Miracles In Western Religions

It is evident in David Hume's writing of "An Equity Concerning Human Understanding" that he does not believe that miracles take place. Hume is a man of logic, who believes in experience over knowledge. Of course it is hard for such a man to believe in extraordinary claims without being there to witness them. Especially when such events require a lot of faith.

The main Western religions are Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The common core of these three religions is faith or belief in one God. Mysticism is a constellation of distinctive practices, discourses texts, institutions, traditions, and experiences aimed at human transformation, variously defined in different traditions. Spirituality is a process of re-formation which aims to recover the original shape of man, the image of God.

It is difficult to provide a precise definition of religion as scholars think that there are various types of religion practices. (Sauchelli, 2016) According to Smith (1963); Wulff (1997), “religion” seemed to have a minimum of three different meanings in ancient Rome, including a superhuman power that must be respected, the feeling present in an individual observing and thinking of a superhuman power and ritual acts carried out in the name of a superhuman power. Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi (1975) stated that "religion" is a system of beliefs of a divine or superhuman power. Bellah (1970) defined "religion" as a set of symbolic forms and acts that relate man to the ultimate conditions of his

Most arguments for the existence of God are ‘a posteriori’, seeking to move from experiences within the world to the existence of God rather than relying on the definition of God to prove his existence. Religious experience is an interaction with God or a feeling of connection with a higher power. It is interesting to note that William James never spoke of ‘God’ but of the ‘spiritual’, ‘unseen order’ or ‘higher’ aspects of the world. Does a person have to be sure they encountered God rather than connecting with a higher power for their experience to be classed as ’religious experience’? The basic problem when trying to verify religious experiences is providing proof to show others that

Nowadays, people in general tend to use the word miracle when referring to a surprising event, such as the Patriots coming back from a 25 point deficit to win Super Bowl LI, or the American hockey team winning at the 1980 hockey Olympics, dubbed a “miracle on ice”. However, these so called miracles do not portray the actual meaning of the word, which is defined as an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers therefore is ascribed to be a work of God. Although there has been some skepticism among people, Christians included, as to the existence of miracles, this paper will argue that true miracles do occur. Furthermore,

The idea of a miracle and its context depends on the definition in which it is used; the first definition of a miracle is a “transgression of the laws of nature” such as walking on water. This was used by Hume who stated that for a miracle to occur a law of nature must be broken, with this focus on laws of nature he aimed to show that it is irrational to believe in miracles because it is irrational to believe in a violation of any natural law, as by believing in this God becomes redundant. He puts forward the method of proportioning the belief to evidence – if you weigh up the miracle against another option what is more likely? That a miracle, a transgression of a law of nature, has occurred or

There are many potential dangers when one disconnects reason and evidence from personal religious beliefs. One such vulnerability is “magical thinking” as asserted by Mark Reinholz in his literary work, Navigating the Grey (2014) in which he states “if we are willing to confidently bypass reason on the crucial, life-altering decision of selecting a religion, we may find that irrationality spilling over into other aspects of our lives.” (p. 6). Magical thinking is the conjecture that if I do this, then that will happen even though it cannot be justified by reason. In religion this equates to the causal relationships between actions and events, such as a prayer correlating to an expected benefit or a sinful act linked to retribution. When this

According to our course textbook, “The new critical spirit (of questioning laws and rules formerly accepted as true without proof) led the thinkers of the Enlightenment to doubt the literal truth of the Bible and to dismiss miracles as incompatible with what

In healthcare various cultures are encountered several times through out a day. It is imperative that medical staff be culturally competent and understanding that these different cultures come with their own set of beliefs that differ from their own. “The United States is often referred to as the Great Melting Pot, a metaphor that connotes the blending of many cultures, languages and religions to form a single national identity” (U.S. Department of State, 2010). In this paper, three non-mainstream religions, Vodun, Rastafari and Taosim, are going to be discussed and compared to Christinaity in regards to their spiritual perspectives of healing, their critical components to healing and what health care providers should know when caring

Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are the three religions that make up the Great Western religions. As with the Three Great Eastern Religions each one developed at different times, however the history of all three are very similar going back all the way to Exodus. Christianity and Islam are actually major sects that originated form Judaism, which is why early history of each is virtually the same. Not only do these religions share common history, they also are all monotheistic religions, have similar traditions, belief that there is only one God, they all follow the Bible, and a belief in divine revelation and prophets. These are the main similarities between the three religions. However, they also

Although there were many different aspects that played into the shaping of Western society, religion was the most influential. That’s not to say that religion was able to do that alone, but it seems that no matter what was happening during the course of the last several hundred years, religion played a part. Without the efforts of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and many others who were willing to stick their necks out for religious freedom. Bucking the system and questioning the status quo was exactly the theme of every major development in the Western world. The following words from Martin Luther help to bring together an idea that sparked progression and reform that began in the early 1500s and is still in motion today:

Religion within the context of Western civilization has undoubtably played a pivotal role in shaping and developing Western society. Regardless of the form of religion such as polytheism or monotheism, people in ancient societies believed in a God or Gods that sourrounded their daily and influenced thought. This belief in a higher power was an important part of human progression and expansion. Religion is the backbone of Western civilization and has always been a very important foundation of culture, education, philosophy, art, and social interaction.

This argument is seen by society to be far fetched, because most people have a certain belief in a certain religion and have somewhat a belief in miracles, but Hume has a good argument. He says that people should not believe in religions that are based on miracles because they have no credibility. Miracles themselves are thought to have weak credibility because the majority of the people in the society think that they are false. However there are many people that believe in miracles in one way or another. Either directly or indirectly. If you affiliate yourself with a religion that is based on miracles then you are indirectly a believer in miracles. This is what Hume would think and also he would say that you should not believe in the miracles because they are the basis of your religion and have no credibility due to the fact that the religion is trying to destroy another religion and their miracles.

human history, but that has been addressed with some depth only in the last few

Though Jesus intention was not to perform miracles for him. Sometimes it was necessary to do miracles to show us God’s grace and they could have faith. Let’s not forget that He did not do miracle because they deserve it. He would do miracle to help them believe and so we would believe in him. Even his disciples sometimes had uncertainty. In Luke 8:9-10 “His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God had been given