Miracles

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Miraculous events - reported as long as humans have lived in communities

- Jesus pictured as healing people and calming storms

- Moses turns his rod into a snake and summons plagues of locusts

More modern times..

- Statues of Nandi in a Hindu mandir (temple) drinking milk (1995)

- People being cured of Aids in Zimbabwe (Oratorian priest)

- Virgin Mary appearing at Lourdes

For religious believers - occurrence of miracles (i.e. Bible) is an example of God acting within the world and being involved in the world

- Joshua 10:1-15 - God holds back the sun in order to help Joshua's army in battle

- Exodus 13 - God sends a wind to drive back the Red Sea to make dry land; Moses leads the Hebrews across the sea bed to safety.

- When the pursuing troops of Pharaoh cross the ocean floor, God returns the waters of the Red Sea to the sea bed and the soldiers of Pharaoh are destroyed

Bible - pictures God as involved and active in the world

Philosophers - biblical image of God shows God as omnipotent and immanent

- Immanent - God is active and closely involved in the physical universe

Traditional definitions of miracles:

An event caused by God - traditionally supported by Christians (Thomas Aquinas)

A violation of the laws of nature - commonly associated with David Hume

TWO PRELIMINARY DEFINITIONS OF MIRACLES

Thomas Aquinas' definition of a miracle

'that which has a divine cause, not that whose cause a human person fails to understand' (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles)

Highlights fundamental point for religious believers - miracles are events caused by God

- Reflected in the meaning of the word 'miracle' - comes from the Latin word 'miraculum' (object of wonder)

- Jesus curing the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12) - no interest to religious believer how Jesus cured the man; point is that God caused the man to be cured and it is an event to be wondered at

Aquinas' idea of miracle comes from Aristotle

- Aquinas and Aristotle both believed that everything which exists has a nature - what the thing is able to do

- Example: Part of the nature of human beings that makes them different from animals is that they can thinkabout the future and the meaning of life and death

- 'Divine cause' - the event in question is not a normal part of the nature of thingsMany Christians today would also add that miracles also reveal something about God to people

David Hume's definition of a miracle

'violation of the laws of nature' (David Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding)

Hume - miracle, such as Jesus curing the paralytic, is an example of an event which suggests that something happened which broke the laws of nature

- Uses the laws of nature to show how the universe works

- Example: If we throw this textbook off the desk you know it will fall to the floor due to gravity

The Bible and God's activity

Bible - paints a picture of God being closely involved with creation and acting in it

- Seen in the story of Joshua's defeat of the 5 kings (Joshua 10)

Number of important points to note in this story:

Victory over the king's is God's, not Joshua's - Joshua is the player who does the acting; God is the director and producer with the real power and control

God is described as throwing the enemy into confusion - idea of God's presence bringing confusion is found in other parts of the Jewish Scriptures as well (Exodus 14:24, 23:27; Judges 4:15)

- Emphasises the involvement of God in victory

God's divine control is illustrated by referring to God's power over nature - (Joshua 10) God is described as throwing hailstones or stones from on high

- For the people living in the times of the Jewish Scriptures - no such thing as 'nature'; natural world is unpredictable and at times it displays amazing powers

- Example: Today we would explain lightning in terms of weather patterns and the laws of physics

- Jewish Scriptures come from a pre-scientific world in which the natural world is seen as chaotic at times

- God's power and involvement in the world are clear - God's will operates through the events in the world

- Completely different from the modern ideas about the world and nature being governed by scientific laws

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