P1 - Miracles

Question 1

What is realism

Answer 1

Their understandings of the world generally hold…

1. That scientific theories give us true (or approximately true) understandings of the world
2. That they give us knowledge of things that we believe to exist but cannot observe (e.g. quarks)
3. 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 by someone like God

Question 2

What are realist views (scientific)

Answer 2

Scientific theories give us descriptions of the world and things that we believe to exist but which cannot be observed
World is mind-independent, meaning that the world exists and is the way it is regardless of what we think

Question 3

What are realist views (religious)

Answer 3

Miracles are a real part of what happens in the world
They are brought about by God, or by someone empowered by God
These things are true, despite the fact that we do not understand everything about miracles

Question 4

Realist beliefs on miracles

Answer 4

When they inform us that a miracle has taken place, they…

• are telling us about something that has happened in the external world
• telling us about the nature of the event
• may be making a claim about the (supernatural cause of the event)

Question 5

Realist examples of miracles - as an extraordinary coincidence of a beneficial nature

Answer 5

Juliane Koepcke: took a flight in 1971, plane crashed after a thunderstorm, fell 10,000 feet, killing all crew members and passengers but her. Survived a 9-day journey through the jungle

Nebraska church: gas explosion, demolished the church, all 15 members were late for choir practice and avoided certain death

Question 6

Realist examples of miracles - as an event brought about by the power of God or another spiritual power, working through people

Answer 6

Bible examples: Moses carrying out the ten plagues on Egypt given through the power of Yahweh, Moses was also instructed by God to part the Red Sea. Jesus also conducted many miracles

Question 7

Assessing miracles today - ‘congregation for the causes of the saints’

Answer 7

‘Congregation for the causes of the saints’ is by the Catholic Church, they investigated accounts of miracles performed by the those people who are being considered to become saints
A person cannot become a saint unless they have performed a miracle
Investigations are made, witnesses interviewed and medical evidence gathered

Question 8

Hume’s definition of miracles

Answer 8

• 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 intervention of some invisible agent

Question 9

John Mackie’s view on intervention

Answer 9

Also sees no issue with the idea of intervention into a closed system
But he is an atheist, so he didn’t believe that there is a God to intervene in the first place
However, he accepts that the concept of God’s intervention is possible

Question 10

Is natural law descriptive or probabilistic (scientific view)

Answer 10

Understanding that laws of nature cannot be violated is based on the scientific conviction that the laws of nature are descriptive, not prescriptive
‘Law of nature’ sums up what we have observed - what has been found to happen

Question 11

Hick’s view on natural law as descriptive or probabilistic

Answer 11

Natural laws are made by observing what has happened - if we observe something that appears to contradict a law of nature, then our understanding of the law has widened

If there appears to be an exception to a law of nature, then the law simply expands to include the exception

Question 12

How does Hick view ‘miracles’ (and why)

Answer 12

‘Miracles’/ such events are analogous as opposed to supposed miraculous findings

His studies in paranormal/ parapsychological phenomena such as telepathy and psychokinesis led him to see miracles as this

Question 13

Paul Badham’s example of miracles as analogous events

Answer 13

“… an ‘answered prayer’ might well be explained by telepathy in a more open, but still thoroughly naturalistic, world view”

• e.g. what might be currently seen as a miracle might be a natural way of doing so by an unknown power to the human mind

Question 14

Keith Ward’s argument on how miracles may not be produced by nature

Answer 14

Argues that although present natural laws may be probabilistic, it is still reasonable to think that some events are not produced by nature alone

Question 15

What are two problems with the understanding of miracles as probabilistic

Answer 15

• if the reported miracle is a violation of or exception to natural law, then the mass of evidence supporting the law counts against the claim that the miracle actually happened
• If God intervenes in nature when he wants to, why is there still suffering in the world? This is the problem of evil

Question 16

What is anti-realism

Answer 16

Deny that we can have knowledge of a mind-independent world, since the phenomena observed by our senses are interpreted by the mind
Any talk of God as an unobservable ‘something’ has no cognitive content, so ‘God’ cannot be discussed meaningfully
Applied to miracles, a miracle might be seen as something that lifts the spirit, or transforms a community of people

Question 17

General anti-realist claims about miracles

Answer 17

We have no knowledge of a transcendent realm, so the idea of a miraculous intervention in this world by a transcendent God is not a sensible idea

