Miracles Flashcards
C.S. Lewis
What is a miracle?
“A violation of natural law.”
D. Hume
What is a miracle?
“Nothing is esteemed a miracle if it ever happens in the common course of nature.”
What is a realist view of miracles?
- Mind independent
Who is the main scholar?
A realist view of miracles
- IF miracles happen, they are real events that take place in the real world that are brought about by God or someone that God is working through.
Hume
“A transgression of a law of nature by a particular violation of the Deity or by the interposition of some invisible agent”
What is an anti-realist view of miracles?
- Mind dependent
Who is the main scholar?
An anti-realist view of miracles
It depends on interpretation, everything that happens is interpreted by our minds so it makes no sense to speak of miracles as objective, real world events - it is all about the effect on the believer.
M. Wiles
When an anti-realist talks about miracles, what are they not making a claim about?
The event itself, but rather a state of mind.
What sort of event does P. Tillich say miracles are?
‘Sign-events’
What are ‘sign events’?
An event that acts as a pointer towards a deeper, transcendent reality (often considered a manifestation of God); signifying something beyond itself.
They must be understood in their religious context, like a road sign - they don’t make sense outside context.
How does Tillich see God?
As ‘Being itself’ rather as a ‘being’.
What is the quote from Tillich’s book, Systematic Theology, that states his 3 main criteria for miracles?
“First of all an event which is astonishing unusual, shaking, 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 the next ecstatic experience.”
Who is another anti-realist scholar?
What did he agree with Tillich on?
Maurice Wiles
Miracles are ‘sign-events’, in which God does not intervene or act in the world.
Whose writings is Wiles referring to?
“The direct intervention of God, however rare the occasions of it…
B. Hebblethwait
…would…have disastrous implications for our understanding of the problem of evil.”
Whose writings is Wiles referring to?
“The direct intervention of God, however rare the occasions of it…
…would…have disastrous implications for our understanding of the problem of evil.”
What implications does claiming God intervenes or controls the world in laws of nature in regard to the problem of evil?
If God was, he would be infrequently selecting people which seems to be unfair, not omnibenevolent - immoral.
If he could sometimes intervene, why doesn’t he all the time?
The claim that God doesn’t intervene is more important.
According to Wiles, rather than miracles being evidence of God’s power what are they to do with?
What biblical reference illustrates this?
Miracles are to do with our fight against evil.
Jesus didn’t perform miracles to prove he was God, but instead to heal & battle evil.
Wiles believed biblical accounts of miracles should be interpreted as myths to express something about God.
However, he believes there is/was one miracle - what is this?
Creation itself.
The extraordinary act by which God brings the whole universe into existence.
