by David Bloomberg
Last month, I witnessed a miracle.
Indeed, this is a good part of the reason we have combined the March and April issues. The miracle has been taking up a great deal of my thoughts, even keeping me up at night.
No, this isn’t a belated April Fools article, and I won’t be leaving REALL to follow those who see visions of the Virgin Mary after staring into the sun for a little too long. I know the explanation behind the miracle I witnessed, but that doesn’t make it any less miraculous in my opinion.
I should clarify now that I’m not talking about a miracle as one would be defined by Hume — an event that cannot be explained by the laws of nature. Indeed, the miracle I witnessed might be described as a miracle of nature — an example of how wondrous the real world can be.
This reminded me of something Professor Charles Schweighauser said in his recent presentation to REALL. He talked about how people seek out wondrous claims of pseudoscience but often ignore the wonder of science itself. Can pseudoscience put a man on the moon? Can pseudoscience allow me to tap small pieces of plastic and have my thoughts appear on a screen in front of me? Can pseudoscience heal the sick, or allow the death of one to give life to another through transplants? No. Pseudoscience can, and does, make claims related to all of these things (UFOs, ESP, faith healing, life after death, etc.), but those claims are empty – there is no evidence to back them up, hence their proper label of "pseudoscience" instead of "science."
Yet pseudoscience gets far more media exposure than science. Science is often portrayed as boring, scientists as nerds or geeks. But science can be exciting — much more exciting than the pseudoscientific claims one will often see on television. Can one really compare the moon landing with a $4/minute call to a "psychic" and come away favoring the phone call? Can we look at a heart transplant and not be more excited than watching a rich grandstander pretending to heal those who desperately need help? Can we watch a child being born and not be amazed by our own evolution that brought us to that point?
I don’t know about anybody else, but I cannot help but be amazed at all of these "miracles." Every day now I look down and see echoes of the miracle I originally witnessed in early April; his name is Andrew Steven Bloomberg, and he is my newborn son of Shari and David.
