In contradiction to the above point, there have been stories of atheists who experience miracles and become devoted to the religion as a result of the miracle. This does not support the quote from Jesus. Ian McCormack was a man of no faith until he had a near death experience after being stung by five box jellyfish. He claimed to have seen and have spoken to God, he then woke up in a mortuary after being claimed dead. The experience changed his life, as he became a devoted followed of Christ taking his story around Europe. Looking at this evidence, miracles cannot rely totally on faith, however they can lead to it. Here, miracles are not about faith because Ian McCormack had no faith before his experience. However, if they are about fact, then why does God not perform miracles for everyone? In a different section of the Bible, Jesus does say, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonder, you will never believe”. This could mean that it is possible to believe after the experience of a miracle, which would explain conversions. It could also be a criticism of the people Jesus is talking to. He thinks that people should not rely on evidence for their faith. Those who base their faith on miracles have misunderstood the nature of Christ and the signs. The miracles come as a result of faith. The extract can be read either way. Miracles do not just happen in Christianity. They occur in all religions, each one claiming that they are due to the divine intervention of their God. Surely not all the possible Gods exist and have the power to intervene in the world. So, if the truth of miracle stories is the basis of all religions then they all have equal claims to the truth. It is well known that all religions are not in agreement, therefore their claims of miracles are in a way cancelled out. Hume said that this point discredits miracles.
Hume is a great critic on miracles, however, it is not absolutely clear if he thought they were impossible or just highly improbable. He was an empiricist so relied on evidence to show whether miracles are true or not. His argument started with the fact that the more an event occurs, the more believable and likely it is to be true. Because miracles are so rare, the likelihood of them being true is low. Hume said that we have faith in the constant functioning of natural laws. He has lured himself into a trap here because believers have faith in the constant functioning of God. They believe it is in God’s nature to perform miracles, it just happens that they interfere with the laws of nature. The only time that Hume accepted a miracle to be true was if its non-occurrence were more miraculous than its occurrence and it was witnessed by enough people of good character. He said “a wise man proportions his beliefs to the evidence”, past experience is a reliable guide for this. This past experience tells us that miracles are contrary to human reasoning. Hume also focuses on the tendency of people in our time to be gullible and superstitious. This leaves them vulnerable to believing exaggerated stories of miracles are true. He thought religious people are especially susceptible to this. In way, they look out for miraculous happenings in the hope that there actually is a God to look after them. So people with faith interpret miracles differently to include some divine action and encourage others to believe. Stories of miracles come from ‘ignorant and barbarous nations’, from people who have something to gain by reporting a miracle. Hume would most probably disregard the resurrection because although many people saw the risen Christ, the person who reported the miracle wanted to promote Christianity. The people who Jesus appeared to would be labelled as ignorant by Hume as they are not well educated and are blinded by faith.
Hume has evoked much criticism for the vagueness of his works. He says there have never been enough witnesses for a miracle to be valid but he does not specify exactly how many would be sufficient. He also fails to establish how much a person has to be educated for him to be a reliable source. Religious believers would say it does not matter how educated a person is, God does not choose who experiences a miracle by the content of their mind. St Teresa had a three-fold test for religious experience. If an event was to be claimed a miracle, it must conform to church teaching, result in increased charity and humility, and meet with the approval of a religious leader or the scriptures. It would be interesting to see whether Hume would accept this. It is unfair to state that people who follow a religion are less able to distinguish between true and false in certain situations. Hume does not explain why non-believers experience miracles. They cannot be exaggerating to promote a ‘holy cause’ if they believe in no God. Jesus did not use miracles to make people believe hence the reason he refused to perform them on command. Even when he was starving and being tempted by the devil, he still refused to turn stone into bread. Hume seems to think just because miracles are radically unusual events that they do not exist. He is confused between improbability and impossibility. It is true that miracles are improbable. If you become terminally ill and pray, it is most likely you will not miraculously recover. However, this does not mean that they do not occur, a very small percent of the time, people do get better unexpectedly. Whether this is interpreted as a miracle is up to the individual’s discretion. He also ignores the prospect of himself experiencing a miracle. If he was to do so, I am sure he would become a person of ‘unquestionable sanity’ and highly educated so it would be acceptable to believe his story.