Miracles are mental states or attitudes that are to be understood in terms of psychology and sociology: it is something that lifts one’s spirits or transforms a community of people

Question 18

When an anti-realist talks about miracles…

Answer 18

They are informing us about their state of mind, they are NOT making a claim about the event itself

Question 19

What is Paul Tillich’s view and definition of miracles

Answer 19

Miracles as sign-events

“An event which is astonishing, unusual, shaking, without contradicting the radical structure of reality… an event which points to the mystery of being, expressing its relation to us in a definite way… an occurrence which is received as a sign-event in an ecstatic experience”

Question 20

Why is Tillich’s view of miracles an anti-realist view

Answer 20

• no commitment to the idea of God as ‘a being’ who, from a transcendent realm, intervenes to bring about a miracles
• no law of nature is violated
• others would observe the same events but NOT see them as miracles

Question 21

Keith Ward’s support of Tillich’s view

Answer 21

“So miracles become patches of that robe which astonish me and cause me to re-envision and re-establish my inter relation to the ground of my being. The robe remains intact; the miracles is mainly in my mind”

Question 22

John Hick’s comment on miracles

Answer 22

“In order to be miraculous, an event must be experienced as religiously significant.”

Question 23

Summary of R.F. Holland’s ‘miracle’ scenario

Answer 23

• child riding toy motor car stuck on a train railway
• express train is about to pass, but curve in track makes it impossible for train to stop
• mom tries to save the boy but fails
• train breaks applied, stops right in front of the child
• mom thanks God for the miracle, but there was nothing supernatural
• the driver fainted (not cause of the child), the breaks were applied automatically as his hand stopped applying pressure on the lever — he had a heavy lunch while arguing with a colleague resulting in high blood pressure, therefore he fainted due to a blood clot

Question 24

Holland’s anti-realist approach to miracles (with reference to the scenario)

Answer 24

• mother is aware that God did not cause the driver to faint
• offers no supernatural rationalisation of what happened
• nevertheless, she interprets what happened as God’s response to human need
• Wittgenstein may say — the event belongs to a form of life to which she subscribes, so in this context, it could be called a miracle

Question 25

The significance of an anti-realist view for religion

Answer 25

If every event is a miracle and God is somehow present within every event, then it is conceivable that people are divided according to how ‘God-blind’ they are
‘God-blind’ people would therefore have no sense of the presence of God
God-sighted people would be aware of God only in the most exceptional events

So, either God is active or not, it makes no difference to the truth or falsity of that statement

Question 26

Hume’s quote - on how knowledge is based on experience

Answer 26

“A wise man… proportions his belief to the evidence”

Question 27

Hume’s view on how knowledge is based on experience

Answer 27

Takes an empiricist’s view - knowledge derives from sense experience
The more evidence we have for miracle, the higher its probability

For Hume, the truth of a religion is the truth of the claims that it makes

Question 28

Hume’s definition of miracles (quote)

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Hume’s understanding of a miracle

Answer 29

“Nothing is esteemed a miracle, if it ever happen in the common course of nature”

• not a miracle if a healthy man died unexpectedly but would be a miracle if a really dead man came back to life, because it has never been observed

Question 30

Hume’s view on miracles

Answer 30

• a transgression (a violation) of a law of nature: won’t be appropriate to call a psychological/ anti-real experience a miracle, although it might be ‘marvellous’, they aren’t miraculous
• has to be willed by the Deity: only a God would have the power to bring about such an event
• alternatively the miracle has to be done by ‘the interposition of some invisible agent’ - he means non-religious miracles, this would also apply to other spiritual powers

Question 31

What does Eric Mascall describe a miracle as

Answer 31

“… a striking interposition of divine power by which the operations of the ordinary course of nature are overruled, suspended or modified.”

Question 32

Hume’s main inductive argument against miracles

Answer 32

1. Witness testimony has to become more reliable in direct proportion to the improbability of what they claimed to have observed - more improbable claim, more reliable witness
2. Most improbable event would be a violation of the laws of nature, since the law must contradict the claim of a miracle
3. So by definition — the reported event is maximally improbable
4. So the probability that the witness are lying or mistaken is always greater than the probability that a miracle has occured

Question 33

Hume’s conclusion of his miracles argument

Answer 33

“… therefore we may establish it as a maxim, that no human testimony can have such force as to prove a miracle, and make it a just foundation for any… system of religion.”

