"The miracle stories in the New Testament suggest a God, who can do the logically impossible" - Discuss

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Carly Smart                                                                                                            NT

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“The miracle stories in the New Testament suggest a God, who can do the logically impossible”

When examining any part of the Gospel it is easy to perceive that miracles play a major part of Jesus’ teaching and show the true authority of god.

 In this essay I will show whether or not miracles illustrate that god can do the logically impossible.

In Vardys puzzle of God four definitions of miracles are outlined. David Hume believes a miracle is a transgression of the laws of nature brought about by God. The miracles in the New Testament all seem to fit this definition. God / Jesus acted and breached the normal understanding of natural law. Jesus’ power to walk on water showed his mastery over the physical elements.

 In all four of the Gospels Jesus carry’s out extraordinary tasks but can they be explained by science?

The healing miracles such as casting out evil spirits and the curing of the ten lepers could possibly be accounted as people of that time did not have much knowledge of illness but Jesus may have had a better understanding of mental illness and other dieses.

Jesus may have had extensive fishing knowledge, or it may have just been a coincidence that the catching of the fish took place. Such events as the calming of the storm could have been achieved by having the skill of forecasting the weather.

Many of the miracles are within the definition that these actions remain within the nature making it easier for sceptics to find scientific answers. However there are miracles that are harder to come to conclusions about and many choose to see that they show the true power of God, through Jesus showing the logically impossible to be done.

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An example of this would be the event the feeding of the 5000 (Mark 6:30) where astonishingly Jesus feeds 5000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish with enough scraps left over to fill 12 baskets.

Many people see this event in different ways. There are those who see it as a symbol of the word of God feeding the first Christians. Others have said that we may question the numbers and see it points to the first community. Many agree that it was an event to change people for the better. Although some Christians would go further and ...

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