This is a trick question. If I could tell you how and when miracles would happen then they wouldn't be considered miracles. They would be classified and named as predictable phenomena by science..
Its possible to have miracles as predictable phenomena that can be investigated by science. A miracle is an event where a law of nature is broken by God. How would science inquire into this matter? Take a note that somebody is praying, observe the consequences of their actions, that is, observe the fact that their prayer is making 2 plus 2 amount to six and note that if 2 plus 2 turns to six each time a person prays, he probably has the ability to cause miracles.
Then science could turn to another shaman who is much less skilled at the endeavor of prayer who can make miracles happen only about half of the time he prays. Thus, on that note science can answer the question of what kind of miracles happen and under what circumstances.
What makes them happen? A certain person praying.
Under what circumstances? If the person praying is skilled enough or has sufficient faith.
As for the rest of your thread you seen to mistakenly believe that faith is opposed to reason...
I think it is opposed to reason because it urges a person to believe in a certain descriptive proposition about the world, yet does not offer rationale or 'reason' if you will in support of why he should do so.
In truth faith is what allows a person to reason properly. This is because fear clouds reason. It can be shown that humans are wired biologically to respond to fear so quickly that the reasoning process is short circuited. When confronted with fear people have two general responses, fight or flight, and reason is not an option....
Suppose that is true. A person who believes that everything will be just fine in the end will have no reason to be fearful. Hence, since he is fearless, fear will not stop him from reasoning properly. Most people without faith don't have any reason to believe that all will be well in the long run, so they have something to be apprehended about.
This phenomenon can be seen all of the time in stock market behavior. Normally intelligent people carefully invest their stocks to maximize returns and diversify against risk. Then their stocks fall, and they sell out of fear. Almost every investor understands "buy low and sell high", but when they see their stocks drop they irrationally sell low.....
It is true that fear often prevents people from thinking rationally.
A person requires faith to counter fear......
Faith may be one way a person could quench fearful sentiments, but I do not think that it is the only way. A person simply could figure out a way to avoid or defeat the source of fear. That is he could engage in 'flight' successfully, or he could engage in fighting successfully. Both outcomes entail a cessation of fear. Moreover, if the person is simply prepared for his situation and is confident that he can handle it, he shouldn't have anything to fear.
When a person can confront their fears it allows them to reason properly. Faith is not the enemy of reason.......
Faith is the enemy of reason because it encourages a person to abandon the activity of using reason to form views about the world in favor of beliefs that are either unsupported or unsupportable by rational thought.
Faith is the guardian of reason. For example a person who has faith in a higher moral authority will not be afraid to do the right thing even if there are negative consequences........
The person who has faith will have little incentive to use his reasoning faculties because his 'faith' quite likely informed him of almost everything that he needs to know about the world. Furthermore, faith often leads a person to develop a habit of forming beliefs in the similar way he or she has formed beliefs in favor of faith itself. That is, by simply and uncritically believing in a proposition regardless of whether or not it is defensible by rational argument. Hence, faith imposes constraints upon reason by leading a person to develop anti-rational reasoning habits and by bringing too high of a degree of closure to his life with regard to knowledge.
This person is free to reason the right course of action without being burdened by fear. This is why faith is so important to a person who values reason.........
It may do a greal deal to take away one hindrance to reasoning, that is fear; but, it will create other interferences that I mentioned above. (1. Closure with regard to knowledge-that is, leads a person to believe that we already know most of what we need to know about the world, so may as well not bother reasoning much further 2. Encourages uncritical acceptance of beliefs, may even lead a person to develop a habit of believing in propositions uncritically.)
So to sum up I admit that there are things in this world that we cannot currently explain..........
Yes, there are things in the world that we currently cannot explain. You phrased this notion very aptly. However, simply because we cannot explain some things now, it does not follow that they lack an explanation or that they break laws of nature, or in other words that they are miraculous in some sense.
And I have faith that some of these things will never be adequately explained, i.e. miracles.
You may have faith in this conclusion, but can you give reasons to support it? That is, does a person who does not share your emotional convictions have any reason to believe in what you do? Moreoever, does a person who does not want to use emotional convictions as a method for establishing conclusions about the world have any reason to believe that unexplainable phenomena exist?
Furthermore, if unexplainable phenomena do indeed exist, how do we know that they are miraculous (contrary to laws of nature) as opposed to resultant of too complex of properties of the natural laws for a human mind grasp?
*Interesting note. Colin McGinn, in the Mysterious flame argues that unexplainable phenomena exist and they include many questions that are by nature philosophical. For example the nature of consciousness and free will. However, he also holds that all of these questions do have a purely natural explanation, yet the explanation is too complex for a human mind to grasp.
Amazon.com: The Mysterious Flame: Conscious Minds In A Material World (9780465014231): Colin Mcginn: Books
His argument is that human minds simply are not made to grasp abstractions well, they are better made for directing our tree-climbing and child rearing activities instead. At least if this argument is not altogether plausible, it is understandable. But how could it be the case that some things simply don't abide by the laws of nature, or are miraculous?
What evidence do we have in favor of the existence of miracles other than apocryphal and vague testimonies of the archaic, vulgar folk? With regard to the testimonies of the modern people, contemporary psychology has evinced to us that our mind has a host of biases that lead us to have confused and distorted perceptions about the world that are often a result of wishful thinking, intellectually irresponsible assessment of information and poor reasoning?
Therefore instead of rejecting faith, it should be embraced by those who love reason.
Those who love reason should find other ways to keep their fears in check. That way they overcome their fears and are not forced to accept the limitations on their reasoning ventures that faith imposes.