bread blessed by a Catholic priest has turned into heart tissue that doctors say underwent intense stress consistent with the horrific death Jesus died. The circumstances surrounding these events make the possibility that the miracle was faked completely impossible. Many of the samples of heart tissue and blood are in-corrupt and can still be viewed to this day.
This link tells the story of the life of Blessed Carlos Acutis, a 21st century web developer who battled cancer as a teenager but used his talents to serve God by bringing centuries of miracles into a globally accessible website. He has been declared Blessed by the Catholic Church, which is the last step before being declared a saint, or recognized as someone who is in heaven.
This website contains many resources such as the Biblical backing for the Holy Eucharist, angelic apparitions, and fundamental truths of the Catholic Church. Some of these apparitions even occurred in the 20th Century with tens of thousands of eye witnesses like in the case of the Miracle of Fatima.
This entry is a little different: instead of a website, this is a book review of the Shroud of Turin, by Dr. John Heller. In it, he details a Herculean effort by 40 distinguished scientists in the 1970's to rigorously study the Shroud of Turin using the best technology available at the time. The Shroud is the cloth in which Jesus Christ was supposedly buried after his death and is a crucial piece of evidence of His resurrection. The historical record contains plenty of evidence that Jesus was a legitimate historical figure, particularly the writings of Roman historians such as Cornelius Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, but Christians maintain that this cloth is His burial cloth despite all the centuries it would have had to survive. This group of scientists from highly respected agencies such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, _____, _____, created tests to challenge a wide range of claims. The group independently assembled scientific equipment, organized travel for themselves and shipping for their equipment, and lodging to study this cloth over a period of a few days. They all did this in their spare time and at substantial personal cost to obtain a scientifically definitive answer about the cloth's legitimacy. Not to spoil the book, but their findings were incredible and impossible. Most of the scientists were a-religious at the time of study and their main interest was in disproving once and for all the narrative that the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.
Maybe buying and reading the book for yourself is too much work, so here is a shorter synopsis of the research conducted on the Shroud in PDF form. This is the link to studies of the Shroud of Turin published in December of 2022. I intended to copy the titles of many of the papers that were written during this endeavor, but all of them are already documented on the website shroud.com. Most of the papers are published in distinguished journals like IEEE.
One of the reasons for the emphasis on the Shroud of Turin is that it is a physical object whose existence is inexplicable by science analysis. Perhaps the existence of the Shroud of Turin does not directly prove that Jesus rose from the dead like the Bible claims. However, it does portray a man with injuries consistent with the horrible death that Jesus died, on a cloth dated to the time period of Jesus, containing various pollen consistent with vegetation in Israel, and maintaining the overall integrity of the image despite natural disasters like fires, building collapses, and being soaked with water. There is also the small matter of how a photo-negative image is transmitted to a piece of cloth with origins to the mid 1500's and itself dating back to the time period of Jesus. One must ask how many pieces of indirect evidence must be provided before the eye witness testimony of the original Apostles is to be believed.