Miracles: Science, reason and morality

The Moral Dimension
1. Maurice Wiles - It seems strange that no miraculous intervention prevented Auschwitz or Hiroshima. The purposes apparently forwarded for some of the miracles acclaimed in the Christian tradition seem trivial by comparison
2. Peter Vardy - A god who intervenes at Lourdes to cure an old man of cancer but does not act to save starving millions in Ethiopia, such a God needs, at least, to face some hard moral questioning
That which can not be categorised in a scientific manner is considered to be untrue and false
1. The laws of nature are considered to be reliable and unchanging and reports of miracles seem to deny this understanding of how that world worked
  1. Reaction against miracles with claims that they went against science and reason
Peter Atkins - Everything in the universe can be explained in terms of physical science
Offers a mechanistic view of the universe: it runs according to scientific principles and natural law and these can be established and determined by empirical investigation
There are some miracles which can not be explained by science or medicine - Lourdes healing miracles
Religious believers say that it is God, not science, that provides the ultimate explanation
1. Keith Ward - God is the end of the quest for intelligibility, a rational complete explanation for events that are otherwise inexplicable

Resource summary

	Created by Holly1 about 10 years ago