Miracles Revision

Need to know Definitions and understanding of miracles Examples of miracles (Old and New Testaments and modern miracles) Comparison of Hume and Wiles Significance of these views for religion

R.F. Holland (anti-realist): David Hume:   ‘A miracle may be accurately defined as a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent’ Aquinas: ‘That which has a divine cause, not that whose cause a human person fails to understand’. (Summa contra Gentiles) Or ‘Those things done by divine power apart from the order usually followed in things’ R.F. Holland (anti-realist): ‘ A remarkable and beneficial coincidence that is interpreted in a religious fashion’ E.g: a child on a railroad track is playing around the bend from an approaching train, so that neither the child nor the train's engineer know of the other's location. The child's poor mother is up the hill from this developing tragedy. Suddenly, the train slows, and comes to a halt, only a few feet from her child. Tillich (anti-realist): A miracle is a sign event: it is something of religious experience that points to and informs us about the nature of God. The impression it makes on the person is huge. It might lead them to change the direction of their life.

Problems with realist view of miracles – why would a loving God save some people and not others? If we define miracles as events which violate natural laws we have to revise these laws. Also problem of evil and mass evidence seems to make it unreasonable.

Hume David Hume writings on miracles can be found in his book ‘An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.’ Hume defines miracles as ‘a violation of a nature law.’   He defines laws of nature as generalisation based upon observance of regular happenings within nature. A miracle, according to Hume, is an interruption to the process of nature that cannot be explained by natural laws. Hume says miracles do not happen because there is more evidence in favour of the laws of science .

Hume lists four reasons as to why he questions the validity of miraculous events: 1. We cannot trust that those who testify to miraculous events occurring are not being deceived, deluded or even lying. 2. Stories of miraculous occurrences abound amongst 'primitive and barbarous people', who are not yet sophisticated enough in their understanding to know what is really going on. 3. Humans are naturally drawn towards the miraculous, and love being 'dazzled' by the mysterious, and they can often form unreasonable beliefs on the basis of these 'experiences', which should not trusted. 4. Miracles are 'contrary facts'! Different religions claim that miracles performed by members of their faith show that their belief-system is true, but they cannot all be true at the same time - so they cancel each other out! In terms of miracles then, Hume believed that claims of the miraculous needed to be tested against our experience of things in the world (remember he was an Empiricist!!!). For instance, the claim that someone has been raised from the dead needs to be 'tested' against our normal experience of what dead people do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SViCYjyoPtQ

Maurice Wiles REJECTS MIRACLES ON MORAL GROUNDS Problems with God performing miracles: God would either be ARBITRARY or PARTISAN God would not intervene in the world by causing a few random miracles. A God who cures a man of cancer at Lourdes but doesn’t stop millions starving in Africa isn’t worthy of worship. A God who acts selectively isn’t worthy of worship. Any idea of miracles as direct actions of God must be abandoned. Belief in petitionary prayer causing God to act would be rejected.

Key Words Arbitrary: an action based on random choice Partisan: a strong supporter of a certain party or group, often in times of war Deism: the belief that God creates the world but is then separate and uninvolved in the continuing affairs

What does Wiles see the purpose of miracles as being? Are answered prayers miracles? Miracles are rare but prayer is central to Christianity Miracles are important to the Christian faith so maybe they should be understood in a different way The key point of miracles is the spiritual significance as opposed to what is physically happening We should read accounts of miracles, even the resurrection and ascension, as symbolic.

Compare Hume and Wiles Hume is an atheist – assumes there is no God to violate anything Assumes Christianity is irrational Realist Any idea of a miracle short of violation of natural law is not worth talking about Wiles is a Christian – assumes there is a God who preserves human freedom by not intervening Anti-realist The value of miracles is the personal and religious elements

Responding to Hume- contingency The contingency definition of miracles = the word ‘miracle’ is applied to a set of coincidental events that are given religious significance then and after the event. R.F. Holland:   the event doesn’t break a natural law but can still be seen as miraculous, if the divine purpose and significance is strong enough.  ‘A coincidence can be taken religiously as a sign and called a miracle.’ E.g: a child on a railroad track Tillich: A miracle is a sign event: it is something of religious experience that points to and informs us about the nature of God. The impression it makes on the person is huge. It might lead them to change the direction of their life. Miracles….. 1) are astonishing but ‘without contradicting the rational structure of reality’ 2) point to what Tillich called ‘the mystery of being.’ 3) are ‘received as a sign event in an ecstatic experience.’

Response to Hume: Hick The anti-realist view states that miracles are not literally ‘caused’ by God, rather they are symbolic and reveal something about God to the believer. God doesn’t literally have to have done a real action for the miracle to have meaning. Hick says that the very point of miracles is that they are highly infrequent events. He argues that if miracles happened all the time then God’s existence would be obvious and this would have a negative impact on our free-will. (epistemic distance) Hick asserts that God can be seen to cause miracles rarely, but this is indirect and through human agency. He will simply give humans inspiration to act in a particular way. These events will be ordinary, but will be seen as miracles through the eyes of faith.

Religious Understanding of Miracles Omnipotent and omnibenevolent God A personal God who responds to prayer An immanent God who intervenes in the world A God who put natural laws in place and who can change them Miracles act as a proof of God’s existence

Different Interpretations of Miracles Literal Mythological Symbolic For religious believers today the important questions to ask are what does this mean and why did God choose to act in this way?

Responding to Hume: Keith Ward Hume’s definition of a miracle as ‘a violation of a law of nature by a God or a spirit’ is a ‘totally unworkable definition’ for two reasons: 1) ‘Physics cannot rule out miracles.’ (probabilistic laws) 2) ‘Hume is using a verbal con-trick’ (de dicto argument)