Here a law of nature can be described as a force or power on earth that is expected to be there such as gravity. Another example is death because this is something that all human beings will experience whether it is through age, illness or accident- all people expect to die.
David Hume uses what some people regard as the ‘miracle’ of childbirth to describe what he means by the term “miracle”. He explains that some people would say that the human body was not naturally built to hold a baby but yet it still happens, thereby violating a law of nature. However, many other people argue that childbirth is not a miracle, for it happens naturally.
Richard Swinburne, another philosopher agrees with Hume’s idea but adds a few extra criteria. Swinburne says, “The violation could be the time scale of the event”. This means, the break of a law of nature could be in the order of the event as happened in the bible when Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana (Matthew 22 1-14).
Water can be turned into wine but it is done through a long process, not as quickly as it occurred with Jesus.
Swinburne also says that the event that can be called a miracle has to have a religious meaning. The religious meaning being some kind of sign from God demonstrating that he cares, that he is powerful, that he has an ultimate plan.
The other criteria Swinburne adds is that the miracle has to be beneficial. If it isn’t, then what is the point in the miracle and why bother? If it is not beneficial it could be portrayed as magic or trickery.
Another excuse used for a supposed miracle could be that it is just a coincidence. With this point I come to R.F Holland’s definition of the term “miracle”. This is Holland’s reaction to Hume’s explanation. “Sometimes, an event which does not violate a law of nature may be called a miracle if the coincidence is so great and there is sufficient religious significance”. Here Holland argues that a miracle can take place even if there is no violation. But at the same time he agrees with Swimburne in that it has to have a religious meaning.
In order to complete this essay I devised a questionnaire to see what people thought a miracle to be. Every response to the set questions was different. One person said that a miracle was ‘an unexplained event’ and another said ‘when the impossible becomes possible’. One even said that they didn’t believe in miracles. (You may look at the completed questionnaires, which are in the appendix at the back of the coursework)
From this research I have learnt that there is no one definite term to describe a miracle as everyone has their own view on what they believe. At the end of the day it will depend on individual perspective as to what they believe a ‘miracle’ to be and no one can say it is right or wrong, it’s a matter of opinion.
Word Count: 706 with quotes
