Definition (abridged) from the Oxford Dictionary
“MIRACLE (noun):
An extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws …
Middle English via Old French from Latin miraculum ‘object of wonder’, from mirari ‘to wonder’, from mirus ‘wonderful’.
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An Apple, a Raging Sea, a Moonlit Path, a Baby, these are all extraordinary and (at least potentially) welcome events ; but none of them are miracles.
Consciousness, however, fully satisfies the conditions stipulated.
This is a most momentous fact, I submit, and one which has received nothing like the attention that it deserves.
But what sort of attention can we usefully give, one might ask, to something which we have actually defined as immune to any explanation of a natural or scientific sort ?
Dare I respond ? : We might bring an attention (contemplation) infused with a proper sense of awe.
Consciousness, I might add, positively invites such contemplation. In fact, contemplation, the very nature of consciousness in the act of contemplating itself, produces such a strong and pleasurable feed-back loop in experience, that countless generations of our best and brightest have attempted to seek asylum therein, entirely forsaking the natural and scientific, in the hopes of acceding to a “higher” plane of reality where consciousness defines nature, not the other way around.
It would be impossible, I believe, to overestimate the loss sustained by human society through the voluntary withdrawal of such a high percentage of our natural leadership from the cares, and responsibilities of active life. There has been, however, this benefit from the constant presence among us of such mystically oriented drones : that we are at least reminded of the awesome power of consciousness, even if we are also reminded of the infinite dangers therein, just as we are aware of those concerning alcohol, pornography and drug addiction.
We should not, however, be unwilling to fall in love, simply because we have come to despise pornography. Nor should we be afraid to explore the implications of consciousness, simply because we have seen (or experienced), the ravages produced through misplaced enthusiasm.
It is frequently stated, moreover, that modern man is constantly searching for some meaning, to life, beyond the simple imperatives of our brutish animal existence. And consciousness, at the root of all experience, speculation, desire, memory — artistic exploration and expression — would appear central to any such discovery.
But let us not burden ourselves, for the time being, with questions of what consciousness is or does. Let us permit ourselves, for a brief moment, to savor the mere fact that consciousness IS (at all), which is to say, the mere fact that consciousness exists.
And to do that, let us return to the definition quoted above : We know that consciousness exists, because our experience is conscious — because we experience the conscious state.
And yet we also know that our consciousness is invisible to anybody else, possessing only natural and scientific means of enquiry to test us. And that is because consciousness has no physical product ; no physical signature ; no physical trace of its passage ; nothing detectable whatsoever.
Actually, the only test yet proposed for identifying the presence of consciousness is based on verbal reports, meaning, as Alan Turing expressed the problem : Can someone, or something convince me (knowing that I am conscious), that he, she, (or it) is conscious ?
But unfortunately, in answer to this question, we now have the evidence of a half century of evolution in artificial intelligence, notably demonstrated in the creation of IBM’s super platform Big Blue (roundly defeating all human competitors at the game of chess) which might lead us to doubt our ability to avoid being fooled by a mindless program during such an interview.
Therefore, as defined : consciousness exists ; consciousness is (usually) experienced as a wonderful thing ; consciousness has no scientific explanation.
And that, in a nutshell, is the Miracle of Consciousness.