The idea of miracles is a major obstacle to faith in the modern world - discuss

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        T. Boyce

“The idea of miracles is a major obstacle to faith in the modern world” - discuss

From the ideas about the nature of creation to ideas about the laws of nature itself, miracles, and the idea of the impossible, have been part of our culture for centuries. Miracles have been a measure for dispute within religion and between religion and rationality, from St. Augustine in the fourth century to David Hume in the eighteenth century. They have also been used by the corrupt and powerful to gain perverse ends, and romanticized in works of literature such as Caxton’s Legenda Aurea. Some miracles have been derided as mere magic, and have been proven fraudulent, yet for many the idea of the miraculous has maintained a grip on the imagination. Miracles are certainly religiously significant, but their meaning varies between faiths. Within Islam, for example, everything happens in order that the will of God can be fulfilled, and therefore nature, history and time are absolutely fluid, constructed by God as a test of the will of God. In Hinduism, there is a sense of the world being infinitely more wonderful than is first perceived, and sometimes, other layers of reality or possibility are seen.

        

        In the Christian faith, the main focus of this essay, miracles play a key role in the story of Jesus. Historian Ian Wilson comments, “That Jesus performed deeds that men called ‘miracles,’ is…one of the best attested items of information about him”. The Bible contains many accounts of miracles performed by Jesus, but that does not mean to say that the miracles were supernatural - some claim that Jesus did not walk on water, but rather on a sandbar just below the surface. Wilson suggests that hypnosis could provide the explanation for a good deal of Jesus’ miracles, however, events such as the feeding of the 5000 in Matthew’s gospel could not be explained by hypnosis. A believer would say that Jesus was the son of God and so possessed the supernatural powers to walk on water and duplicate the bread and fish. The dilemma of many scholars, claims American theologian Robert E. Webber, is that they are “unable to verify in any historical or logical way the supernatural assertions of the New Testament.” Many more it seems hold suspicion because of the lack of natural explanation, and the French historian Ernest Renan said in the mid-nineteenth century that, “No miracle has ever taken place under conditions which science can accept.” If the miracles performed by Jesus are proven to be hoaxes, then it is difficult for Christians can accept Jesus is the savior. Although serious doubt can be cast, many say that miracles by definition contradict know scientific laws, and since they are beyond the scope of science to explain, no amount of scholarship can confirm nor deny Jesus’ miracles.

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        David Hume would support the notion that we can neither completely disprove or prove that miracles happen. The locus classicus for contemporary philosophical discussion of miracles is Hume’s definition: “A transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent”. Hume’s main line of thought was not that miracles are impossible, but that it would be impossible for us to ever prove they exist; the laws of nature have been supported by billions of examples over a period of many hundreds of years, and so an apparent miracle ...

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