Miracleshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FngXOUxklR4

1. What is your understanding of a miracle?

2. Write down 3 events you think would be classed as miraculous.

3. Are there different sorts of miracles, if so what are they?

4. What do miracles mean to believers?

5. What do miracles mean to scientists?

6. What philosophical/ religious questions arise from miracles?

Two General Views on Miracles

Anti – Realist View:- Miracles are not literally ‘caused’ by God. They are symbolic. Reveal something about God to a believer – make sense in religious life of believer.God doesn't literally have to have done a ‘real’ action. Supported by John Hick

Realist View: - Miracles actually do have to have happened to be meaningful. Faithful people actually believe God has literally caused a miracle.

Augustine

• A miracle is something difficult, which seldom occurs, surpassing the faculty of nature, and going far beyond our hopes as to compel our astonishment" De Utilitate Credendi, XVI.

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Aquinas

Aquinas identified three types of miracles:

1. Events done by God which nature could never do e.g. make the sun go backwards.

2. Events in which God does something which nature can do but not in this order e.g. someone living after death – resurrection of Christ.

3. An event which could happen naturally but God breaks the rules of nature. E.g. someone being instantly cured of a disease which doctors might have been able to cure given time.

What was important for Aquinas

• Miracles cannot be seen as signs or wonders or magic tricks – they must be seen in the context of the relationship between God and the believer.

• For a miracle to be a miracle, it must be called a miracle. To some, the birth of a baby could even be called miraculous. If it strengthens the faith of the believer, then it is a MIRACLE

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Bultmann

"It is impossible to use electric light and the wireless and to avail ourselves of modern medical and surgical discoveries, and at the same time to believe in the New Testament world of spirits and miracles."

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Paul Tillich• "Miracles cannot be interpreted in terms of

a supernatural interference in natural processes. ... A genuine miracle is first of all an event which is astonishing, unusual, without contradicting the rational structure of reality. In the second place, it is an event which points to the mystery of being, expressing its relation to us in a definite way. In the third place, it is an occurrence which is received as a sign-event in an ecstatic experience“. 8

HumeThe traditionally accepted definition:

“A transgression of the law of nature by a particular volition of the deity.”

This means that a miracle occurred whenever God caused a law of nature to be broken.

Hume’s CriticismsHume was an empiricist (experience.) He is

not saying the miracles are impossible but its impossible to prove them.

Evidence that miracles do not happen outweigh evidence that they do.

“No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle unless the testimony be of such a

kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous.”

1. The laws of nature are inductive probabilities

2. The greater the number of observations the more highly probable they become

3. Miracles are, by definition, a breach of those highly probable laws of nature

4. They are thus, by definition, highly improbable – the weight of evidence is against them

5. It is irrational to believe in the highly improbable as this is to believe against the weight of evidence

6. Therefore it is irrational to believe in miracles.

Four Additional points by Hume…

1) No miracle in history has been attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unquestioned good sense, education and learning, as to secure us against all delusion in themselves; of such undoubted integrity, as to place them beyond all suspicion of any design to deceive others.

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2) Human beings love tales of the weird and miraculous, so there is a natural disposition to suspend disbelief and to accept whatever is said. We have firm evidence of people giving credence to fraudulent miracles and people love to pass on gossip and tales – the more extreme, the better

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3) Belief in the supernatural and miraculous events is found principally in barbarous and ignorant nations. If belief in miracles is found amongst advanced nations it is only because it was handed down from ignorant and barbarous ancestors

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4) Every type of religion seems to have its own miraculous claim, each demonstrating the truth of that religion. They cannot all be true and the religious claims cancel out each other, so no credence can be given to them.

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Criticisms of Hume

• What criticisms of Hume can you think of? Is his idea flawless?

• What is a law of nature?• Natural law may not be broken but just an

incomplete understanding of the natural law on our part – new scientific discoveries all the time. (world flat, universe expanding)

• Some scientists argue that there is an fundamental degree of randomness at the basic level of nature. At the end of the day we do not control it.

• Hick – we do not know the laws of nature – they seem to change all the time. We then need to expand the ‘laws of nature’ to accommodate new science.

• There is no such thing as an unbiased perspective. Maybe an atheist like Hume wants to fail to see the miraculous.

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• Although contradictory claims from other religions may devalue a particular religion’s report of a miracle, this only shows that it is not the most rational position to believe in miracles, not that miracles are impossible, However, the range of different religious miracles do not necessarily cancel one another out. Most religious miracles do not purport to establish the truth or a particular religion; for example, healing miracles at Lourdes or the River Ganges are just instances of God helping the needy. The fact that miracles are claimed by particular religious groups is incidental.

