Original subtitles

WILLIAM SHATNER: A sacred artifact,

imbued with divine power.

Holy relics that can heal the sick.

And ten deadly plagues sent by the hand of God.

To billions of people around the world,

the Bible is a sacred text,

believed to be directly inspired by God.

But some events recorded in holy scripture defy explanation,

and raise profound mysteries of faith.

For instance,

does the evil entity referred to as Satan

actually exist?

And can humans really channel

divine forces to perform miracles?

Well, that is what we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

High atop a plateau overlooking the Allegheny River

sits Saint Anthony's Chapel.

Every day, Christians from all over the world pass

beneath its tall spires and rounded arches

to participate in devotion and prayer.

However, it's not the outside of Saint Anthony's Chapel

that makes it such an inspiring destination...

...but rather the inside.

Because within this church lies something that is quite unusual.

A collection of thousands of bones

that once belonged to Catholic saints.

FATHER NICHOLAS VASKOV: When you come here

and you walk in and you see

these beautiful gold or brass reliquaries

and just how vast the collection is,

which include anything from part of an arm bone

or a leg bone,

to the skulls and the full skeletons,

it really is just overwhelming.

At Saint Anthony Chapel there are over 5,000 relics

and this collection is second only to the Vatican.

So here at Saint Anthony's, it really is a unique experience

to come and see the relics of saints.

SHATNER: The relics of Saint Anthony,

Saint Demetrious,

Saint Stephana

and Saint Theodore among many others

are kept in Saint Anthony's Chapel.

JONATHAN YOUNG: Saint Anthony's is quite a place.

They have items that come

from the four corners of the world,

mostly the Holy Land,

and they're all protected there,

and we can see these relics.

You can see a little of the holy there

in a tooth or a piece of skull,

which is a relic, a piece of a saint.

A relic that you can actually look at and be close to,

that's like a little bit of God right there in the chapel.

SHATNER: Millions of Christians consider

holy relics to be sacred

and it's well-known that the bones of many saints are

preserved in cathedrals throughout the world.

But how did such a vast collection of relics

end up in a chapel in Pittsburgh?

VASKOV: What makes the collection of relics here

particularly unique

is the way in which they were obtained by Father Mollinger,

who built the chapel.

He obtained them in the late 1880s

because there were people who just thought

that the relics had no value and things were being discarded.

Father Mollinger had a network of people in Europe

who were preserving the relics

and he would go and retrieve them himself.

We have pilgrimages come in

at least once a week if not more.

And what a gift it is to be able to welcome them

and share this treasure that we have here.

♪ ♪

SHATNER: Each and every relic is enclosed with a wax seal,

both to ensure its authenticity

and to protect it from those

who might wish to tamper with the holy remains.

But why are holy relics

so coveted and revered in the first place?

Why go to such extraordinary lengths

to preserve these ancient bones?

KEN JEREMIAH: All throughout Europe, in churches,

you'll see these bejeweled skeletons

adorned with gold, silver, and expensive jewels,

that really look like they're works of art

but strange works of art.

And the whole purpose of this is because

there is this idea, especially in Christianity,

that there is this inherent spiritual power

that infuses the remains,

and that spirit has to be honored.

KATHLEEN McGOWAN: The bones of saints and martyrs in Christianity are

of exceptional value,

and extraordinary power

according to Christian tradition.

It was believed that when a saint was

murdered for their beliefs

that their bones became infused with their sanctity,

the essence of their grace.

ROBERT CARGILL: Holy relics, specifically skeletal relics,

stem from this tradition

that the bones themselves possess power.

And this comes from the Bible.

You have a story in Second Kings,

in the Hebrew Bible, in the Old Testament

of a burial procession.

And they were doing a burial,

and they saw some invaders coming.

And they just threw the body

on top of the bones of the prophet Elisha

which were already lying on the ground

and as soon as the dead body touched the bones of Elisha,

they came back to life.

So, obviously, the bones of Elisha have

some life-giving property.

McGOWAN: We also have stories from the very beginning

of Christianity about miracles related

to the bones of different saints.

The bones of Saint Lazarus, for example--

who was raised from the dead by Jesus--

were highly coveted.

And there are legends in Provence

that the bones of Lazarus were brought in to people

who were sick and dying

and that utilizing the bones in the presence of these people

with the right kind of prayers would then

heal them of this near-fatal illness.

TOK THOMPSON: There was a huge, lucrative market

in medieval Europe for saints' bones,

and different cathedrals would be vying with each other

about who could have the most important relics.

