Assessing Miracle Claims

What's the point of miracles?

changing faith supporting Jesus' claims as the Messiah prove existence of something greater shows God's presence and intervention Biblical accounts enhance our understanding and are still drawn on today

What Jesus' resurrection a special case?

It was a complete bloodbath, and miracles are usually not violent, as they are supposed to bring peace. Many miracles within the resurrection: healing the ear, blackened sky, ripped curtain However, the resurrection itself is the main event, as it adds credibility to other miracles, asserts that Heaven, Hell and judgement do exist, and confirms Jesus' divinity

The Problem of Evil

An omnipotent and omnibenevolent God can do miracles ... But what about fairness? Either he's not all good or we don't understand what fair means.

Form Criticism

Form critics are a theological group who interpret the Bible in terms of cultural contexts to discover the essential truth of them. Bultmann attempted to demythologise the New Testament Biblical accounts by removing the elements of what could be 1st century myth, in order to get to the essential message of Jesus. A lot of Bultmann's demythologising involved discrediting the miracle stories as myths. This raises the debate of whether it is foolish to believe miracle claims in the modern day.Today, it seems, people are less likely to believe in miracle claims for the following reasons: We have increased knowledge of science and how the world works, therefore when an event defies our idea of 'the law of nature', we reject it as impossible. Additionally, the growth of rationalism as a secular ideology means that we have to be able to prove our beliefs for them to be reputable. It could be argued that perhaps people have become more sceptical, narrow-minded and materialistic, accepting only what they can see as real. The widespread knowledge of illusionists now causes us to doubt what we see, and question where the visual trick is in the event. Linked in with the knowledge of illusionists, were are now perhaps, more than ever very untrusting of people, especially if they are charging money to perform illusions.

Accepting Miracles TodayPros: Swinburne argues that natural laws are not fixed, so miracles can break natural laws. However, they must be seen as 'non-repeatable' events. Miracles' primary function is to encourage people, not to end suffering altogether. We will never be able to conclusively prove that miracles don't exist, therefore, rationalism can be seen as self-defeating. If we argue it is ludicrous to believe in miracles because of the lack of scientific evidence, then it must also be ludicrous to have a religious belief as well, if the same logic is followed. Just because the existence of miracles is not provable, this is not to say miracles do not exist. For example, the idea of the earth going around the sun was originally rejected, however, years later, it was discovered that this claim was correct. Cons: Hume argues that miracles are 'violations' of the laws of nature, so that by definition, they do not exist. Wiles claims that only an arbitrary or partisan God would perform miracles in the way that they appear in our world, as they do not help everyone, but a select few. Bultmann suggests that perhaps miracle accounts in the Bible are symbolic of God's power and love for humanity, so there is no reason to believe that miracles can happen today.

Fideism