Miracles - Philosophy

what is the link between miracles and the problem of evil?

'all powerful' definition would seem to include the ability to do miracles goodness includes fairness, if god is all-good, he ought to treat everyone equally, if god performs miracles, he is helping the selected few and is being unfair the incompatibility has led to many different conclusions: - rejecting miracles on theological grounds -rejecting miracles scientifically -defending miracles as symbolic stories -defending literal belief in miracles

how are literal beliefs in miracles defended?

Christians view miracles as a way that God reveals his power, and miracles usually go against the natural law of the universe believers point to god's overall plan for the kingdom of god and the return of Christ god is omniscient and knows the future in a way that humans cannot, what makes no sense to us now may form god's plan, it is argued that we ought not to question the workings of god

are miracles violations?

David hume - sceptical about their occurrence defined a miracle as 'a transgression of a natural law by a particular violation of the deity violation definition - claims that a miracle is a violation or breaking of natural law for example - dropping a pencil out of a classroom window and it hovers unsupported in mid air, then the law of gravity has been broken

what is the counterargument to defended literal beliefs in miracles?

although the positioned is correct, it becomes impossible to engage in dialogue about it, it is neither verifiable or falsifiable

how are miracles rejected scientifically?

argue that nature is a closed system wit fixed casual laws presumably nature was created by god, and natural evil such as earthquakes is the direct responsibility of god if he were to intervene to prevent it, that would indicate the world was not made perfect, if he did not intervene, questions would be raised regarding his goodness

counterargument to miracles defended as symbolic stories?

bultmann is suggested to be right that miracle stories contain theological truths and may insure us to do good things, but wouldn't the stories have more effect if they were true? admittedly, they do seem mystical and sometimes impossible but surely god's power allows him to do such things

how are miracles defended as symbolic stories?

bultmann regarded the stories of miracle in the new testament as later additions to inspire us to follow god and be morally good miracle accounts should be read symbolically, they teach us about god's power or Jesus' compassion and should inspire us to help people in a similar way eases the issues of the problem of evil, as god does not literally intervene in people's lives in an arbitrary manner, which would raise issues of fairness whether the lack of divine intervention is because god cannot or because god chooses not too

how are miracles understood?

form critics - a movement theological movement that analysed biblical texts in order to discover what form they were originally used in such as Gunkel argued that the key to understanding miracles accounts was understanding the period where the stories were passed on by word of mouth 'form' that they were told in the early church Rudolf Bultmann - attempted to demythologise the New testament accounts, by removing the supernatural elements, he argued that it is possible to get closer to the real message of Jesus rather than the miraculous interpretations of the early Church

what is hume's case against miracles?

he is an empiricist and and a sceptic, hume is empirical in the sense that he believed our senses, however he is also a sceptic because he argued that we cannot reason accurately beyond what we see and hear as this requires us to make assumptions

what is the theoretical case against miracles?

hume appears to suggest that miracles are impossible, the laws of nature that we experience are uniform and constant, we assume that these laws will not be changed in the future and that they were constant in the past to understand hume's critcisms, it is necessary to consider his ideas on induction hume notes we establish cause and effect relationships based on our experience of the world, this leads us to making predictions about what will happen in similar cases in the future each experience we have of 'normal events' seems to make miracles less likely, yet there is no way of absolutely disproving them

what are hume's practical arguments against miracles?

hume gave four practical arguments against miracles hume tries to persuade that miracles cannot happen hume observed that 1. miracles do not generally have many sane and educated witnesses 2. psychological - natural interest in things that are unusual, this tendency towards the things of surprise and wonder is exploited by religious people 3. prior to the age of political correctness, hume suggests that it is mainly amongst the 'ignorant and barbarous nations' 4. almost all religions carry miracle stories, yet they cannot all be right, the sets of testimonies would seem to cancel each other out because each faith alleges that the miracles they believe in provide evidence that their particular faith is true

what does Hume do faced with the difficulty of the theatrical case against miracles?

hume suggests that the only evidence available to us is the testimonies and accounts written by others hume suggests that we ought only to believe a miracle story if it would be more incredible that all witnesses were mistaken if the event were true hume does not believe in chance or in supernatural intervention, hence he appeals for us to go with the evidence and consider which state of affairs is more probable, a miracle or a more ordinary explanation

what are the responses to hume's practical arguments against miracles?

hume's appeal to the laws of nature is inconsistent with his own writing's, he suggests that our idea of scientific laws of nature is inconsistent with his own writings he suggests that our idea of scientific laws may just be a psychological habit for example - he famously observed that there was no good reason to expect the sun to rise in the morning, yet we do expect this hume's practical points can be seen as generalisations, it is unclear how many witnesses hume thinks would be sufficient Swinburne - noted that testimonies may not be the only evidence available for example - physical traces of events, such as recent footprints on both sides of a lake and no boat or bridge, and dry clothes, would count as evidence of someone walking on water

what were wiles' views on miracles?