So even today, if you go to the cathedrals of Europe,

any good cathedral will have

a few body parts in there of saints.

SHATNER: Ancient relics that can channel the power of God?

For some, that idea is a little hard to believe.

In fact, there are many skeptics who claim

that supposed holy relics are not even the actual bones

of Christian saints.

And yet, some of these relics have been proven

to be quite authentic.

Of all the holy relics that exist from the saints...

...perhaps the most fascinating is

the skull of Mary Magdalene.

The relics and the skull of Mary Magdalene have been

kept on display

in the Basilica of Saint-Maximin in the southwest of France

since about the fourth century

and have been dated and carbon-dated

and examined in a number of different ways.

So we're pretty clear that these are actually

truly the relics of Mary Magdalene.

Now because Mary Magdalene was present

for the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

her relics were considered to have

even more power and importance than perhaps any other saint.

There was an understanding that you could even potentially

bring somebody back from the dead

with the relics of Mary Magdalene.

There have been miracles recorded for centuries

from people who were

in the presence of Magdalene's relics,

and many people believe that you could benefit

from the extraordinary sanctity

that was said to rest in her bones.

And people who go to revere her skull have

incredibly powerful emotional experiences with it.

It really radiates a type of grace and a spirituality.

And people walk away from it sobbing.

People fall to their knees.

VASKOV: I've heard many stories of people

who trust with all their heart

that the encounter they had with the relics of saints

brought about healing in their life.

In fact, over in the Chapel Museum,

there are crutches and canes

and things that-that people were able to cast aside

because they were healed.

If someone would doubt whether this is real,

whether this is authentic,

I would just invite them

to talk to someone whose life, even in the slightest way,

was made better

or made different because of their encounter

with the saints

through holy relics.

SHATNER: To this day, holy relics continue

to fascinate people all over the world

and are held sacred by billions of faithful.

But not all mysteries of faith concern

objects that can be seen in person.

Some have been lost to history,

like an ancient Jewish artifact

that was said to have the power...

to destroy nations.

SHATNER: Every December, millions of Jewish people

all over the world come together

to celebrate an eight-day festival known as Hanukkah.

According to tradition,

during the holiday,

the Jewish faithful light a candle each night

on a special candelabra, called a menorah.

This sacred practice is referred to as the Festival of Lights,

and it has been performed for more than 2,000 years.

While Hanukkah is a happy, family celebration,

the menorah actually commemorates

an ancient Hebrew relic that according

to the Old Testament of the Bible

stood five feet tall, was made out of solid gold,

and was said to be imbued

with the power of God.

TZADOK: The Temple Menorah is a sacred treasure.

The original Menorah was built

in the same time that was the Ark of the Covenant.

The laws of the candelabra, the Menorah, were very precise.

Those artifacts built in the days of Moses

had a special power to them.

Not symbolically, but actually.

SHATNER: Under God's instruction, the holy Temple Menorah

was used to light a sacred place of worship for the Israelites,

and was constructed with seven branches

to represent the seven days of creation.

Today, the menorah used during Hanukkah

has nine branches to memorialize

one of the ancient relic's great miracles.

We know from history that, in the second century,

before the Common Era,

the Greek empire came into the land of Israel.

When the Greeks came, they defiled the Temple,

and all of the sacred oil

used for the lighting of the Menorah were destroyed.

AMIR HUSSAIN: A group of Jews who are under occupation revolt,

and they're able to overcome the Greeks.

They're able to reconsecrate the Menorah.

Except, of course, they don't have enough oil

that you use as the fuel.

They have oil for the lamp to light for one day.

Miraculously, the lamp lights for eight days,

which, when we think about it,

doesn't seem like such a big miracle.

But if you think about it, from a Jewish point of view,

if nature is under the control of God,

this is one of the signs of God's favor.

SHATNER: For even more dramatic evidence of the Menorah's divine power,

some point to the fact that, throughout history,

anyone who tampered with this sacred relic

suffered dire consequences.

COLLINS: In AD 70,

the Romans sacked Jerusalem,

and they carried off all of the treasures

of the temple to Rome.

And this is celebrated

in the so-called Arch of Titus in Rome.

You can actually see on this relief,

the actual Menorah being carried away.

And it's said that, thereafter,

Rome was sacked by the Vandals in 455 AD.

The Vandals take the Menorah back to Carthage.

And then, that's sacked by the Byzantines.

And so, everyone that gets this,

at some point, their empire gets destroyed.

And is there a sense of, "Oh, is this because

God's providence isn't with these people?"

