Philosophers For Miracles Flashcards
Peter vardy
God would face ‘hard moral questioning’ if he performed such trivial miracles and did nothing to save the millions in Africa.
Wiles
Miracles would be arbitrary and the work of an unloving God unworthy of worship.
‘it seems strange that no miracle prevented Auschwitz’
If god creates natural order he would not break it again
Ward
Challenged Hume’s definition- Hume wanted miracles to fail, belief in god is based on experiencing a miraculous event (therefore any religious believer should believe in miracles), ‘physics cannot rule out miracles’
Hume
Miracles are
- The retreat of the stupid and ignorant
- Not necessarily god
- Not compatible with each other (different religions)
- Balance of probability
- Testimonies usually religious so they’re stupid anyway
Rudolph Bultmann
Miracles should be seen as symbolic (we should demythologise miracles) as they are only of religious significance, and are not compatible to a new age
R.F Holland
Miracles as coincidences- example of a train stopping before hitting a child- religious people would view it as a miracle, atheists would say coincidence-
Contingency miracles
Place of miracles in Christianity
- To show that Jesus is rightful son of god
- To fulfil prophecies
- To show Jesus’ power over nature
- To demonstrate what the kingdom of god will look like
Richard Swinburne
Obviously god would want to make his presence known- ockhams razor, miracles are simplest answer. Why should we doubt the testimonies given?
Peter Atkins
‘everything in the universe can be explained in terms of physical science’
Reports of miracles deny understanding of how the world work
Gareth Moore
God is not a person so cannot perform miracles
Other problems with miracles
Not remotely compatible with atheism
In future, science will explain miracles
Testimonies are mistaken for lies
Why doesn’t he intervene more often?
