'Miracles are based on fact, not faith' - Discuss.

Authors Avatar

‘Miracles are based on fact, not faith’

Discuss

By Jasmine George

The validity of supposed miracles has been researched by many people over the years.  Scientists do extensive research into many miracles that are reported in an attempt to prove that they are not in fact the work of some higher power, but just the working of the natural universe or the work of man. It is very difficult to define exactly what a miracle is.  Some, such as Swinburne, see a miracle as ‘a happening when people become aware of the divine’, (religious experience) yet this is not accurate enough as somebody may find a miracle in the event of a birth or an object in nature. Others may perceive a miracle as something that happens which is ‘unexpected with fortunate results’, but without  recognition of some higher power these events could just be seen as coincidences, for example, someone crashes their car and they had brought insurance that very morning. This could be seen as a miracle (if they have faith) or as a coincidence (if they did not). There are many important biblical words which could help clarify what a miracle is, for example thauma which means ‘wonder’, gerhurah and dynamis which means ‘display of power’ and oth and semeton which means ‘sign’. David Hume interprets a miracle as being ‘a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the deity or by the interposition of some invisible agent.’

Hume set certain criteria which events had to meet before they could be called miraculous. He thought that miracles were highly improbable events – ‘No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle unless if as a falsehood it is more miraculous then being true’.  Hume is a realist and seems to say not that miracles are impossible but that it is impossible for us to prove that they actually happened. One of the main criticisms of Hume is that although he sets criteria that events must meet before they can be seen as a miracle, he never actually believes anything is a miracle.  At the tomb of a famous Jansenist (Abbe Paris) in France a great many miracles were said to have taken place. This included the curing of the sick, hearing to the deaf and sight to the blind. It was seen as extraordinary because they were performed on the spot before judges of unquestionable integrity and attested by witnesses of credit and distinction. This met all of Hume’s criteria and he still did not accept it as a miracle simply because he does not actually seem to have faith that miracles exist or that it is possible to prove them! Hume’s lack of faith perhaps meant that for him miracles have not even ever existed and have never actually occurred!

Miracles are an essential element in Christianity. If Jesus is not God manifest in the flesh then Christian faith is misguided. If the miracle of grace does not exist in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ as our saviour, then all of the New Testament is unsafe. Jesus was known through miracles as shown in Acts 2: 22 -  ‘Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him’. Miracles also provided evidence of divine will such as in John 2: 11 - ‘this, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.’ This connects biblical miracles to faith. One of Hume’s objections was that as miracles form the basis for many different religions they can not possibly all be true and so cancel each other out. For example, in Bombay the Hindus believed that the statues of Krishna was crying yet in 1969 in Akita, Catholics believe that a statue of Mary was crying, another example is that the Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God and was resurrected but the Jews believe that Jesus was another prophet.  He does not seem to consider the possibility of polytheism where having many gods would account for the miracles reported by the religions or the possibility that an all - powerful God may choose to present himself in different ways to relate to different people. He seems to be saying that all religious people are either being deceived or are deceiving as he does not believe any of the miracles reported. Hume also does not seem to accept that it is possible to have an omnipotent and omniscient God who can choose to do anything whenever and wherever He wants and who does not have to conform to any pattern.

Join now!

In modern times some people may use miracles to try to prove the existence of God or of a higher being as something that is causing these miraculous events to happen in the world. Spinoza (1670) criticized the credulity of those who used miracles as evidence for the existence of God as he saw the events in the Bible as symbolic not literal, yet his view was biased as he was an atheist.

Jesus often performed miracles to inspire faith or because people had faith in him as in Mark when the woman who touched Jesus’ cloak was healed, Jesus ...

This is a preview of the whole essay