When science stops, faith has a chance to take hold. Case in point: Couple credit God for cancer recovery
By David Smith
Picture the ideal family in your head and you might see Tom and Allison Holden in their cozy country home with their dual professional careers, two loving boys, and the health to enjoy all that life has to offer.
Nine years ago, their picture was anything but ideal. A malignant melanoma in Tom's body, which twice had been treated, reappeared. Only this time, tumors had spread to his brain, abdomen, leg and neck.
The Holdens, who live outside Rossville, visited prestigious medical centers, but doctors told them there was no cure. Instead of living to have that second child they'd hoped for, it seemed Tom Holden would be lucky to see his first son Kirk's fourth birthday.
And then it happened, a cure so improbable, and yet complete, the Holdens consider it nothing less than a miracle. While advanced medicine played a major role in the recovery, so did prayer, faith and God, they said.
"I think that God led us to the doctor that could help me," Tom Holden says. His wife agreed: "We felt it was a miracle because we had three major institutions tell us to plan the funeral. He was at death's door."
In a world of constantly advancing technology, it's a wonder so many people still believe in miracles. Even science-trained people like the Holdens -- he holds a pharmacy degree from Purdue and she a pharmacy degree from University of North Carolina -- credit God for providing hope, if not outright cures, where science fails.
Easter miracle
According to Michael Bergmann, Purdue associate professor of philosophy, a miracle is "an event that is not governed by laws of nature and is caused by God." He talks about miracles in his philosophy of religion class.
The belief in miracles is never so apparent as at Easter, a celebration of what many Christians consider to be the ultimate miracle, Jesus Christ rising from the dead.
"If there were no miracles, then this belief in the resurrection of Jesus, crucial to the Christian faith, would be false," he said.
Whether or not miracles are real is not the focus of his class, nor of science, he said. Bergmann said the persistence of belief in miracles may be because it's "hard for science to rule out the possibility of miracles."
Still, others look to natural laws -- the basic tenets of chemistry, physics and other branches of science -- to explain away phenomena others consider to be miracles. Sometimes, the skeptics are religious believers themselves.
One year after the death of Pope John Paul II, an effort is under way for his canonization to sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church. The road to sainthood must include documentation of two separate miracles.
Vatican investigators still are looking into the case of a French nun who is believed to have been cured of Parkinson's disease through the intercession of the late pope, two months after his death on April 2, 2005. If the miracle is confirmed, the pope will be beatified, the first step toward possible canonization.
The Rev. Timothy Alkire, pastor of St. Boniface Church in Lafayette, said he believes in miracles.
"Be careful to not call every answered prayer a miracle," he said. "We must be prudent."
Alkire has visited Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in Lourdes, France. It is the site of reported visits to a teenager, Bernadette Soubirous, by the Virgin Mary in 1858. Millions visit the shrine each year, many seeking cures through the intercession of St. Bernadette.
"You find people who have lost all hope because of news that they have an incurable disease," Alkire said. "There is an intense spirit of prayer there, whether they receive a miracle or not."
Alkire said God can intervene in "extraordinary ways."
"Why do modern people want to downplay miracles?" he said. "For us Catholics, it is a completely different supernatural realm."
Thing of the past?
Pastor Steve Viars of Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette said he does not believe in miracles as commonly defined.
"In the most technical sense, a miracle is a direct and immediate intervention of God into the physical world to publicly demonstrate his power," he said.
"As such, it comprises an act of special revelation. I believe that special revelation ceased when the Bible was completed. So in this sense, I do not believe miracles are still occurring today."
Viars said when people today talk about a miracle, they mean "God's providence."
"In other words, the event is unusual, unexpected, out of the ordinary," he said. "In that sense, I certainly believe God is providentially involved in the lives of people today."
Tested faith
That may best describe how Allison and Tom Holden view his cure from cancer after respected medical centers, including Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., told them nothing could be done.
It was while visiting Mayo Clinic that the Holdens heard of an experimental treatment involving the AIDS drug interferon.
They called a hot line (800-4-CANCER) and received in the mail information about the treatment program. They called the doctor at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill.
The treatment began on April 3 -- Easter Day -- 1997. As the drugs boosted Holden's immune system, the tumors began to fade and eventually went away.
The Holdens said the doctor told them that only 12 percent of patients on the program are tumor-free after five years. As of the eight-year mark last June, he was still tumor-free, and the doctor considers him fully recovered.
Holden's bout with cancer tested his faith in God, but ultimately it was his faith that helped him survive, both he and his wife believe. They are active in their church, and he gives talks about his experience to groups when asked.
"When I really felt God spoke, I had been up all night. I felt a real peace that everything would work out," he said.
Tom Holden turns 49 today.
"I didn't think I'd see my 40th birthday, much less my 49th."
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Note:
"In the most technical sense, a miracle is a direct and immediate intervention of God into the physical world to publicly demonstrate his power," he said.
All anyone needs to do is to look around them and they would see that there are many such miracles. Our very existance here, the earth, the sky and all that is, all is a miracle performed by God.
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