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OBJECTIONS TO THE IDEA OF MIRACLES

OBJECTIONS TO THE IDEA OF MIRACLES.

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OBJECTIONS TO THE IDEA OF MIRACLES

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  1. OBJECTIONS TO THE IDEA OF MIRACLES

  2. Everything in our common experience tells us that when we encounter highly complex, organized systems or information, they are the result of thoughtful design. Therefore it is reasonable to infer that when we encounter the same in biology or other sciences they too are the result of thoughtful design

  3. We no longer need miracles as an explanation for anything • Science can explain everything

  4. Science can only study events and entities that have a natural explanation

  5. Science cannot explore the miraculous because science can only study that which is repeatable and regular

  6. Science and the miraculous are incompatable

  7. BENEDICT SPINOZA • 1 Miracles are violations of natural laws • 2 Natural laws are immutable • 3 It is impossible for natural laws to be violated • 4 Therefore, miracles are impossible

  8. DAVID HUME • 1 A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature • 2 Firm and unalterable experience has established these laws • 3 A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence • 4 Therefore, “the proof against miracles….. is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined

  9. IMMANUEL KANT • 1 Everything in our experience is determined by practical experience • 2 Practical reason operates according to universal laws • 3 Miracles occur either (A) daily, (B) seldom, or (C) never • 4 What occurs daily is not a miracle since it occurs regularly • 5 What occurs seldom is not determined by any law • 6 All scientific knowledge must be determined by practical reason which operates on universal law • 7 Therefore, it is rational to conclude that miracles never occur

  10. ANTONY FLEW • 1 Miracles are by nature particular and unrepeatable • 2 Natural events are by nature general and repeatable • 3 In practice, the evidence for the general and repeatable is always greater than that for the particular and unrepeatable • 4 Therefore, the evidence will always be greater against miracles than for them

  11. ALASTAIR McKINNON • 1 A scientific law is a generalization based on observation. • 2 Any exception to a scientific law invalidates that law and calls for a revision to it • 3 A miracle is an exception to a scientific law • 4 Therefore, a “miracle” would call for a revision of a law and the recognition of a broader law. This would explain the “miracle” as a natural event

  12. EMAIL • If God will cheat or boast that he can or does intervene in our lives, in the natural order….. or for any purpose not even disclosed to us, it makes observation of the world and the affairs of the tiniest microbes to galactic catastrophe all futile, for they are then placed at the whim of a fickle God who will deceive us when it suits him. Therefore to test that God exists by appeal to observations of this world and it’s affairs is quite futile. If God has intervened in the world even once then no observation or consequent observation we can make is reliable.

  13. Purpose of the miraculous

  14. Ask “Why” alot

  15. CONCLUSIONS • Science does not exclude miracles • Miracles do not invalidate science • Miracles are not capricious or random • Miracles have a purpose • Miracles are one way of God communicating with us

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