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Questions:

• List 3 different definitions of a miracle. Which one do you most agree with.

• Summarise Hume’s main criticism of miracles and his 4 subsidiary criticisms.

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Richard Swinburne

• What do you think that Richard Swinburne is going to think of Miracles?

• Reasonable to believe in miracles if all past experiences of natural law goes against an event.

• Miracles are events which seem to have deeper significance than the events themselves.

“If a God intervened in the natural order to make a feather land here rather than there for no deep ultimate purpose, these events would not naturally be described as miracles.”

Read pages 334-338 Textbook• What is Swinburne’s Principle of Credulity

and Principle of Testimony?• How does Swinburne define a miracle?• How is this definition different to Hume?• What are the four kinds of evidence that

are identified by Swinburne?• What are his subsidiary arguments?• How does Swinburne challenge Hume?• Is Swinburne able to challenge Hume

effectively?

R. F. HollandEven events which do not break

(transgress) a law of nature can be viewed as miracles.

“a coincidence can be taken religiously as a sign and called a miracle.” – train

(miracle to one may be a disaster to another – miracles no more than interpretation.)

Read page 62 and 63 of small textbook

• Flew• Lewis• Polkinghorne

• Who has the best criticism of Hume?

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John HickGod can be seen to cause miracles

indirectly via human agency. Give humans inspiration to act in a particular way.

John Polkinghorne supports Hick adding that if God works through us God is present in the world not just in Creation. It also leaves open the possibility that God can intervene.

Miracles are ordinary events but are seen as miracles through the eyes of faith.

Wiles Criticisms of Miracles

Wiles

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Maurice Wiles (1923 – 2005)Theologian/ philosopher of religion who argued strongly that miracles are damaging to faith.

It is contradictory to believe in an all lovely (Omni -Benevolent) God who would only intervene occasionally to help people. – Its hard to believe in a God who would intervene

to feed the 5000 and then ignore the Irish potato famine, or a God who parts the Red Sea but does not intervene in the Holocaust.

(This is a good link to the problem of evil)

• Wiles argued only miracle was the single miracle of Creation.

• The problem with miracles is defining what a miracle actually is - subjective

• He does grant that direct divine action cannot be dismissed as logically incoherent.

But he argues that biblical stories including the virgin birth are legendary without any claim of historical accuracy.

Do you think Wiles would have been very popular

amongst the Anglican Doctrine Commission?

• Rudolf Bultmann agrees that all mythological/ superstitious elements should be taken out of the Bible so the essential truths are revealed.

God’s miracles• Creation in 7 days

• Giving Life itself- seen as a miracle

• Old Testament miracles- parting of red sea

• Check out: Amorite Coalition MassacredJoshua 10:1-14

• New Testament miracles- healing blind, raising the dead, walking on water- ‘signs’

Key words:

• Arbitrary: an action based on random choice

• Partisan: a strong supporter of a certain party or group, often in times of war.

• What issues are raised by these miracles?

• Do miracles suggest an arbitrary or partisan God?

• What is the theological significance of miracles for Christians?

• Can modern people be expected to believe in miracles?

• ‘the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites’.

• How might this be partisan?

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X How can God be Omni- benevolent and ignore a child with cancer or poverty?

Answer: Peter Vardy- The puzzle of Evil• God can selectively do miracles and still

remain omni-benevolent• Too obvious demonstration of God’s

power through frequent miracles would lead to loss of free will

Strengths of Wiles

• Wiles view may appeal to educated believers as it allows them to believe in God and uphold scientific laws

• It may be seen as solving the problem of evil. God does not intervene because he cannot or because he is willingly bound by the laws of nature.

• It allows believers to reinterpret the idea of prayer. It is not about presenting a wish list to God that makes God act; it is rather about allowing individuals to connect to God’s will32

Weaknesses of Wiles

• It misunderstands what miracles are to believers

• At best, Wiles idea is that of a deistic God. (Which Wiles denies)

• It is not appropriate to make God conform to human rationality. God may act in ways that are beyond our human reasoning.

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Other Philosophers• Polkinghorne: Argues that Maurice Wiles’ view of God’s

action in the world does not reflect Christian religious experience.

• Religious Experience cannot always be explained but is understood by the believer and faith.

Modern Views against miracles:

• Peter Atkins: People seek publicity or are deluded or hallucinate

• Richard Dawkins: Places such as Lourdes could be explained by the placebo effect

• Miracles are improbable