Means that if witness has claimed to see a miracle, there are only two possibilities: witness was mistaken, or witness was lying
Because by definition - a miracle is always the maximally improbable event - or else it won’t be a miracle

Question 34

Hume’s supporting arguments from psychology

Answer 34

History: cannot find one example of a miracle properly attested by men of good sense, integrity and learning, no way to know if they were not lying or deluded

Credulous: humans are naturally credulous, the feelings from miracles can make those with common sense less sensible, along with religious spirits, they may know it is false but believe that its cause is holy and magnifies the story

‘Ignorant and barbarous nations’: most miracles don’t come from civilised nations

Debunking miracle claims: each religion claims that ‘their’ miracles were performed by their God, they cancels out each other

Question 35

Hume’s acknowledgement of Christianity and miracles

Answer 35

“Whoever is moved by faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.”

• suggests that the real miracle is that anyone can believe that miracles can happen

Question 36

Evaluating Hume’s ideas - inductive account

Answer 36

Hume suggested that his argument is as close to a ‘proof as we get - but inductive arguments are not proofs, they’re probabilities
Science cannot say that it never happens, but that it is highly improbable to happen - science is also descriptive, it shows what we have found to have happened
— so we cannot say that miracles do not happen —

Question 37

Evaluating Hume’s main inductive argument (about witness testimony)

Answer 37

Humes’ arguments and a Christian believer’s argument can have the same structure, but opposed conclusions
The only difference is in how P3, Hume argues that there are no reliable observations while a Christian believer claims that there are reliable observations
Then in P5, Hume argues that the improbability defeats the idea that a miracle has happened, while a Christian believer argues that the improbability is a necessary condition for a miracle to happen
— it is not at all cleaner if anybody or if who is right —

Question 38

Evaluation of Hume’s psychological arguments

Answer 38

Claimed that no properly attested miracles are by men of sufficient good sense, integrity, education and learning - this seems to contradict his own comments on Roman historian Tacitus who reported on miracles. — Hume describes Tacitus as ‘the greatest and most penetrating genius’
Tacitus certainly meets Hume’s requirements for a reliable testimony
So why is Tactitus’ account of miracles rejected?

Question 39

Hume’s evaluation - ‘what would Hume have done if he witnessed a miracle?’

Answer 39

His arguments seem to leave no room for him to accept any seemingly miraculous event
So if he witnesses a miracle as well, does it make it improbable?

Question 40

Evaluation of Hume’s argument - his critique of miracles ‘sets the bar’

Answer 40

Hume’s argument do not compel us to reject the idea of a miracle, but they do compel us to think carefully about the status of miracle claims throughout history

Hume claims that ‘[the Christian] religion is founded on Faith, not on reason’ — this can be seen in how miracle stories in the Bible are often portrayed in a way to support their faith — so reason suggests that Hume’s overall judgements about miracles are closed to the truth

Question 41

What is Wiles’ main argument for miracles

Answer 41

God does not act in the world through miracles
He approves of Tillich’s view of miracles as sign events

“… it is especially important to emphasise the symbolic character of these symbols, because they are often understood literally [with the result that] the whole relation of God and the world becomes a nest of absurdities”

Question 42

Wiles: the problem with the view that God does perform miracles

Answer 42

God has been thought of as controlling/ intervening the laws of nature — Wiles believes that this idea can no longer be upheld

If God did act this way, he would seem to act immorally — if God chooses, then he is highly selective, alluding to the problem of evil

Question 43

Wiles: the problem with a selective God

Answer 43

If God intervened to save some, but not others, then the problem of evil would be unsolvable, there is no reason why God could not intervene all the time
“… the direct intervention of God, however rare the occasions of it, would… have disastrous implications for our understanding of the problem of evil.” - Brain Hebblethwaite
— it’s not a question of why God does not intervene to save people more often: it is much more important to insist that God does not intervene in this way at all

Question 44

Is Wiles a realist or anti-realist and why

Answer 44

Anti-realist — since they are very much to do with our fight against evil

Wiles points to Jesus’ temptations, how Jesus rejected the idea of performing miracles as signs to persuade people to believe in him as the Messiah — God does not intervene ‘from above’ to perform miracles

