It's a miracle!!!!

1. It's a miracle!!!! Miracles in Christianity – what do people believe and what impact do these beliefs have?

2. What is a miracle? Miracles?

3. What do Christians believe about miracles? Jesus performed many miracles when he was on earth. He was God incarnate so God must be able to perform miracles too. Christians believe God still interacts with the world today and performs miracles in response to prayers and for those in need. Christians believe God is all powerful and all-knowing, aware of what we need so he must be able to perform miracles

4. So what miracles did Jesus do? Jesus turned water into wine – John 2:1-11 Jesus’ first miracle. At a wedding in Cana, the wine ran out so Jesus ordered the jars to be filled with water which he turned into wine. Exorcised some demons Luke 8:27-33 Jesus sent the demons out of a possessed man and sent them into some pigs who then ran and drowned in a river. Healed a woman’s bleeding – Luke 8: 43-48 The woman had been bleeding non-stop for 12 years reached out and touched Jesus’ cloak. He declared that her faith in his power has healed her. Jesus walks on water Matthew 14: 22-33 The disciples are in a boat after Jesus had been teaching and were some distance from land. Jesus joined them by walking out onto the water. Lazarus is raised from the dead – John 11:17-44 Jesus’ friend Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha, died. Jesus arrived after he had been dead for four days. He went into the tomb and called him forth, raising him from the dead.

5. Biggest miracle of them all? Jesus’ resurrection – where would Christians be without it?

6. Modern Miracles • http://www.milkmiracle.com/ • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P1qCQroZ58 • http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/the-multistorey-miracle/2878.html

7. They were Biblical times; what relevance do these miracles have now? To answer question 2 fully, you need to use the correct skills of explanation and application. In other words, explain the details well and apply them to modern life. So, what impact can they have? Impact one… Consider the story of John Rajah…. …conversion

8. Demonstrates God’s existence and power! Reinforces a person’s beliefs Gives focus for prayer Gives people hope for the future

9. Miracle - a study of how God might interact with humanity, by looking at the concept of miracle Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of: • different definitions of miracle, including an understanding of Hume; • the biblical concept of miracle and the issues this raises about God’s activity in the world; • the concept of miracle, and criticisms made by Hume and Wiles; • the implications of the concept of miracle for the problem of evil. Candidates should be able to discuss whether modern people can be expected to believe in miracles, and whether miracles suggest an arbitrary or partisan God. Candidates should be able to discuss these areas critically and their strengths and weaknesses.

10. From the Latin miraculum – ‘wonder’

11. different definitions of miracle, including an understanding of Hume;

12. What really is a miracle? • In common English usage

13. It’s a miracle no one was killed! Is it??

15. Religious understanding Of the term miracle

16. More specific than a wonderful event or escape • Something extraordinary which has been brought about by God for a particular purpose • Something must be more than just unexpected • It must be in apparent violations of the laws of nature • Must have some kind of religious significance

18. AO1 In support of miracles… • Macquarrie • Aquinas • Evans

19. 1. Macquarrie ‘Principles of Christian Theology’ 1966 • A miracle has to be something which is attributable to God, in addition to it being a wonderful event • ‘In a minimal sense, a miracle is an event that excites wonder..but it is evident in a religious context the word ‘miracle’ carries more than just this minimal sense.. It is believed that God is in the event in some special way, that he intends is the author of it and intends to achieve something special by the end of it’

20. 2. Steven Evans – ‘The Philosophy of Religion’ • Argued that miracles are not just magic tricks. • ‘Obviously the miracles of a religion such as Christianity are not merely bizarre events or stunts. They have a function and a purpose, and usually that function is a revelatory one’

21. 3. Thomas Aquinas – Summa Contra Gentiles 13th century Attempted to define different events which could be interpreted as miraculous Recognised that to call an event miraculous is to put an interpretation onto what happened and express an opinion about it Argued that for an event to be properly worthy of the name miracle it has to be an event which is intrinsically wonderful, not just wonderful to this person but not to that person (this would rule out the ordinary birth of a healthy baby) It must have a cause which is absolutely hidden