TONY McMAHON: The Menorah ended up in Constantinople,

the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

But apparently, the Jewish residents of Constantinople

warned the emperor that the Jewish God

does not like his treasure being held by other people,

and the emperor gets rid of the Menorah.

COLLINS: It was felt that having the Menorah,

this item of incredible divine power there,

was gonna bring destruction.

And thereafter, it vanishes.

SHATNER: Could the Temple Menorah actually have divine powers?

For now, we have only

the historical accounts to consider,

as the Menorah has been lost for more than a thousand years.

However, according to one incredible theory,

the Menorah might still exist today

and it may actually be hidden

deep beneath Vatican City, in Rome.

COLLINS: People have believed since medieval times that the Menorah,

and also, the Ark of the Covenant,

were kept in a cave,

beneath the actual site of the Vatican itself,

suggesting that they were hiding the Menorah,

and that this may well have remained here

through to modern times.

Of course, the Vatican denies

actually possessing this holy relic,

so we can only but speculate

on whether it is or isn't still there today.

But if the Vatican does still possess the Menorah,

why would they want to keep it?

Is it something to do with the divine power

that it's thought to hold?

SHATNER: Is it possible that the Menorah,

and also, the Ark of the Covenant,

are locked behind closed doors at the Vatican?

And if so, have these holy artifacts

been hidden because their powers should not be tampered with,

as some believe?

If the blessing of God was upon this sacred artifact,

then the blessing of God remains upon this sacred artifact.

And indeed, those who would seek

to violate that "sacredity"

or dishonor it,

would indeed become subject to the wrath of God,

which is not something anyone would want to incur.

SHATNER: The Holy Land.

For thousands of years,

religious pilgrims of many faiths

have come to this sacred city to express

their devotion to God.

But just outside the walls of Jerusalem

lies the Valley of Hinnom,

an ancient place of unholy worship

where evil deeds were performed long ago

in honor of God's enemy Satan.

In the Book of Jeremiah, God reports through his prophet

that people outside Jerusalem,

in a place called the Valley of Hinnom,

are sacrificing their sons and, also, their daughters,

and God explicitly says,

"I never asked you to do this satanic ritual,"

and expresses that he's angry, that there's going to be

a terrible punishment for this.

Historically speaking, in the days of the Bible,

not everybody was faithful to the Lord.

Satanism influenced the Israelite community.

And what they would do, literally,

was they'd create a big pit of fire,

and they actually would sacrifice

their firstborn male through the fire.

This was performed in the Valley of Hinnom,

which is actually the Hebrew word today for "hell."

SHTANER: What can explain the shocking events

that took place in the Valley of Hinnom

thousands of years ago?

Was it simply the result of human wickedness?

Or is it possible that, as the biblical accounts suggest,

Satan and his demons were and still are

real entities that have the power to influence people?

MIKKI BROCK: Some people think of Satan as "Beelzebub"

or "Lucifer" or the "Prince of Darkness"

or "the evil one" or "Old Nick."

And some of these names come from scripture.

A lot of them come from folklore.

And if you think of Satan as this ubiquitous figure

who's constantly tormenting and tempting people,

then it makes sense that the devil can be known

by all of these different nicknames.

Is there really a character of the Satan?

Well, the definition of that is going to differ

between the major world religions.

But fear of an eternal damnation

in the afterlife has always been sufficient

to keep people religious,

and in line with the beliefs of their religious clerics,

who warn them that failure to comply

will lead to an eternity of suffering and damnation.

Or in other words, the stories from which this developed

were to teach moral lessons.

LAYCOCK: Throughout history, many religions have

interpreted the world through the lens of having

a figure of evil, Satan, who's responsible

for evil in the world.

According to Christian tradition,

Satan was one of the most powerful

and beautiful of the angels.

He rebelled against God,

a third of the angels sided with Satan

and there was a war in heaven,

which Satan lost and was cast down into hell.

Satan is the embodiment of evil, a fallen angel

who tempts you to not follow your best values.

He is a god of sorts,

and he can offer something like that to us,

great knowledge, control, mastery.

The stuff of transcendence.

Of course, it will cost us everything.

After all, this is not a straight shooter.

This is not somebody who's going to tell the truth.

His job is to tempt you.

BADER: Satan is believed to have tried to tempt Jesus

when he was in the desert

with visions of earthly delights.

So, Satan is continually, throughout the Bible,

someone trying to draw people from God to evil.

But the idea of Satan flows throughout history

and across religions.

