Healing Miracles, if They Occur, Would Unavoidably Violate Natural Law
Kevin R. Henke
September 23, 2022
In Henke (2022aa), I indicated that if miraculous healings were to occur in a manner of seconds, they would violate natural law. I stated:
“Creating new body parts from nothing or rejuvenating damaged body parts is not God adding “…to the agencies usually involved in a process, those being the ones described by natural laws.” It’s God supernaturally interrupting the natural process of decay, overriding the effects of natural law on human biology and immediately reversing the damage or creating new body parts out of nothing when natural law dictates that that can’t happen. Mr. Lundahl needs to have a better imagination and explain his arguments better.”
Lundahl (2022q) then comments on this paragraph:
“Natural laws dictate nothing ever. Natural laws describe what cells within a body can do themselves to make new cells to repair a damage, and the cells doing on their own a complete healing from leprosy would violate these laws.
Later, Mr. Lundahl further states:
So, what Henke responded means, he doesn't adress how natural law is not a cause and none of them anyway have any total control over the physical universe, they are descriptions of factors that are only partial anyway.”
As I mentioned before in Henke (2022fv), yes, natural laws describe natural processes and, hypothetically, it would be the processes that the laws describe that would be directly broken. Again, people normally refer to “breaking natural laws” out of convenience because it’s easier than saying “breaking the natural processes that are described by natural laws.” However, Mr. Lundahl in Lundahl (2022q) has no justification for equating “proof” and demonstration in science and history. In science and history, unlike mathematics, conclusions are never final (see Albert 1986 and Henke 2022ad). Unlike the awkwardness in describing the breaking of natural processes, Mr. Lundahl can easily use the more appropriate phrases: “burden of evidence” and demonstrate, and not “proof” or “proven.”
Lundahl (2022q) continues:
Again, God certainly interrupts a natural process - but so are natural processes interrupted all of the time anyway. Even naturally. Let a pen fall, it will not touch the centre of the Earth 6300 km down, though that is where the gravitational pull is drawing it. If it falls on the floor, or if I catch it in the other hand, either the floor or my hand will be overriding the graviational pull and interrupting the fall.
While damages can be reversed, if the story is true, supernaturally in an instant, they can be reversed naturally with sufficient time for the body's repair system to work.
None of these verbs or participles is any proof that any natural law is actually broken.
Because the electromagnetic repulsion of electrons on Earth is stronger than the force of gravity, we can’t sink into the center of the Earth (see Henke 2022fy). To be exact, gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces, which include: gravity, the weak force, the electromagnetic force, and the strong nuclear force. Gravity is about 1040 times weaker than the electromagnetic force.
Human technologies can also interrupt natural processes and, hypothetically, so could a miracle. Healing, if it naturally occurs, can take days, weeks, months or even longer. However, if we see the process occur in a manner of seconds, it’s possible that an unknown advanced technology is responsible, but, in my opinion, I think that a miracle would be even more likely. A miracle is not a natural process, but an act from a supernatural being or process interrupting and overriding the natural process. A miraculous healing is not an act of nature, but something that overrides, interrupts, replaces, and blatantly contradicts or violates the natural process. There’s a big difference between a natural process that takes a lot of time to repair damage in a body and something that instantaneously does it in a manner of seconds.
Earlier in Lundahl (2022q), Mr. Lundahl even admitted this when he said:
“An example somewhat more serious than the Pool Game Analogy : there are natural laws that describe what our immune system can do against Hansen's disease, and an instantaneous healing through our immune system is contrary to these laws.” [my emphasis]
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, if something is “contrary” to a law that means that it opposes the law. Here are some synonyms for “contrary” according to Oxford Languages: opposite, contradictory, clashing, conflicting, antithetical, incompatible, and irreconcilable. So, Mr. Lundahl, what’s the real difference between a miracle being “contrary” to natural law and violating the natural law? A miracle being contrary to natural law certainly is not simply “adding to” or supplementing natural processes as you indicated in Lundahl (2022a) and your other essays.
Reference:
Albert, L.H. 1986. “’Scientific’ Creationism as a Pseudoscience”, Creation/Evolution Journal, v. 6, no. 2, pp. 25-34.