Miracles Flashcards
Define a miracle
A violation/exception of a natural law, or an event of religious significance.
David Hume said a miracle is?
‘a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity or by the imposition of some invisible agent’
What is Deism?
God is separate from the world and chooses to intervene at certain points.
What is Brian Davies’ theistic view on God sustaining the world?
He does not intervene as he is ‘as present in what is not miraculous as he is in the miraculous’
Thomas Aquinas’ 3 types of miracles?
Events done by God that nature could do. eg. sunrise.
Events that nature could do but not in that order (unlikely). eg. parting Red Sea.
Events nature could do but without use of natural laws. eg. forgiving sins.
How does John Hick define natural laws?
‘generalizations formulated retrospectively to cover what has, in fact, happened’.
Why does John Hick think there are no miracles?
If a miracle is a violation of a natural law and there are no real natural laws there can’t be miracles
Swinburne’s examples of miracles?
Resurrection from death to full health of someone whose heart hasn’t been beating for 24 hours and other criteria.
Water to wine without chemical apparatus/catalyst. Recovering from polio in a minute.
Levitation.
Swinburne thinks something is a miracle because?
Of the timing and having religious significance.
What doesn’t Swinburne think is a miracle?
God intervening to make a feather land here rather than there, or upsetting a child’s box of toys.
What does R.F.Holland say a miracle can be?
An extraordinary coincidence seen in a religious way
Swinburne’s evidence for miracles are:
Our memories, testimony of others, physical traces left
Problems with an interventionist God?
Some believe that God doesn’t act on a one off basis, he is timeless, and if he intervenes then why does evil and suffering still exists?
Christian response to an interventionist God
If he intervened he’d affect free will
Why doesn’t Maurice Wiles believe in miracles?
Because he thinks that God wouldn’t undermine his own laws of nature and doesn’t think he intervenes on a one off basis.
Why doesn’t Nelson Pike believe in miracles?
He thinks that God is timeless and can’t act at any point because he’s outside of time: he has no past, present or future.
What does Swinburne think about God being timeless?
He thinks that God isn’t restricted by time, because time doesn’t affect him like it does us.
What does Aquinas think about God being timeless?
He thinks God can act at any point but still be timeless.
Aquinas says God intervenes in our world in three ways:
Sustaining activity, primary actions, secondary actions
What are primary actions?
God intervenes through key events in history – such as the ‘great flood’, sending Jesus into the world
What are secondary actions?
God using humans to bring about change in our world – eg. sending the prophets to change the ways of others.
How does Aquinas define a miracle?
‘those things which are done by God by divine power apart from the order generally followed in things.’
Hume’s first critique?
There is not a miracle attested by a sufficient number of men of unquestioned good sense and education to secure us from delusion.
Hume’s second critique?
‘The passion of surprise and wonder, arising from miracles’ gives a tendency towards believing, ‘a religionist may be an enthusiast and imagines he sees what has no reality.’
Hume’s third critique?
‘They are observed chiefly to abound amongst ignorant and barbarous nations.’
Hume’s fourth critique?
‘In matters of religion, whatever is different is contrary’ every miracle attested in these religions therefore destroy the credit of the others.
Who said ‘in time we’ve come to do what earlier generations would have taken to be impossible based on their experience’
Brian Davies - he used the example of walking on the moon
What does the phenomenon of stigmata do?
It doesn’t bring a physical benefit but might positively impact belief.
Why does the Nebraska choir incidence seem miraculous
Because of the improbability that everyone was late and not killed
What natural events might have a sense that God’s present?
Witnessing a new birth, a beautiful sunset.
What is the problem with God being present in everything and everything being pre-determined?
This messes with free will and means he set up evil/suffering.
What does Hume suggest if an event can be explained naturally?
There is no reason for us to look for any deeper meaning.
Religious response that miracles are just coincidences:
- A believer doesn’t need evidence, they personally felt God’s presence which is proof enough.
- Anti-realists think there’s no ultimate truth, truth depends on an individual’s interpretation.
- Paul Tillich: a miracle is an event that gives a believer a sense of God’s presence/power.
What does Paul Tillich say that a miracle is?
An event that gives a believer a sense of God’s presence/power.
Who believes God intervenes (on a one off basis)?
Thomas Aquinas, Richard Swinburne
…
Who doesn’t believe God intervenes?
David Hume, John Hick, Maurice Wiles, Nelson Pike
Who said ‘nothing is a miracle if it ever happens in the common course of nature’
David Hume about natural events not being miraculous
Why does Keith Ward think God intervenes
To build up religious faith
What does Keith Ward use as an example of a miracle
The resurrection: it doesn’t bestow favours upon individuals and miracles only happen occasionally
What is Wiles problem with miracles
Why ‘no miraculous intervention in Auschwitz or Hiroshima’ but do miracles that seem ‘trivial in comparison’
Who said ‘A coincidence can be taken religiously as a sign and called a miracle’
R. F. Holland
Who thinks a miracle is something that ‘evokes a powerful sense of God’s creative power’
Paul Tillich
What is anti-realism
The truth doesn’t depend on the physical reality but on how the person understands it.
Who believes that God determines everything but free will is also compatible, which is a mystery only understood by God.
John Packer
Critiques of Hume
He says it must have been more miraculous for the miracle not to have happened, but isn’t the whole point of miracles that they’re an exception to a natural law?
What is a sufficient number?
Many miracles have been attested in Italy/France which weren’t barbarous.
Theologians are educated, but are they ‘enthusiasts’?
Who said ‘miracles are interpretations of natural events through religious eyes’
Richard Dawkins
Scientific challenge to miracles
- Understanding of natural laws are incomplete (Hick) so what is seen as a miracle might then be explained by natural laws (eg. earthquakes used to be seen as actions of God).
- the universe works by natural laws which don’t have room to accommodate miracles.
- the placebo effect explains unexpected headings: if people believe God will promote recovery this could cause it to happen.
- Dawkins
Who uses the Nebraska Choir Incidence as an example?
Peter Vardy
What is an empiricist
Someone who only believes that only experience, especially the senses, are the only source of knowledge.
David Hume is one.
What is the a priori argument
Natural laws are just descriptions of natural processes so by definition a miracle can’t actually break them
