I know this is super-long, but one final thought. I have seen evidence outside of what I logically assume to be intelligent design that there is some kind of God/higher-power. People say "why doesn't God work miracles anymore, huh? If He was real, he would show the world some miracles." I have had experiences in my life that tell me, flat-out, that God is real, and that he does miracles. You may say it was coincidence, and that because it was good, I'm tributing it to God. No, I honestly tribute the bad to God too. If he wants to do something, it is for a reason. Example: My grandfather went on a cruise for his 50th anniversary last year. While on the cruise, he somehow devolved Pancreatitis. He was not diagnosed with this while on the ship, but he was constantly vomiting and was light-headed, so it was decided that, at his age (72), he should be dropped off at a hospital. Well, it was a Caribbean cruise, so the nearest hospital was on Puerto Rico. He and my grandmother were dropped off there, by the cruise, which left them. Once he got to the hospital, he got worse. He was not allowed to eat because of the Pancreatitis, which caused him to be extremely light-headed and faint. Overnight, his condition became extremely bad. He would come in and out of consciousness, and when he was awake, he had serious problems. Sometimes he was fine, but others he wouldn't recognize you, or would say things that wouldn't make any sense.

Apparently this was an extremely severe case of Pancreatitis, but a lot of it still doesn't make sense to the doctors. Anyway, my dad and aunt quickly got on a plain and flew to Puerto Rico. The hospital was terrible. A) Only the doctor and one nurse spoke English. My grandmother was born in Alabama. Nuff' said. B) you had to purchase everything. Clean sheets were not provided. Pillows were not provided. Toilet paper was not provided. Nobody could stay at the hospital overnight, even my grandmother (which was very frustrating, given that the care of the nurses were very poor. At one point, they completely left the room for an hour, never checking in. My grandfather was in the "I am going to say random things and shout out nonsense" mode, and somehow got out of the bed. My grandmother came in to find him sitting in an armchair. He was not supposed to allowed to stand, due to the condition. ). The nearest hotel was several blocks away. A worker at the hotel who spoke English, and who was the nicest person they met there, informed them that the roads going from the hotel to the hospital were the most dangerous in the city. All drug-dealers and the likes. My grandmother had walked alone on the first day, at night, to and from the hospital. Somehow, nobody messed with a white woman who dresses herself very well. During the entire week that they were forced to stay, they did not see a single person on the entire road. How easy would it have been for them to be mugged?

So, my grandpa got really bad. Because of stupid complications between American hospitals, he couldn't be moved to the U.S for a week. I won't even get into that garbage. The bad part was, the U.S had a possible way to treat it, while in Puerto Rico, they had nothing. But he had to have his condition decline to a deadly state because he was forced to stay in Puerto Rico for a week. Finally he was allowed to go. When he got here, it was pretty much "How long does he have?" He could barely stay awake. I was able to go in and see him during what had become a rare right-minded moment, though I'm not sure he really recognized me. He didn't recognize anyone else when he was awake. It had gone from saying nonsense to saying nothing. The doctors in the U.S didn't know what to do, because they didn't realize it was so bad. The only real cure for Pancreatitis is to wait for the pancreas to return to it's normal state, which could take months (in fact, it did.) Problem: he was not allowed to eat when the Pancreas was so inflamed (it was off the charts. They would have done surgery, but-) and he hadn't eaten in two weeks. Obviously, that is not good for your health, on top of having a deadly disease. We went home that night thinking he was gone. You may laugh here. You may call it coincidence. But I prayed that night in a way that I had never prayed before. I said that I didn't care about ANYTHING else, as long as the somehow survived and could recognize us again. I prayed for a straight hour. I was obviously not the only one praying. Again, you can call it what you want, but no doctor can explain it, and they don't try. The next day, his pancreas had taken a huge drop. HUGE. Impossible numbers for a less than 24 hour period. Remember, it's a several month long process. And his mind was right. If you could have seen how he was the day before, you would have thought that, even if he survives, he's going to have something wrong with him. But the next day, he recognized everyone. He had fluent conversations. It was the biggest turn-around the doctors had ever seen. Yeah, I'm going to call it a miracle, because there is no other explanation. This was December of last year, and we all thought he would die. After much rehab to regain his strength, his weight is back, he is driving a car, and he shows no signs of having anything wrong with his mind. He can't remember what happened between going to Puerto Rico and the day he was better, but the first day he was better, he told us about some crazy things that he thought had happened. Obviously it was whatever his mind had been showing him during a two week time. The point is - that is a miracle. I ask you to find a scientific explanation for that. And mine is hardly the only story of a miracle that couldn't be explained scientifically if you tried. You might ask: Why would a loving God allow you to go through an experience like that? Maybe because in the end, we are not any worse off, and it increased our faith in Him.