It is necessary for Christians to have faith in miracles because it can be said that the whole religion is based on the occurrence of one. If Jesus was not resurrected then it is doubtful that Christianity would have made as big an impact as it has. If this miracle was proved to be false, the meaning of the religion would fall, as Saint Paul says: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith”. Hume demonstrated this point well in his book. This is why Christians need faith, there is no concrete evidence to show it happened so they must trust the words of the Bible. David Palin was very sceptical about the foundations of Christianity. He thought that faith built upon events in history that may not be true is one not worth worshipping. A possible answer to this is that evidence shows a highly reliable picture of Jesus. There is more evidence of his life in the Bible than many other historical figures. Also, the historical Jesus is not the centre of worship for believers, it is more the risen Christ that is of interest to them. Lessing says that religious people need to take a leap of faith for history to fit in with religion.
Whether miracles are true or not, they provide valid functions for the believer. They are messages shown to be from God using the supernatural, which bring Him and the believers closer together. This is shown by Peter at Pentecost. Miracles also provide evidence for the divine and the glory of God in his incarnate form. It is the same miracles that lead Jesus’ disciples into faith that amaze so many followers of Jesus today. The third function of miracles is to show God working in the world, to comfort people, as they know He is watching over them. The miracles in the Bible also provide positive functions. The resurrection and ascension in particular give people hope that death is not the end and they will go on to a better place with God. The words in the Bible also make Christians feel a part of the religion: “God raised Jesus of which we all are witnesses” Acts 2:52. However, not all miracles in the Bible are positive. God can seem terribly unjust at times, for example when he struck Onan dead. D.F.Strauss argued that miracles were mythical, literary devices for expressing the significance of Jesus. Bultman agreed and said that we must unwrap the miracle stories to find the real meaning behind the writings of the gospels. People like this are sceptical because of the lack of miracles happening in modern times. It is interesting that the number of miracles has declined since our knowledge and understanding has increased. One explanation is that it could simply be a matter of interpretation.
We are so advanced scientifically that some things that seem every day to us would seem miraculous to people of previous times. This could be the same for modern day miracles. What seems miraculous to us today may be explained perfectly logically in centuries to come. Hume agreed with this and said that as we become more educated, less things seems miraculous. However, Swinburne argues that there are some things that can never be explained scientifically, so these must be miracles. Another reason for the lack of miracles today is that we live in a rationalistic age where man is ever more the empiricist. People who have faith may argue that there are not less miracles today as they see the miraculous in some events whereas non-believers do not. Especially in places such as Lourdes, miracles happen regularly. There have been approximately seventy miracles approved by the church at Lourdes since 1858. Cancers have gone into remission, bones have re-grown, and illnesses have disappeared. The reported miracles were all tested by scientists, who verified that the laws of nature had been broken, and declared them miraculous. The Toronto blessing was another site for miracles. The people inside the church started to behave strangely by clucking like chickens and birthing to name a few activities. The latter was experienced by many people and the doctors from Lourdes were well educated, respectable people. Perhaps Hume would accept one of these miracles as they fit his specified criteria. Anthony Flew challenges the occurrence of these miracles. He accepts that the events at Lourdes are extraordinary but that they do not necessarily point towards the agency of God. He thought that the human mind and strength of faith could have remarkably caused them.
To show their faith, Christians and other religions alike pray to their Gods. This may be to ask for a miracle or to thank God for a miraculous occurrence. The issue with prayer is if someone prays for a miracle and it does not happen, God’s love is in question. However, if the miracle does occur, there is no way of telling if God or a direct response to prayer did it. It may have happened anyway if the person had not prayed. This relates to what Feuerbach said about miracles being reflections of people’s wishes. Jesus is described as praying before he raises Lazarus. He does this to show that he works through the power of God. Passages such as this encourage believers to pray, giving them immense comfort when they are in times of need. Regardless of the facts against miracles, praying for them gives people strength and hope.
