Do miracles exist? Religious believers certainly think that they do and are rarely pleased when philosophers or scientists attempt to study alleged miracles. The presumption is that while they exist, they must nevertheless remain mysteries which people believe in based upon faith. We are expected to accept on faith that apparent violations of natural laws are the workings of some god.
- Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles, and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods. For these men know that, once ignorance is put aside, that wonderment would be taken away, which is the only means by which their authority is preserved.
- Baruch Spinoza, Ethics (1677)
There are many fronts on which science and religion conflict. It may be true that many religious believers don't perceive the need for any such conflict, but the reality is that the conflict exists — and in this quotation, Spinoza seems to hit on one of the primary reasons why, a reason that seems to apply across a broad range of individual debates and problems.
For a long time people explained events in the world around them through religion and religious mythology. Religion provided certainty and stability in an uncertain world — and it also provided employment to those who would be religious leaders, keepers of traditional wisdom and beliefs. Empirical science, however, conflicts with this and causes no end of problems for the structure of religious tradition.
Science provides far better explanations for natural events than religion ever could, but at the same time it demonstrates that stability and certainty are more illusory than real. Science, after all, doesn't give us absolute and certain answers; instead, it gives us answers that are probabilistic and should only be accepted so long as the evidence allows. People who become scientists, who are willing to live with uncertainty, and who want to understand the nature of reality even if that threatens traditional religious beliefs, represent serious threats to religion and religious leaders.
Science also represents a deeper threat to religion because science thrives on questioning assumptions and challenging institutionalized beliefs. Religion, however, relies upon keeping people from doing that too much. It's not as though religion dismisses all challenges and questions, but it is the case that religion typically rejects the sorts of challenges and methodologies fundamental to the scientific process. In effect, a good scientist would have a great deal of difficulty in holding on to a very traditional religious system unless they are able to so completely compartmentalize the two that they never interact in a significant way.
It is worth noting that Spinoza wrote the above in a book on ethics. There is a strong argument for the idea that scientific principles aren't just good science, but also good ethics as well. Don't we have some ethical duty to seek out a greater understanding of reality using the best tools available? Don't we have some ethical duty to the truth wherever it may lie, even if the truth conflicts without beliefs, prejudices, traditions, and customs?
If any of this is the case, then religion and religious attitudes can conflict with some of our ethical duties — duties to ourselves and our need to better understand our world. Religious belief systems may claim to put a high value on the truth, but typically only within the context of certain religious dogmas that are supposed to be exempt from questioning or challenges. You can't genuinely value truth and skepticism if you exempt certain ideas from the truth-seeking process otherwise generally used.
Miracles may be pleasant to believe in, but miracles don't cure diseases, don't clean up pollution, and don't provide the means for us to live better lives. At most, belief in miracles provide a comforting reassurance about the stability of a divinely-ordered universe in the face of a very disordered human society, but that will only be appealing to people who prefer comforting beliefs regardless of their logical or empirical basis.