There is Mara in Buddhism,

who is a demonic king, an entity representing evil,

and therefore, would tend to take on

very frightening forms which oftentimes

are mixtures of human and animal.

There is Iblis,

who is the Islamic representation of Satan.

So, we see this figure of Satan,

a singular entity that is in charge of evil,

across religions and over time.

SHATNER: Does this universal belief

in an evil, tempting enemy of God

suggest that Satan, by whatever name he's called,

is actually real?

According to one of the most important

spiritual leaders in the world,

the answer is an emphatic "yes."

Pope Francis publishes a statement

which contains a dire warning

for those who don't believe in the existence of Satan.

The pope declared that:

Pope Francis has spoken more about the reality of Satan

than the previous popes have.

And he often speaks about Satan as a real person, of course.

And also, that he said, "Don't try to argue with Satan.

"Don't get into a dialogue with Satan because

he'll outfox you," which is good advice.

BROCK: The current pope, who people usually think of

as being this sort of progressive figure,

he talks about the powers of Satan as a literal entity.

But the devil is still a very powerful force

who sort of lurks in the bounds of our imagination.

BADER: It's a common misconception

amongst academics and secular people

that the devil is an outmoded idea,

that it went away in the Middle Ages,

and that couldn't be further from the truth.

Very recent data from the United States

shows that over half of Americans

believe that the devil is a real entity,

not merely an idea.

LAYCOCK: I think that our ideas about things

like supernatural evil tend to depend

on the situation we're in

and what's happening to us on a given day.

And ultimately, many people say they absolutely believe

in the existence of Satan.

Whether you believe Satan is actually real

or merely a symbol of evil, the historical importance

of this supernatural figure is undeniable.

The same can also be said

about a series of devastating cataclysms

recorded in the Old Testament,

when the ancient Egyptians were punished

by the powerful force...

of ten deadly plagues.

SHATNER: At a staggering 4,130 miles,

this river that winds through the deserts of northern Africa

is considered to be the longest in the world.

In ancient times,

the Nile was the center of the Egyptian civilization.

But the Nile is perhaps most famous

for being the site of the Plagues of Egypt--

a miraculous series of events

that is recorded in the Book of Exodus.

HUSSAIN: In the Book of Exodus, the chosen people of God,

the Israelites, are in Egypt,

and they've become enslaved by Pharaoh.

And so here's God who sends Moses to Pharaoh saying,

"Let my people, my chosen people, go."

Pharaoh, of course, isn't going to let his workforce go.

And so God sends these ten plagues.

SHATNER: As the story goes,

God turned the water of the Nile River to blood.

When that didn't convince the Pharaoh,

God rained down frogs from the sky.

And he sent lice, flies, pestilence,

and boils to harm the people and animals.

Then God summoned a mighty thunderstorm of hail and fire,

followed by a swarm of locusts that covered the land of Egypt.

When Pharaoh still didn't listen,

God created a darkness that lasted three days

to fill the people's hearts with dread.

Finally, God sent the Angel of Death

to claim Egypt's firstborn sons,

including the Pharaoh's oldest son.

Only then did the Pharaoh

finally set Moses and his people free.

CARGILL: According to the Bible,

God is clearly responsible for the plagues.

However, you might be able to understand

how the Pharaoh might see these plagues

as coincidence,

as naturally occurring phenomenon.

But when so many plagues occur back to back,

then he's convinced.

It's a story about how God wants people to be free,

and not oppressed, and not exploited.

SHATNER: Were the ten plagues really acts of God?

Or can they be explained by other means?

Many biblical historians agree

that before that question can even be answered,

it must first be established whether the ten plagues

actually happened at all.

There exists an ancient Egyptian text

called the Ipuwer Manuscript...

...written at the time that the Exodus

is supposed to have occurred

that tells us that Egypt was afflicted

by what the Bible describes as plagues.

It talks about the river Nile turning blood-red,

it talks about plagues of flies and locusts,

it talks about boils on people's skins

and it talks about cattle dying in the fields.

So, according to the Ipuwer Manuscript,

the plagues of the Exodus could actually have happened.

SHATNER: But if the Plagues of Egypt did, in fact, take place,

then how did so many different calamities occur

in such a relatively short period of time?

Some researchers suggest that a natural disaster

may have been the cause of the plagues.

PHILLIPS: What's fascinating is that many of the plagues

described in the Book of Exodus

bear an uncanny resemblance

to the effects of a volcanic eruption.

For example, when volcanoes go off,

you get volcanic ash clouds that cover the skies,

day turns to night.

