The unexpected and
unusual manifestations of
the presence and power of
God - M.Cook
Three Basic Attributes
Against regular
experience - breaking
the laws of nature
Has a purpose
and significance
Possible to ascribe
religious
significance
Is the Evidence Reliable?
David Hume
A transgression of a
law of nature by a
particular violation of
the Deity
Concentrated
on experience,
observation,
evidence and
probability
Claimed that it was not reasonable to believe in the existence
of miracles because the evidence was totally unreliable
Miracles are violations of the laws of nature
Firm and unalterable experience has established these
Improbable events need witnesses of greater reliability
Miracles are improbable events
Miracles need very strong evidence from witnesses
Witnesses to miracles are invariably unreliable and their testimonies cannot be trusted
Miracles do not occur
Four reasons why
there was insufficient
evidence for miracles
1) Not enough reliable witnesses
2) Human nature wanted us to believe in miracles
3) Sources came from unreliable places
4) Miracles carried out by different Gods cancelled each other out
Inconsistent Triad
A) Miracles Occur B) Miracles are
claimed in all religions C) Religions claim
exclusivity
If A) was accepted as true, then either B) or C)
can be true but not both. However the three claims
can be true if the occurrence of miracles within a
variety of religions is independent of claims made
by an religion to have exclusive possession of the
truth
The
definition is
problematic
as we are
not sure if
we know all
of the
natural laws
and
therefore
God may
not be
breaking
them
meaning
that miracles
do not occur
Ambiguous Language,
he is not very descriptive
so can be interpreted in
many different ways
Only religious believers see
miracles so that makes their
testimonies unreliable
Miracles cancel each other out as they
can't be performed by many different
gods
Swinburne
Three types of
historical evidence that
can be used to support
miralces
Our memories
The testimony of others
The physical traces left behind by the event in question
Do Miracles prove the existence of God?
Swinburne suggests - If there is a God, one might well
expect him to make his presence known to man, not
merely through the over-all pattern of the universe in
which he placed them, but by dealing more intimately
and personally with them
For those who do not believe, it is impossible for miracles to occur
Peter Atkins - There is a sharp contrast between
the impenetrable prose of theological
comprehension, which is largely pretentious
gobbledegook and the shark, limpid explanations of
science
Miracles prove nothing convincingly, they neither
prove or disprove the existence of God. Neither
does science