in creating the world, god puts in place certain natural laws, provided that there are natural laws, miraculous events would be very rare by definition given that miracles have to be infrequent, the question remains, would god do such things? for example, jesus turns water in to wine, wiles' views it as a bizarre arbitrary whim of god, for wiles biblical miracles have symbolic value and teach believers about the nature of god and the importance of obedience

what is the counterargument to the rejection of miracles on theological grounds?

it is not inconceivable to suggest that god may act seemingly randomly in performing miracles, in order to have an impact of humans god gives humans freedom to choose to believe in him and to choose to love him and others it may be that miracles act as signs and encourage some people to respond to god, indeed the bible refers to miracles in some instances as signs

what are the strengths of wiles' argument?

may appeal to educated believers as it allows them to believe in god and uphold scientific laws seen as solving the problem of evil, god does not intervene either because he cannot or because he is willingly bound by the laws of nature allows believers to reinterpret the idea of prayer, it is not about presenting wish lists to god that make god act, it is rather about allowing an individual to connect to God's will

what is the counterargument to the scientific rejection of miracles?

may ignore the effects of human free will and sin, in Augustine's theodicy, the blame for both natural and moral evil in laid at the door of human beings who misuse their free will, this would indicate that god may choose to intervene occasionally but is not morally obligated to clear up the mess

miracles in the old testament?

miracles in the old testament are generally acts of God that support and help with faithful they demonstrate the glory of God and bring punishment on the wicked or those who oppose God's people the old testament is the events surrounding the exodus from Egypt

miracles in the new testament?

new testament is centred on Jesus - there are 30 recorded miracle accounts in the four gospels scholars divide the miracles into categories - healings exorcisms nature miracles (such as walking on water) these miracles are recorded by the writers of the gospels as demonstrations of the kingdom of God, Jesus is the promised Messiah

objections to miracles being violation?

the violation definition assumes that we know what the law of nature are scientific knowledge is constantly changing unless we know exactly all of the laws of nature, we are unable to comment on whether something is a miracle, however unusual complex objection - Alastair McKinnon said if the laws of nature merely describe the actual course of events, then to define a miracle is this way is to call it an event that disrupts the actual course of events, this is of course self-contradictory

are miracles events with religious significance?

the events that may appear to be coincidences are excluded example by R.F Holland - story of a boy playing on a railway line, the express train is about to come around the bend and will not be able to stop in time, yet the train does stop a few metres before the short boy, it later emerges that the driver fainted and the automatic cut off switch stopped the train, thee mother believes these events were significant, she sees the whole chain of events as an act of God Holland argues that miracles are not necessarily violations of natural laws but are any event that a person experience as having religious significance example 2 - life magazine 1950 whilst the definition allows us to include more natural events as miracles, it comes down to subjective interpretation

is the resurrection of Jesus a special case?

the resurrection of Jesus is the central miracle of the New Testament 'if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching has been in vain and your faith has been in vain'

what is the purpose of miracles?

they demonstrate the love and goodness of God, God is compassionate and responds to prayers and demonstrations of faith they demonstrate God's power over nature, illness and even death they show that God is continually involved and active in the world that he has created they are signs pointing to the person and message of Jesus, they demonstrate that he is from God

what are the weaknesses of wiles' argument?

what wiles is suggesting does not accord with traditional religious teaching about god, it requires the claim that believers have completely misunderstood the notion of miracles to suggest that miracle stories show god's love and power loses impact if god is not able to intervene in the world it is not appropriate to make god conform to human rationality, god may act in ways that are beyond our human reasoning

is god arbitrary and partisan?

wiles argued that any occasion where god intervened with the natural order to help individuals or groups would raise issues of consistency and fairness, he believe god would be arbitrary and partisan the goodness of god and the existence of miracles were two incompatible ideas a god that choose to help only some, often ignoring those in greatest need, would not be morally good, he suggests it is better to believe in a god that does not do any miracles, than in one that was not morally good

wile's thoughts on god?

wiles objects miracles, it is necessary to understand his ideas on the nature of god to understand why for wiles, god is the creator and sustainer of the world, to talk about god's actions is to consider his relationship to the world as a whole rather than looking at specific events wiles believed that there was in effect a miracle of creation and that god's creation was good and not require intervention in the form of specific miracles 'the world as a whole (is) a single act of God' - Wiles

how are miracles rejected on theological grounds?

wiles would agree that a miracle-working god does not help us to solve the problem of evil, this is because miracles would compromise the goodness of god, it is unfair if god helps some people in their suffering but not others using an ireneaen-type theodicy, that the world presents us wit opportunities to grow and develop our character repeated intervention by god prevents us from growing and developing ourselves

what have critics responded to wiles?

wiles' view is a for of deism and not theism, although this may be seen as justified in that God does not intervene, wiles rejects the claim as a god is still actively sustaining his creation