Miracles

Question 1

Realism

Answer 1

the view that reality is mind-independent

truth is a matter of matching up our beliefs about the world with the way it is (the correspondence theory of truth)

Question 2

Anti-realism

Answer 2

the view that reality is mind-dependent
- there is no completely separate world ‘out there’, regardless of our beliefs and perceptions
- our beliefs and perceptions comprise reality
- truth is a matter of coherence amongst our beliefs

Question 3

Miracle as a violation of natural law

Realist

Answer 3

three aspects:
- something that happens when God’s intervention interferes with the normal workings of the laws of nature
- an intentional act of God’s will
- has religious significance

Question 4

Miracle as a violation of natural law - issues

Answer 4

• encourages a ‘god of the gaps’ approach (God is invoked only to explain what science or reason currently cannot)
• if an event seems inexplicable, that is because our scientific knowledge is limited: there will be a natural explanation (Hick)
• likelihood of situation being false vs the miracle actually happening must be weighed (Hume)
• if such an intervention is an act of God’s will, why is there so much suffering? (Wiles)

Question 5

Tillich - miracles as sign events

Anti-realist

Answer 5

• a miracle is a subjective experience, centering on the individual experiencing it and their reaction to it
• it is something amazing, though it does not breach natural laws
• it points to the mystery of being (the ultimate, incomprehensible reality) that is at the heart of the individual’s experience
• it is a symbol within a religious experience

Question 6

Holland - miracles as remarkable coincidences

Anti-realist

Answer 6

• example: a child in their toy car becoming trapped on the railway track at the exact moment a train is coming
• the fact that the driver faints, thus activating the ‘dead man’s handle’ and causing an emergency stop, is seen by the mother as a miracle, even though she knows there’s a natural cause (she sees it as God responding to human need)
• for Holland, miracles have three aspects: 1) natural occurrences (do not violate laws of nature), 2) beneficial in nature, 3) religiously significant

Question 7

Holland’s view - issues

Answer 7

• subjective: whether or not an event is a miracle depends on individual interpretation; a negative interpretation (e.g. one by an atheist) is as likely to be right as a positive interpretation; there is no question of saying that one view is right and the other wrong
• it reduces God to the interpretation and understanding of human minds
• lets too much in - not all rare coincidences are miracles

Question 8

Hume’s view on miracles (pt. 1)

Realist

Answer 8

• we can only judge between two empirical claims by weighing the evidence for one against the other
• evidence for a miracle is always the testimony of witnesses who claim to have seen it
• evidence against a miracle is the uniform and constant experience of the laws of nature (proof)
• evidence for a miracle can never outweigh the evidence against it - it is always more probable that the tesimony is false or mistaken than that the laws of nature are violated
• the only exeception is if the falsehood of the testimony was somehow more miraculous than the miracle claim itself

Question 9

Hume’s view on miracles (pt. 2)

The four reasons why the testimony for a miracle is unreliable

Answer 9

1. the number and quality of witnesses is never sufficient to rule out deception or error
2. people are often attraced to the marvellous and extraordinary, and tend to exaggerate or believe without scrutiny
3. most reports of miracles come from ‘ignorant and barbarous nations’, where superstition is prevalent
4. different religions have contradictory and mutually exclusive claims to miracles, which cancel out each other’s credibility

Question 10

Support for Hume’s view

Answer 10

• Laplace: ‘there are things so extraordinary that nothing can balance their improbability’ (no amount of evidence can justify believing them, because they always conflict with uniform experience)
• Mackie: ‘the intrinsic improbability of a genuine miracle… is very great’

Question 11

Arguments against Hume’s view

Answer 11

• Whately: the case of Napoleon ‘is much more open to sceptical doubts even than some miraculous histories’
• Hume’s argument is circular (C.S. Lewis) - it relies on uniform experience to dismiss miracles, but experience is only uniform if all miracle reports are already assumed false

Question 12

Wiles’s view on miracles

Anti-realist

Answer 12

• miracles are to be interpreted as symbols
• the only miracle was that of creation
  1. God performs selective miracles at certain times and places
  2. it is questionable as to why God intervenes in some cases and not others
  therefore
  3. God’s interventions must be arbitrary or partisan (not omnibenevolent)
  so perhaps this kind of God is not worth worshipping

Question 13

Objections to Wiles’s deism

Answer 13

• Wiles takes a deistic view that God cannot intervene in the world following the creation of the universe
• this view is incompatible with the major religions, and in particular Christian doctrine
• there can be no evidence for a deistic God
• the design argument shows that God intervenes

Question 14

Hume and Wiles: a comparison

Answer 14

Hume:
- atheist
- realist: interventionist understanding of miracles
- Christian belief in miracles is irrational since in his view they are maximally improbable

Wiles
- theist
- anti-realist: miracles are symbols
- his starting point is within Christian theism and avoids the interventionist approach

Question 15

The significance of realist views of miracles for religion

Answer 15

• miracles such as Jesus healing the paralysed man are objectively true
• the miracles of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels support and strengthen the faith of Christian realists
• many Christians see miracles as a demonstration of God’s omnipotence and omnibenevolence

Question 16

The significance of realist views - criticism

Answer 16

• has to contend with the fact that miracles are ‘occasional and highly selective’ and even ‘trivial’ (Wiles)
• one could thus use the realist view of miracles to strengthen the problem of evil - if God can intervene to override the laws of nature and human free will for a greater good, why doesn’t he do so more frequently?

Question 17

The significance of anti-realist views of miracles for religion

Answer 17

• the importance of miracles is subjective
• address the problems raised for theologians by their apparent contradiction with science and by their selectivity (symbolic, valued for their moral or spiritual meaning, not literal proof)
• Tillich - significance is psychological and personal
• Holland - beneficial in nature and has religious significance; reinforce Christians’ faith in God’s goodness and love
• Wiles - miracles are stories pointing to God’s purposes for the world that intend to encourage Christians to play their part in overcoming evil