Miracles are more of a Hindrance than a help to Religious Belief. Discuss.
by
pdemecz (student)
Miracles are more of a Hindrance than a help to Religious Belief. Discuss.
Hume is viewed as the definitive spokesperson on miracles and his description of miracles, ‘a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity’, is relevant as if we agree with this then immediately objections become obvious. The ‘volition’ of a deity to cause a statue to drink milk is questionable when millions live in poverty and millions die from AIDS, for example. The benevolence of an all powerful deity is not evident in a world where evil is certainly present through out concept of evil. However, believers may comeback to appeal to mystery or use the euthyphro dilemma, ‘is what God does good, or does God only do what is good’, thus suggesting that pain and evil in the world are somehow beneficial. However, analyzing the problem of evil and God’s selection of when miracles should be performed the credibility of revelation has been questioned as it seems that whilst this does not prove God any less it leads to a God which is less desirable to believe in.
Another argument is the metaphysical question of whether God acting inside his creation and therefore inside time and space can be eternal. This argument focuses on the fact that thing inside time and space are changing and come in and out of existence, also that if God comes into time and space then he changes and therefore cannot be the perfect deity which we think of him as. This angle questions whether or not miracles are conceivable at all rather than there impact on religious belief, however, the fact that religious believers use miracles throughout the bible and in debates questions whether or not fundamental parts of religious belief are based on actions which are impossible if God is to be the perfect unchanging figure which he is believed to be. However, Christians come back again suggesting that when God created time and space he also created his interventions into the world, therefore he is able to keep separate of time and space, and perfect. However, questions about our free will are then raised and also the fact that if we are not free then some of the theodicies which absolve God from blame in the problem of evil also fall down as Augustine’s argument that humans created sin by freewill and also the idea that freewill, and therefore the possibility of evil, is used to build character by God. Miracles are a hindrance to religious belief here as a perfect, eternal God who cannot come inside time and space would have to have acted prior to time as otherwise he would have to come into and would no longer be perfect. However, if intervention was decided on before time and space then God must know the future therefore our freewill and many theodicies are proved wrong. Wyles also adds to this conversation as he brings up the question of why God created a world which would need to be intervened in if he is omnipotent. Therefore a belief in miracles and in God as benevolent and omnipotent seems to be inconsistent and religious belief struggles because of this.
