The religious, except in the case of our milk drinking Hindu statues, don’ t usually require duplication, but that is not always the case. The“ miracle” of the Greek“ Holy Fire” occurs every year and has been going on for at least 1,200 years in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem, on the night before Greek Orthodox Easter commences. The fire supposedly comes from the tomb of Jesus, and every year it never fails to light a brand or candle – but there are no outside observers of how this actually happens. You can see it for yourself, as it is usually broadcast live( this is a short video, but I’ ve seen much longer ones of the whole ceremony).
Personally, I think there is someone or something in the tomb which is used to light the candles, but since those officiating don’ t let you near this during the event, there is as yet no way to prove this and the would-be debunkers can only speculate. If someone can ever get a cam in there and watch the Patriarch whip out his Zippo lighter, then we will have proof.
There is also the annual event, going on since the 14th century, of the dried blood of St. Januarius liquefying in Naples. It doesn’ t always do this, and when it fails to do so, people fear some natural calamity. And there are a number of others which don’ t get as much publicity, so duplication is not necessarily a dividing line between the miracles of science and of religion.
For the religious, normally, a miracle is something that happens once, by definition. It’ s an indicia of God’ s interaction with his creation and is his way of sending some sort of sign or message to the faithful – if they have the wit to understand it. It would, of course, be much simpler to just write the message in the clouds or make it magically appear on everyone’ s forehead, but God is not known for being obvious anymore. Indeed, the fact that a“ miracle” happens only once is often for the faithful proof of it being a miracle in the first place.
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