When believers talk about miracles, they do not use language in a cognitive way. They do not spend copious amounts of time striving to prove that miracles happen. The non-cognitive nature of which they use religious language is to serve a function. Miracles are not about whether they are factually true, but centre around the function they serve as part of their faith community. If one was to say that miracles are factually true, you are using language cognitively. The logical positivists have a problem here because of the Verification Principle. Miracles cannot be verified or falsified therefore are meaningless. This is the same for all kinds of religious language as none of it is either analytic or synthetic. Hick came up with the idea of Eschatological Verification. He thought that you cannot test whether miracles are to do with a divine being in this life. We will find out if there is a God that intervenes in the world when we die. However, this does not bring us any closer to knowing if miracles are factual now. Wittgenstein said that only those with faith could understand miracles and their purpose. This is because non-believers play a different language game and cannot grasp the rules of the religion game.
Looking at the evidence, there seems to be no concrete evidence that miracles are factual occurrences. Whether miracles are to do with an all-loving God or some other agent, without their faith, miracles would be meaningless to religious believers. Some people may find it exciting not knowing what is going to happen next, when the next miracle will occur. It is terribly unjust and insulting to say that everything Christians have believed in for thousands of years is fiction. The matter of miracles as factual occasions is irrelevant as they are about the faith of the individual, not about ‘ignorant and barbarous’ people who try to take the meaning away from them.
Bibliography
- Philosophy of Religion for A Level. Anne Jordan, Neil Lockyer, Edwin Tate.
Publisher: Nelson Thornes, 1999
- An Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics. Mel Thompson.
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, 2003
- The Puzzle of God. Peter Vardy
Publisher: Fount, 1999
- The Philosophy of Religion, A critical introduction. Beverly Clack & Brian R.Clack
Publisher: Polity, 2000
Publisher: Harper Collins. 1947
- Groundwork of Philosophy of Religion. David A.Pailin
Publisher: Epworth Press, 1986
- Understanding Philosophy for AS Level. Christopher Hamilton
Publisher: Nelson Thornes, 2003
- The Blind Watchmaker. Richard Dawkins
Publisher: Penguin
- The Story of Philosophy. Bryan Magee
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley
- Dialogue Issue 4. April 1995
- Christianity, A Dictionary. Michael Keene
Publisher: Stanley Thomas, 1996
- The Bible- Revised Standard Version
- www.bible.com
- www.catholiceducation.org
Christianity A Dictionary, Michael Keene.
“A series of acceptably lucky events together in a non-random sequence so the finished product looks very lucky indeed” 'The Blind watchmaker’, Richard Dawkins
‘An enquiry concerning human understanding’ David Hume. Taken from ‘Understanding Philosophy for A Level’.
“We have experience that all men die; that lead cannot, of itself, remain suspended in the air; that fire consumes wood, and is extinguished by water” ‘An enquiry concerning human understanding’ D.Hume Taken from ‘Philosophy of Religion for A Level’.
“Nature, though it is a thing that really exists, is not a thing that exists in itself or in it’s own right, but a thing which depends for its existence upon something else”. 'The Idea of Nature’ R.G.Collingwood. Taken from ‘Miracles’, C.S.Lewis.
“There is no security against miracle to be found by the study of nature, she is not the whole reality but only a part…If that which is outside her wishes to invade, she has no defences.” ‘Miracles’, C.S.Lewis.
“It seems strange that no miraculous intervention prevented Auschwitz or Hiroshima. The purposes apparently forwarded for some of the miraculous in the Christian tradition seem trivial by comparison” ‘God’s action in the world.’, Maurice Wiles. Taken from 'The Puzzle of God’.
“A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign.” Matthew 12:39
“No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact, which it endeavours to establish” ‘Enquiry concerning human understanding’ D.Hume. Taken from ‘The Philosophy of Religion, A critical introduction’.
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” Matthew 4:4
Dialogue Issue 4. Hume on Miracles. Martin Dawson and Dominic Gribben.
“The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one”, ‘Enquiry concerning human understanding’ D.Hume. Taken from 'The Story of Philosophy’.
“A faith that is built upon judgements that are essentially relative can never be less relative”, ‘Groundwork for the Philosophy of Religion’, David A.Pailin.
“There is an ‘ugly, broad ditch’ between historical reports and faith…Unless it can be bridged, attempts to base faith on history are going to be essentially unsatisfactory”, ‘On the proof of spirit and power’, Lessing. Taken from ‘Groundwork for Philosophy of Religion’.
“Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you through miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.”, Acts 2:22
“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.” John 2:11
“What he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him also” Genesis 38:10
“Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me’.” John 11:41-42