The rescue workers and onlookers cheered as the young girl was lifted from the ruins of the building. A week after disaster hit the city of Adiyaman, it seemed impossible that anyone could have survived being buried alive in freezing temperatures - and yet Miray had. "God is great!" shouted the spectators.

This is not the only extraordinary tale of survival after the earthquake. In the same province, 18-year-old Muhammed Cafer was found alive after 198 hours. Two other teenagers were rescued in neighbouring Kahramanmaras shortly before that.

Many people were quick to call these events miraculous. For the young people to have survived the collapse of the buildings was extraordinary enough; and humans can usually only last a few days without water.

But there was also a rational element. In very cold conditions, blood vessels shrink, making it possible for people to survive their injuries longer.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a miracle as "an extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore attributed to a divine agency". But a secondary definition is "any remarkable occurrence".

Miracles are an important part of all major religions. In the Bible, Jesus is credited with walking on water and raising the dead. In the Koran, Ibraheem survives being thrown into a huge fire.

In Buddhism, Sakyamuni has the power to read minds and to fly. In Hinduism, Shiva brings his beheaded son back to life as Ganesh.

Even in modern times, there is a strong belief in miracles. One survey¹ found that 79% of people in the US believe in them. Another, carried out in 10 countries across four continents, found that over a third of Christians claimed to have witnessed or experienced divine healing.  

But rationalists insist that things can only be true if there is a scientific explanation. The 18th Century philosopher David Hume described the idea of miracles as contrary to nature and a "superstitious delusion".² He argued that those who claimed to have witnessed them as gullible Easily fooled. and biased by their religious beliefs.

But those witnesses include some very intelligent and level-headed people. Yet another survey found that 55% of doctors in the US had seen recoveries which they considered miraculous.

The 5th Century theologian St Augustine of Hippo disagreed that miracles are contrary to nature. The truth, he said, was that they just did not fit in with our knowledge of nature. If we understood the world properly, we would see that everything that happens is part of God's plan.

"Is not the universe itself a miracle," he asked, "yet visible and of God's making?" Modern Christians emphasise that the chances of Earth having exactly the right conditions to produce life are incredibly small.

Scientists have countered this with the theory that there are multiple universes - so many that the chances of life appearing in one were very high. But, as with miracles, it is something no one can prove. 

Yes: The chances of Miray not being killed with the other people in the building, and then surviving for such a long time without food or water, are so minute that this has to be regarded as one.

No: There is a perfectly rational explanation for it. Miray was in the part of the building least affected by the earthquake, she was young and strong, and the cold reduced the effect of her injuries.   

Or... It is a miracle if we go by the Oxford English Dictionary's secondary definition of "any remarkable occurrence". We are inclined to call things miracles because the idea of them cheers us up.