Science and Religion Index
By Richard Bruce BA, MA, and PhC in Economics
Former Instructor St. John's University, New York City

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In Superhero Worlds People would Yawn at the Resurection

The superheroes that dominate our movies are principally drawn from two fictional universes, the Marvel and DC universes. In both these universes, the superheroes commonly die and then return to life. There used to be a saying everyone comes back but Bucky, (Captain America's World War 2 teen sidekick). But then they brought Bucky back. So now it must be everyone comes back including Bucky.

In these superhero universes when the apostles reported that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, people would not take this as proof that Jesus was a prophet with a message from God. They would simply point out that Jesus with his healing powers was a superhero and all superheroes come back from the dead. The point is that for a miracle to convince it must contrast with common experience, it must contrast with science.

It is commonly argued that the resurrection and other miracles contradict science and therefore must be false. In reality, miracles do not contradict science, in fact, they require science, and are built on science. Black ink does not contradict white paper. Black contrasts with white, and through this contrast communication is possible. Communication requires contrast. In a world where all paper and other surfaces you could write on were black, black ink would be useless. In a similar manner for miracles to act as an effective medium of communication there must be a scientific order for them to contrast to.

In both the Marvel and DC Universe resurection and perhaps the generally miraculous are so common that one could not build a religion of miracles, like Christianity, in that environment.

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