Analyse Wiles view on miracles

by tbethybooaolcom (student)

AS and A Level Religious Studies & Philosophy

Analyse Wiles’ view on miracles

Miracles are defined as events which seem to defy the laws of nature, and are sometimes interpreted as acts of god by religious people. The legitimacy of miracles have always been debated by philosophers. Maurice Wiles was a philosopher in the 20th century who wrote his view on miracle in his book God’s Action in the World. His argument was that God would not act in the world or break his own laws of nature.

Wiles put his argument forward in 3 statements. Firstly he says, if miracles are violations of the laws of nature they have to occur infrequently to avoid the concepts of laws of nature becoming meaningless. In other words, if miracles actually happened, God would make them very uncommon in order to ensure that humans did not think that the laws of nature are not strict and absolute laws that are always followed.

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The second statement is that the pattern of miracles appears strange. By this he means that miracles that the church and people have recorded are too random in nature and in the times that they have happened. If God was to act in the world, he would make his miracles more iconic less random.

Lastly, Wiles says that the large amount of evil events that are not prevented by God raises questions about God’s omnipotence and goodness. Wiles is saying that if God intervenes to perform miracles, he would’ve also intervened to prevent evil events, such as the holocaust. It does not make sense that if an omnibenevolent God could act in the world that he would let preventable, evil things happen to his people.

Wiles rejects the idea that God only responds to special prayers and particular circumstances. He says that this would mean that God is biased and arbitrary and therefore not all loving or omniscient.

The argument put forward by Wiles to explain why God cannot perform Miracles is that the universe is a single ongoing act of creation. This means that God reveals himself through his work, he sustains the laws of nature in the world so the does not need to break his own laws in order to be active within the world.

Wiles claimed to be a Christian. However, the Christian idea of how God acts in the world is quite different to how Wiles thinks God acts. In the Bible, God is seen performing Miracles, such as healings. Wiles view does not depict God acting in the way that the Bible does and does not reflect the nature of the Christian God. John Polkinghorne also argues that Wiles’ view of God’s action in the world does not reflect Christian religious experience of God.

For many religious believers, God cannot be limited to what is rationally possible according to humans. Wiles argument requires that human rationality can be applied directly to God. Many people disagree that Gods actions have to conform to some form of rational order that we understand.

To conclude, Maurice Wiles’ view was that God does not break laws of nature in order to perform miracles in the world. Instead Wiles says that God is always acting in the world, sustaining the universe. He argues that if God broke his laws of nature they would have to be broken very infrequently or the laws would become meaningless. Also the miracles seen happen in strange patterns and if God is going to intervene he would stop evil events from happening.