22. 4. (late addition) Richard Swinburne • It is important to be clear about what the laws of nature are - they are not necessarily fixed truths • Perhaps God can suspend natural laws on occasions – e.g. sometimes a lovng parent relaxes certain rules in response to a child pleading. • Miracles have to be occasional – if they were more regular life would be confusing

23. 5. John Polkinghome (late addition) • Defends the possibility of miracles particularly the resurrection of Jesus. • All that science can tell us is that a given event is against normal expectations not that it cannot happen at all

24. 6. C.S Lewis • Defended Christian belief in miracles • We’re faced with a choice about how we view the world. • We are either naturalists (reality is totally physical) or supernaturalists (non –physical things may exist soul/God) • Naturalism is self-defeating. If you are just a physical being subject to laws of cause and effect as all physical objects are then your decision to believe in naturalism is physically caused, you have no choice about what you believe. • Your decision is caused by physical factors.

25. Attempted to rank miracles

26. 1. 2. 3. ‘Those in which something is done by God that nature can never do’ Examples from the Bible: God makes a shadow move backwards (Isaiah 38) God does something that nature can do, but not in that sequence and connection’ People being able to see after being blind – in the natural order people can see first and then become blind ‘something done by God, which is usually done by the operation of nature, but is done without the working of natural principles, as when one is cured by divine power of a fever, in itself naturally curable’

27. David Hume ‘A wise man proportions his belief according the evidence’

28. Empiricist Our knowledge of the world should come from the observations made by our senses Thought we cannot reason accurately beyond what we see and hear as this requires us to make assumptions sceptic

29. For a miracle to be called a miracle, it must be something that never happens in the normal world – and therefore miracles do not happen by their very definition! By very definition, miracles are beyond the realms of reasonable belief. They can’t happen!

30. David Hume - Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding • A miracle may be accurately defined, a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the deity or by the interposition of some invisible agent • Known as the violation definition - its key claim is that a miracle is a violation or breaking of a natural law

31. No sensible person could ever believe that a miracle had happened – other interpretations are far more likely

32. ‘I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument of a like nature, which, if just, will, with the wise and the learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitions and delusions and consequently will be as useful as the world endures’

33. Based on our past experience, we know this doesn’t happen!

34. Stories of miracles tend to come from ‘ignorant and barbarous places and nations’ rather than from well educated people • Therefore their testimonies are not to be trusted!!! • These people are more likely to be gullible and less familiar with rational/scientific theories!

35. HOWEVER…

36. Maurice Wiles ‘Myth of God Incarnate’ (group of authors) Rejects miracles but for different reasons than Hume

37. Didn’t reject the concept of miracle for scientific reasons ‘Certainly the notion of miracle cannot simply be ruled out on scientific grounds as logically impossible, since the world we know is not a closed, deterministically ordered system’

38. The problem with miracles: making sense of the morality and wisdom of God

39. vs

40. Another philosopher shook his head and said with a weariness of disgust ‘while the cancer wards and the hospital wards of the world are full of suffering and dying people, you get your beach ball back. Somewhere in the world at that very moment , people were being murdered and you got your beach ball back’ Tom Morris

41. Wiles objection to the traditional view of miracles is on moral grounds • If there is a God who sometimes performs these sudden miraculous interventions in the world, then it must be an arbitrary God • ‘A God who has favourites, a God who can be unfair and a God who lacks compassion’

42. Any occasion where God intervenes with the natural order to help individuals or groups raises issues about consistency and fairness • God would have to be arbitrary and partisan

43. Is a God who performs occasional arbitrary miracles worthy of worship?

44. ‘Wiles believed it is better theologically to believe in a God that does not do any miracles, than in one that was not morally good ‘ (Ina Taylor)

45. Wiles believed that there was in effect a single miracle of creation and that God’s creation was good – it doesn’t require intervention in the form of other miracles

47. AO2 – Maurice Wiles

48. Wiles views allow people to believe in God yet still uphold the laws of science

49. Allows believers to reinterpret the idea of prayer. Prayer is not about presenting a wish list to God but about allowing an individual to connect to God’s will.

50. AO2 – Maurice Wiles