Richard Feynman — "There is no such thing as a miracle. There is only what we don't understand yet."
There is no such thing as a miracle. There is only what we don't understand yet.
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More from Richard Feynman
"I don't believe in the idea of a 'common man' or a 'common woman.' I believe in individual people."
"God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand."
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt."
"I guess I'm just mischievous. I just love to do that to people. Well especially when they're so gleefully happy that it's been going to cost 13 signatures haha."
"I asked him once, 'How do you tell when a mathematical argument is correct?' He said, 'If it's beautiful, it's correct.'"
About Richard Feynman (1918-1988)
American theoretical physicist who shared the 1965 Nobel for QED, developed Feynman diagrams, and wrote the Feynman Lectures on Physics. Closely associated with Julian Schwinger (co-Nobelist for QED) and Murray Gell-Mann (Caltech rival and Eightfold-Way physicist). For an intellectual contrast, see Deepak Chopra, physician and quantum-mysticism author — Feynman's Caltech 'cargo cult science' commencement address is the precise template for what he saw as misuse of physics terminology — Chopra-style appropriation of quantum vocabulary for metaphysical claims is the canonical example of what Feynman called 'fooling yourself'.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
When something seems impossible or supernatural, it simply means our current knowledge hasn't caught up to explain it. What looks like a miracle today is just an unsolved problem waiting for the right question. Ignorance isn't magic — it's an invitation. Understanding grows when curiosity replaces awe, and every 'miracle' eventually surrenders to investigation, evidence, and the patient work of science.
Relevance to Richard Feynman
Feynman built his career dismantling mysticism through rigorous inquiry — developing quantum electrodynamics to explain light-matter interactions that once seemed inexplicable. He famously said knowing the name of something isn't the same as understanding it. His Challenger investigation showed this practically: what looked like bad luck was explainable physics. He distrusted authority and religion equally, trusting only demonstrated, testable knowledge.
The era
Feynman worked during the Cold War nuclear age and the postwar science boom, when public faith in technology and scientific explanation surged. Yet pseudoscience, ESP research, and religious fundamentalism competed with empiricism. Feynman's era saw the space race transform 'impossible' into routine achievement, making his point viscerally real: yesterday's miracle — human spaceflight — became engineering within a single generation.
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