And then you get something called iron oxide,

which is a red substance

that can be thrown out of volcanoes,

and when it goes into the water, turns the water red.

You might think that frogs and flies

are nothing to do with a volcanic eruption.

But what happens is when a volcano goes off,

the larger predators are killed

by inhaling the volcanic dust.

And because of this,

smaller animals that would have been eaten

by the larger predators survive.

So you end up with millions of frogs,

flies, locusts, other insects,

that you wouldn't have had otherwise,

just like the plagues in the Bible.

MICHIO KAKU: If you have the atmospheric anomalies

created by the eruption of this volcano,

all of a sudden, everything you're accustomed to seeing,

night and day, and cycles of temperature

get thrown out of kilter

because of a major eruption that has taken place.

That may have caused the ten plagues

mentioned in the Bible that afflicted Egypt.

SHATNER: Is it possible that the Plagues of Egypt

were caused by fallout from a volcanic eruption?

Perhaps.

But what could explain the tenth and final plague,

the death of Egypt's firstborn?

HUSSAIN: There's no easy explanation for this angel of the Lord

who slays the firstborn of Egypt,

or why this happens, other than this is God saying,

"Okay, here's the last straw."

But oftentimes, the point of the story

isn't to talk about scientific truths.

It's to talk about human relationships.

It's about what do we do

when we're not living in right relationship with God,

or with each other?

The story of the ten plagues persists

because it's not about the science of the miracle.

It's about freedom.

When God successfully gets the Hebrews out of Egypt,

that's when they turn to the heavens and say,

"God works in mysterious ways."

SHATNER: In northeastern Egypt,

there's a 120-mile stretch of the Red Sea

that separates Africa from the Sinai Peninsula.

In addition to being one of the busiest shipping routes

in the world,

the Red Sea is also widely believed

to be the site of a miracle

that continues to capture our imagination.

CARGILL: Following the story of the Exodus,

Moses successfully gets the Hebrews out of Egypt,

and they take off, but then the Pharaoh, in his anger,

and in the realization that he's lost his free labor,

says, "I changed my mind, go get those guys."

And so, now the Hebrews find themselves on the run

with this massive body of water ahead of them

understood to be the "Red Sea,"

and the Egyptian army behind them.

SHATNER: According to the Bible,

as the Egyptian soldiers were closing in on the Israelites,

Moses held out his staff across the waters,

and God parted the Red Sea.

The Israelites are able to walk across the sea.

And then Pharaoh's army comes rushing in after them,

and the sea closes in, collapses,

and kills them.

And so the story gets resolved

by Moses and the Israelites escaping

through the miracle of God with the parting of the Red Sea.

SHATNER: Biblical scholars point to the parting of the Red Sea

as a story that is meant to show that the power of God

can bring salvation to those who are downtrodden.

HUSSAIN: The parting of the Red Sea.

It's this amazing kind of story because it very much

is this vengeful God...

...who has this extraordinary power

saying, "Okay, here's the reward for the righteous."

Moses and his people are able to get free.

"Here's the punishment for the wicked."

You know, Pharaoh and his army.

SHATNER: On the surface, the parting of the Red Sea

may seem far-fetched

compared to other acts of God

that resemble natural occurrences,

such as the Great Flood

or the ten plagues.

But there are some researchers who believe

that there is evidence to suggest

that the literal parting of an enormous body of water

is actually possible.

And they claim a clue can be found in the way the Bible says

God used his power to part the Red Sea.

The biblical account of the parting of the water

is told in Exodus Chapter 14.

And there's two key verses.

I will read them.

"Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,

"and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night

and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided."

So there's this detail in the account

that says how the wind blew, and the water shifted,

and the dry land emerged from the sea bottom.

SHATNER: But what was the mysterious wind

that God used to part the Red Sea?

Well, according to some scientists,

it could have been an unusual weather phenomenon

that is known as

"wind setdown."

When a strong wind blows on a body of water,

the body of water shifts

all the water in one direction.

Now, on one side it's called storm surge,

because the waters are gonna build up there.

On the other side, the level drops,

and that's called wind setdown.

Then when the wind stops,

the waters come back again

just like the Bible says.

One theory is that Moses could have timed it.

He knew when the next rush of water would come in.

And the Egyptians would blindly walk

into the trap and get flooded.

DREWS: This kind of event happens only by hourly timing.

And the Bible reports that God told Moses to be at this place

and at this time and be ready for what's gonna happen.

So the mystery here is really in the timing.

