Miracles Flashcards
Realist view definition
The stance that miracles are seen as real events brought about by God.
Key thinker: Hume.
Anti realist view definition
The stance that miracles are an interpretation of the mind. They may be seen as symbols, as something that lifts the spirit or transforms the community.
Key thinker: Wiles.
Realism - Realist understandings of the world generally
-That scientific theories give us true (or approximately true) descriptions of the world.
-That they give us knowledge of things that we believe to exist but cannot observe.
-That the world is mind-independent: it exists the way it is, regardless of what we think.
-Applied to miracles, a realist account sees them as real events brought about by God lor someone empowered by God).
Exists as a real being, transcendent and unobservable, who creates and cares for world
Realism applied to miracles
-Applied to miracles, a realist account sees them as real events brought about by God lor someone empowered by God). E.g Moses and Elijah in the Old Testament
Exists as a real being, transcendent and unobservable, who creates and cares for world
-God exists as a transcendent and unobservable being; nevertheless miracles are evidence of God’s existence and of his care for the world.
-These things are true despite the fact that we do not understanding everything about miracles
First realist understanding
Miracles as an extraordinary coincidence of a beneficial nature
-(Miracles are like amazing coincidences that bring good things, often thought to be from a higher power)
-eg
One example of a coincidence-miracle is the West Side Baptist Church gas explosion, which happened in Nebraska in 1950. The explosion demolished the church and would have killed its choir, but all 15 members were late (each for different reasons) for choir practice on that day and so all avoided certain death.
Miracles as an extraordinary coincidence of a beneficial nature
Critical analysis
example is Juliane Koepcke’s survival of a plane crash in 1971. She was on board Flight 508 from Lima to Pucallpa when it crashed in a thunderstorm, killing all 6 crew and 85/86 passengers. Juliane was the sole survivor.
-If God helped Juliane Koepcke to survive, what about the other 91 passengers and crew who did not? Does this not raise questions about God’s omnibenevolence?
-Were the other passengers less worthy? Why does God ‘pick and choose’ who he performs miracles for? Could this prove it was not a divine miracle?
-west side baptist church, could be a coincidence who says its God
Second realist understanding
Miracle as an event brought about by the power of God or another spiritual power, working through people
-The Bible contains many examples of God acting through persons this way.
For example, God acts through Moses, whose actions in carrying about the 10 plagues on Egypt in Exodus are given through the power of Yahweh
Miracle as an event brought about by the power of God or another spiritual power, working through people
Critical analysis
-The 10 Plagues could be alternatively explained - for example, ‘The sudden appearance of red-hued waters in the Nile could have been caused by a red algae bloom’. People attributed them to God as they lacked scientific understanding of the phenomena happening.
Third realist understanding
Miracle as a violation of natural law
-A miracle is something that could not have happened if nature alone was at work, so is an event brought about by the intervention of a supernatural power - which for many is God.
-The ‘classic’ account of the view that a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature comes from David Hume. Hume had three parts to his definition:
- A miracle is a transgression of a law of nature
- By a particular volition (an act of will)
- By the Deity (God) - or by the interposition (intervention) of some invisible agent.
Mackie quote on miracles
“We can think of a supernatural intervention as something that intrudes into a system from outside the natural world as a whole” (Mackie)
Miracle as a violation of natural law
critical analysis
-John Hick: Violation miracles are impossible. If there appears to be an exception to a law of nature, then the law simply expands to include the exception.
-Science does not accept that natural laws can be violated
-Laws of nature and not like laws of legislation - they cannot just be broken.
-If an event does not conform with what a scientific law predicts, there are three possibilities:
(a) The evidence for that particular event is faulty
(b) There is an unknown factor at play that the ‘law’ hasn’t accounted for
(c) The law needs to be adapted or expanded to take a new event into account.
What is the anti-realist understanding of miracles? (Tillich and Holland)
-Anti-realist understandings deny that we can have knowledge of a mind-independent world, since the phenomena observed by our senses are interpreted by the mind.
-Anti-realists believe that the idea of miraculous intervention in this world by a transcendent God is not a sensible idea. Instead, miracles are ‘in the mind’ - they are mental states or attitudes that are to be understood in terms of psychology and sociology.
• Anti-realists focus on the state of mind, rather than the event itself.
Paul Tillich - Miracles are sign-events
Quote
“Miracles cannot be interpreted in terms of a supernatural interference in natural processes”
Roy Holland - Miracles are based on personal interpretation / Form of Life.
Quote
“A coincidence can be taken religiously as a sign and called a miracle.”
Keith Ward - Miracles are ‘epiphanies of spirit’ (supports Tillich)
QUOTES
“The robe remains intact; the miracle is mainly in my mind”.
“The subjective element of the apprehension of a miracle, rather than the objective nature of the event itself”
