The Role of God in Miracles

This intriguing brief piece of satire, that Richard Whately has put together brings to light some of the oddities in David Hume’s argument against miracles. Not only does it provide a good sense of humor, but also a worthy criticism on certain points of view. It takes the arguments that Hume uses to disprove miracles and applies them to Napoleon’s life events. Whately presents himself in this satire as a strong follower of Hume’s view presented in his essay on miracles, tackling the impossibility that is Napoleon Buonaparte’s life accomplishments. Along with praising Hume, with statements like “The celebrated Hume”(15) and “Hume and other inquirers

David Hume, a Scottish philosopher made the claim the “miracles are a violation of the laws of nature” (Hume). Meaning that through science and reason there is a very limited chance that what some thinks is a miracle is actually one. Though, Hume does say that you can define a miracle as the opposite of what you actually think is a miracle. As the document goes on, he writes that “nothing is an esteemed miracle, if it ever happen in the common course of nature” (Hume). Hume shows that even though we think that certain things have to be miracles it is no feasible that they happen. A miracle can only happen once, so if this thing that people are classifying as a miracle happens over and over again it is most likely not a miracle, but something natural and scare at the same time. If miracles do happen though, they are going against the natural force of nature. However, other writers had different ideas about the importance of miracles with the Christian

Out of the four gospels, Mark 's gospel seems to be the one most focused on Jesus’s miracles. This paper will be looking at the purpose and meaning of these miracles. First, what is a miracle? A miracle is, “a special act of God that interrupts the natural course of events.” There are three different kinds of miracles that Jesus does: exorcisms, nature miracles, and healings. Just as there are three kinds of miracles, there seem to be three different purposes for His miracles. These are to attract people, to prove Jesus was the Messiah, and to show God’s characteristics.

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,

97-98- “He doesn 't work miracles in our lives so we can just hang out with Him.” Jesus does not work miracles so we can sit in amazement. Instead, he wants us to live in response to all He has done for us.

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

Of course, I cannot explain what a miracle is. Therefore Gary, you win on that basis! Still, I believe, I am a miracle, all life is a miracle by a super intelligence, created at will.

Miracles by C.S Lewis centers on miracles in his book he wrote about the ‘’Grand Miracle’’ which can be found in chapter 14. He mentioned how these miracles and other biblical stories have influenced the Christian worldview. In the sense that Miracle as laid this foundation for Christians and their basic makeup of the world. He stated his views about miracles he believes there are two ways we can view and interpret miracles which is nature and supernature. ‘’ The fitness or credibility, of the Grand miracle itself cannot obviously, be judged by the same standard (page 174).’’ The people who view miracles from a supernatural perspective accept that there is an empirical proof which is not just clear in history that can validate all the importance of the ‘’Grand Miracle’’ that the Christian religion believe exist. While the people who view miracles using the natural perspective disagree that there is no any empirical proof. Most people in the 21st century believe that these biblical miracles really happened and some believe it did not happen. Thinking in the 21st century Lewis centers his book on the fact

“Do you believe in miracles?! YES!!!” The infamous words heard around the world from the

testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavours to establish…” (E 10.13)

Miracles according to Hume, are a violation of natural law and are not possible. Earman argues that though the occurrence of a miracle may be very low, they can be probable with enough reliable witnesses. Along these lines Hume’s argument of not being able to believe the existence of miracles, would be wrong. Miracles are just one of many ways God tries to make himself evident.

The first thing that one needs to understand is the true meaning of the miracles Jesus performed, even though the Devil does not want us to understand the meaning. He loves when we speculate and question. In the Bible, miracles are often referred to as “signs.” Miracles are acts that only God can be responsible for, usually above and beyond natural laws. Baker’s Dictionary of the Bible defines a miracle as “Synthesizing the root connotations of these terms, we may define a miracle biblically as an observable phenomenon effected by the direct operation of God’s power, an arresting deviation from the ordinary sequences of nature, a deviation calculated to elicit faith-begetting awe, a divine inbreaking which authenticates a revelational

Miracle can be defined as powerful deeds and signs that Jesus accomplished. In the bible there are very many miracles that occurred during the time of Jesus. Lohfink defines miracle as a challenging act, in contrast with the bible which views it as an unusual act that relieves a person of negative aspects in their his or her life. Lohfink further clarifies that with the modernism influence, the miracle concept is going through a strip stream, where through miracles God breaks natural laws to show his love for us (Lohfink

There is another argument against miracles, which has less to do with empirics and more to do with philosophy, namely the claim that miracles are impossible. No matter what I have accounted for above and no matter what we experience in life, there is no need to believe in miracles since they cannot happen, according to this view. It became popular during the so-called “enlightenment” in the 18th century minority world, and its main proponents were pantheists like Voltaire and deists like Thomas Jefferson, who used theological arguments for their naturalism. From the pantheistic perspective, nature is god and so god cannot break “natural laws” because then he would break his own backbone. From a deistic perspective, god simply stopped intervening in his creation after he created it, and so miracles are impossible because god never wants to perform them (Jefferson even took a Bible and cut out all Jesus’ miracles with a pair of scissors to prove his point).

The mystery of God's existence has been a crucial element of many religious studies and traditions. Who is God? What is God? Where is God? To effectively discuss the existence of God, it is necessary to illustrate the notion of faith. People of faith believe that God does exist, and that relationship with God gives meaning to their lives. Others who are skeptical point to God as an obsolete hope of an ignorant human race. People today live in a world distinguished by sophisticated technology in which modern science has been a strong agent in questioning the existence of God.