SHATNER: Could the parting of the Red Sea have been the result

of a weather phenomenon?

Some scientists believe that it's plausible,

particularly since there are multiple historical accounts

of strange wind activity

in this area.

In the year 1798,

Napoleon and his troops

were crossing over the Red Sea area.

But then water suddenly rushes in.

-(waves crashing) -And Napoleon's troops

almost drowned as a consequence.

So some people think that what happened

to Napoleon and his troops might have

happened on a much larger scale

to the Egyptian army.

DREWS: There is an account from 1882

where British General Major Tulloch

was surveying along the shores of the Suez Canal

in the eastern Nile Delta.

He describes how the wind blew all night long from the east,

and he had to go into his tent and hunker down.

The next morning, he reports that the natives

were walking around on dry ground

where the previous day they had been in their boats.

Immediately, it flashed to his mind,

this is like Moses and the Israelites

and the parting of the Red Sea.

ROBERT RUSSELL: The miracles of the Bible

in some way reflect our...

limited knowledge of the way the world works.

People didn't have the science

to describe the underlying events in nature,

and even now, we don't have enough

knowledge to know why some events happen.

The point is that scientific knowledge of natural processes

doesn't exclude God bringing them about.

God acts through these events.

SHATNER: 2,400 feet below ground,

dozens of miners toil

in the sweltering darkness of the San Jose Copper Mine.

(miners shouting, clamoring)

Suddenly, the earth above them shifts

and dislodges a boulder the size of a 45-story building.

The massive boulder comes crashing down,

causing the mine shaft to collapse,

and blocking the ramp that leads up to the surface.

MARC ARONSON: There were 33 men in the mine at the time of the accident.

On the surface,

they knew that there had been a terrible accident.

But it was not clear

what that meant for the men down below.

SIMON ROMERO: The outside world had no idea

if they were alive or dead.

People were really on edge.

They were watching this around the world on television.

It's really something that people were following

very, very closely.

SHATNER: Search and rescue teams quickly began to drill into the rock

to try and free the miners,

but progress was slow.

For days, the world watched in suspense

as rescuers desperately

continued to drill in search of the miners.

ARONSON: It was nearly impossible to find the men.

Because nobody can see through the earth.

And the maps were outdated.

And that meant,

as one of the drillers said,

"We're drilling blind."

SHATNER: Finally, after 17 long days,

one of the rescuers' drills

uncovered evidence that, incredibly,

the miners were still alive.

The miners had found some red paint

so that when the drill came down through,

they could paint on the drill to show

that "we are alive."

In the drill, they sent a note out that said in Spanish,

"Estamos bien en el refugio, los 33."

"We are okay in the refuge, the 33 of us."

(cheering, shouting)

ROMERO: And that really just changed everything.

SHATNER: To combat their feelings of helplessness,

the trapped miners turned to their last remaining refuge.

Their faith.

ROMERO: One of the things that really struck me about

why they were able to make it, uh, for so long

was their religious beliefs.

They really felt like

prayer was one of their strategies

to help them make it through this.

ITALO BROWN: Literature documents

that faith is a significant factor in survivability.

Sometimes it's individual faith.

Sometimes it is faith of a community.

The hard part is, there is no science

that we have that absolutely defines it,

but faith has

real tangible results for many people.

RAMANI DURVASULA: For the Chilean miners, many of them were men of faith

as part of their day-to-day lives.

So praying together, having that collective energy

was just enough hope to keep a person going for another day.

SHATNER: After 69 days,

the rescuers finally created

a hole big enough to extract the miners.

Then as the world waited with bated breath...

(cheering, clamoring)

...the men were brought up one by one.

And astonishingly,

all 33 miners

made it out alive.

(cheering, clamoring)

But perhaps what's even more incredible,

is that they were rescued two months sooner

than everyone expected.

And the miners firmly believed

that this unexpected turn of events

showed that a higher power

had intervened on their behalf.

ROMERO: The power of prayer played a crucial role

in allowing these 33 miners to make it.

It's even been said that God was the 34th miner.

Um, several of the men who were trapped down there said that.

They really felt like their belief

in God was why they were rescued.

Were the Chilean miners

saved by their prayers to God?

Ultimately, it's a mystery of faith.

And just one of many examples

in a long line of miraculous events

attributed to the intervention of the Almighty.

For thousands of years, people have believed

that a divine being, beyond human comprehension,

is present in our world.

And just like sacred acts portrayed in the Bible,

or mysterious events we can only describe as "blessed,"

the power of faith remains

unexplained.

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