Phenomena

Phenomena are occurrences or strange happenings that typically cannot be explained by science, for example ball lightning or the efficacy of prayer. In scientific circles, the word carries a bit of a negative connotation.

The word comes from the Greek phainomenon, the active participial form of a verb meaning "appear".

Examples of so-far-unexplained phenomena include:

• Prayer
• Eucharistic miracles
• Migration of birds in winter
• Extrasensory phenomena
• The Great Flood
• St. Elmo's fire
• Tornadoes
• When the sun stood still over Jericho
• The miracle of the loaves and fishes

On the other hand, when scientists believe they have truly explained some process, such as evolution or the Big Bang, they are rarely called phenomena anymore.