Not Miraculous - By Definition

"'I can't think how a man like you can believe in those things. The Indians, yes. Why the frist time they see an electric light they think it's a miracle.' [The Lieutenant]

'And I dare say the first time you saw a man raise from the dead you might think so too.' He [the priest] giggled unconvincingly behind the smiling mask. 'Oh, it's funny, isn't it? It isn't a case of miracles not happening - it's just a case of people calling them something else. Can't you see the doctors round the dead man? He isn't breathing any more, his pulse has stopped, his heart's not beating: he's dead. The somebody gives him back his life, and they all - what's the expression? - reserve their opinion. They won't say it's a miracle, because that's a word they don't like. Then it happens again and again perhaps - because God's about on earth - and they say: these aren't miracles, it is simply that we have enlarged our conception of what life is. Now we know you can be alive without pulse, breath, heart-beats. And they invent a new word to describe that state of life, and they say science has disproved a miracle.' He giggled again. 'You can't get round them.'"

Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory p. 201