Biblical accounts of miracles are also wrongly interpreted if seen as simply factual descriptions, they are myths, to express something about Go, they aren’t needed to prove God’s existence

Question 45

Wiles makes an exception for one miracle only — what is that

Answer 45

Creation itself
Rather than having miracles in the world, creation of the world itself is the one and only miracle
An extraordinary act by which God brings into existence everything

Question 46

Wiles’ position on miracles (deism)

Answer 46

That God creates the universe and leaves it to work through its natural laws
This suggests that God does not intervene through miracles, therefore not posing a problem for the problem of evil

Question 47

A comparison of Hume and Wiles - religious points of view

Answer 47

Hume: atheist, assumes there is no God to violate natural laws
Wiles: Christian, assumes that there is a God who choose not to intervene

Question 48

A comparison of Hume and Wiles - Christianity belief about miracles

Answer 48

Hume: Christianity is irrational, particularly about miracles — assumes that a believer is required to believe in miracles, since miracles are highly improbable, shows that religious belief is irrational

Wiles: God does not intervene the world, rather miracles in the Bible were symbolic to faith

Question 49

A comparison of Hume and Wiles - realist vs. Anti-realist

Answer 49

Hume: assumes that accounts of miracles in the Bible and elsewhere are literal descriptions of false facts
— Wiles uses biblical criticism to point out that most of the text aren’t literal or scientific but symbolic and mythological

Wiles: seeks to shift the argument away from Hume’s question about the evidence for whether an event can be explained in natural terms to one which an event reveals something of God’s intention for the world

Question 50

A comparison of Hume and Wiles - their view of the value of a ‘miracle’

Answer 50

Wiles: what counts as a miracle is a matter of personal interpretation, it is a symbol not a matter of physical fact
Hume: miracles are ineffective, because it doesn’t touch on the personal and religious elements in events that are essential if they are to be seen as miracles — unless a miracle is at least an event that is so unexpected and unexplained which makes it seem to be a violation of a law of nature, then there is little point in calling it a miracle at all

Question 51

Realist approach - Biblical significance

Answer 51

Value of miracles for faith
The Gospels record many miracles that are brought about by Jesus himself - the New Testament uses terms to describe these miracles as powerful, extraordinary deeds, so it indicates the arrival of God’s kingdom

Central miracle of the New Testament is the resurrection of Christ — this is the foundation of Christian faith, although some may see this in an anti-real sense, it is very significant for Christianity

Question 52

Realist approach - significance for an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God

Answer 52

God intervenes as a demonstration of power and love

God is seen as an all-loving and all-loving creator, God intervenes through general revelation (reason and conscious) and special revelation (religious experiences, miracles)
Many Christians accept Hume’s definition but believe that miracles are demonstrations of God’s power and love

Question 53

Realist approach - problem of evil

Answer 53

If miracles are a actual thing that happens int he world, brought upon by God — then why is God being selective about who he should grant miracles to? Why should some humans have the power to perform miracles

Ward: When God brings about a miracle it has universal significance, when it is brought through the agency of human beings it is because miracles are always available to human beings; but only they can use it if they open up to God, the power to perform miracles are both natural and supernatural but not interventionist

Question 54

Anti-realist approach - impact on the understanding of religion

Answer 54

Anti-realist understandings of miracle have a different understanding of religion
Tillich: God is existence itself, miracles cannot contradict the rational structure of reality, miracles are ‘sign-events’ that can’t be divorced from religious context - they have profound personal and psychological significance
Holland: the story, the ‘miracle’ is not supernatural but has deep personal significance
Wiles: understands miracles as events that reveal something of God’s intentions for the world - New Testament miracles are about inspiring people to overcome evil and suffering

Miracles don’t relate to real events brought about by a real God, but their ‘reality’ is in the mind of the person who experiences an event which has extraordinary personal significance

Question 55

Which approach to miracles is most significant for religion?

Answer 55

Tillich’s understanding of God and miracle: ‘sign-events’, is God a real being, or does God exist only as a psychological reality?

Cosmological argument: does God exist as the reason why the universe exist, or is God just a way of looking at and explaining the world?

Realist vs. Anti-realists: for realists they are real events, for anti-realists they are human experience, which one actually accurately describes the significance?