Miracles

Question 1

What is realism?

Answer 1

Realism is the view that miracles, if they occur, are mind-independent events. Realists tend to take the view that miracles involve the violation of a natural law.

Question 2

What is anti-realism?

Answer 2

Anti-realism is the view that miracles are mind-dependent; that is, they refer to the state of mind of an individual or the effect of an event on a community. An event is a ‘miracle’ if a person sees it as miraculous. Anti-realists tend to take the view that miracles are natural events.

Question 3

What does it mean to refer to a miracle as a ‘violation of a natural law’?

Answer 3

This is the view, generally taken by realists, that miracles are highly unusual events which go against natural laws, e.g. raising the dead, defying gravity.

Question 4

What does it mean to refer to a miracle as a ‘natural event’?

Answer 4

This is the view, generally taken by anti-realists, that miracles are events that are within the laws of nature but are seen as miraculous due to their effects.

Question 5

What are Thomas Aquinas’ views on miracles?

Answer 5

Thomas Aquinas is a realist - he views miracles as events brought about by God’s will which go against the order usually followed in things

Question 6

What are R.F. Holland’s views on miracles?

Answer 6

R.F. Holland is an anti-realist - he views miracles as coincidences interpreted in a religious fashion. This does NOT mean that religious people are wrong about miracles, but that it is equally valid to view an event as either miraculous or non-miraculous.

Question 7

What happens in Holland’s train analogy?

Answer 7

A child is playing on the train tracks as a train starts to turn the corner. The mother is horrified but cannot intervene. The train stops “miraculously” before killing the child, but this is in fact because the driver has had a brain aneurysm.

Question 8

How does the mother react to the events? And what is Holland trying to demonstrate?

Answer 8

She continues to treat the event as a miracle even after she finds out the real cause. Holland claims that the mother is entitled to do so due to the highly beneficial effect the coincidence has had on her.

Question 9

How does David Hume define ‘miracle’?

Answer 9

“A transgression of a natural law by a particular volition of the deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent”

Question 10

Is Hume a realist or anti-realist? Why?

Answer 10

Hume is a realist because he treats miracle claims as truth claims, and argues that they do not in reality happen

Question 11

Does Hume argue that miracles are impossible? Why?

Answer 11

NO - Hume says that miracles are possible, but is an empiricist & sceptic and therefore argues that miracles claims are impossible to PROVE due to the weight of evidence against them

Question 12

Where would you find Hume’s argument against miracles?

Answer 12

The chapter ‘Of Miracles’ in his book ‘An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding’

Question 13

Complete the quote:
“A wise man proportions his belief…”

Answer 13

“…according to the evidence.”
(Hume is suggesting that we should only believe a claim to the extent that the empirical evidence supports its truth.)

Question 14

Why does Hume believe we do not have any reliable historical accounts of miracles?

Answer 14

Because a miracle has never been witnessed by a sufficient number of educated men

Question 15

In what two ways are “religionists” not to be trusted in their miracle claims?

Answer 15

1) They may deceive themselves, and imagine themselves to experience a miracle

2) They may deliberately deceive others “for the sake of promoting so holy a cause”

Question 16

Where are the majority of miracle claims found, according to Hume?

Answer 16

In “ignorant and barbarous nations”

Question 17

What is Hume’s conflicting claims challenge?

Answer 17

All religions claim exclusively that their miracles prove their own religion, and therefore all religions taken together destroy each other’s credit

Question 18

Give two strengths of Hume’s approach

Answer 18

1) Hume is one of the first philosophers to consider the importance of testimony in weighing up the probability of a particular event.

2) Hume is fair about miracles, acknowledging that they are possible. He would presumably be willing to change his view if a sufficient number of educated men witnessed a miracle.

Question 19

Give two weaknesses of Hume’s argument against miracles

Answer 19

Hume’s ‘problem of induction’ states that it is a fallacy to assume that the future will resemble the past, and that causal relations between events can never be proven. Therefore the “laws of nature” which Hume relies on are ruled out by his own problem of induction.

Many of Hume’s criticisms are unclear, e.g. what would constitute enough education, a sufficient number, or an ignorant and barbarous nation.

Question 20

Where would you find Wiles’ account of miracles?

Answer 20

God’s Action in the World

Question 21

How does Wiles understand miracles? Does this make him a realist or anti-realist?

Answer 21

Wiles claims that “the idea of divine action should be in relation to the world as a whole”. Therefore “miracle” only applies in the broad sense of describing God’s single act of creation. This makes Wiles an anti-realist because all the individual interventionist miracle claims are better understood symbolically.

Question 22

What is the difference between the grounds on which Hume and Wiles reject miracles?

Answer 22

Hume rejects them on empirical grounds, while Wiles rejects them on moral grounds

Question 23

What is an interventionist miracle?

Answer 23

A miracle in which God intervenes in the normal course of events, e.g. by breaking a natural law

Question 24

What two words does Wiles use to describe a God who would perform an interventionist miracle?

Answer 24

“arbitrary and partisan”

Question 25

What is meant by ‘arbitrary’? Give an example

Answer 25

Random, based on a whim; e.g. the turning of water into wine at the Wedding at Cana

Question 26

What is meant by ‘partisan’? Give an example

Answer 26

Taking sides with a particular group or cause; e.g. the Old Testament God performing miracles exclusively for the Israelites

Question 27

What two events from the 20th Century does Wiles claim an interventionist God should have prevented?

Answer 27

Auschwitz (concentration camp) and Hiroshima (nuclear attack)

Question 28

Give two strengths of Wiles’ approach

Answer 28

Wiles’ approach still allows the miracles to be significant, but in a more symbolic way, which is becoming increasingly popular with liberal protestant Christianity.

Wiles’ God is not faced with the Problem of Evil and is therefore closer to the concept of the God of Classical Theism

Question 29

Give two weaknesses of Wiles’ approach

Answer 29

Many Christians view the approach as unbiblical, since the Bible is very clear about God’s nature as an interventionist deity

Many argue that it is inappropriate to judge God by moral standards e.g. the message of the Book of Job is that it is not our place as limited beings to question God

Question 30

What is the significance of Hume’s views for religion?

Answer 30

• Hume’s views provide an empirical challenge to religion, beginning a debate which still goes on today between religion and science
• For some believers, Hume’s views are not significant since faith does not require strong evidence

Question 31

What is the significance of Wiles’ views for religion?

Answer 31

• Could be very significant because if accepted, they require Christians to reinterpret their own scripture
• Potentially not significant as many Christians will fall back on a position of faith and argue that God’s plan is unknowable and we should not attempt to make sense of it