3 ‘Miracles can happen.’ 15 marks Flashcards
(1 cards)
3 ‘Miracles can happen.’ 15 marks
Miracles can be seen as real events brought about by an all-loving God who cares for the world and who has the power to break the laws of nature. God might bring about a miracle in response to prayer, or in order to fulfil a purpose. However, Hume argues that breaking a law of nature is the least probable of all events, so it is always more likely that the witnesses are lying or mistaken than that a miracle has happened. Hume claims that miracle stories are the product of ignorance and superstition, and occur most often in barbarous nations. Miracles are found in religious texts such as the Bible, where miracles are powerful deeds, wonders and signs. For example, the miracles of Jesus point towards the central and real miracle of God’s resurrection of Jesus, without which there can be no human resurrection after death. However, Wiles rejects realist understandings of miracles because they cannot explain the problem of evil. A God who performs miracles to help some but not others would be evil rather than good. The only real miracle for Wiles is that of creation. Scholars such as Wiles, Tillich and Holland argue that miracles can happen if they are understood in an anti-real sense. They are events that reveal something about God’s intentions for the world, inspiring people to overcome evil and suffering. However, it is not obvious that anti-realist approaches to miracles are any more successful than realist approaches. Tillich understands the significance of miracles as primarily personal and psychological, which some see as one way of saying that they cannot really happen.
