Miracles

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  • Miracles
    • Definition 1: violation of natrual law or and exception
      • Aquinas
        • Three types of miracles
          • Events which nature could never do e.g the sun and moon stand still
          • Events nature can do but not this order e.g rasing the dead
          • Events thast could usually happen but without the principles of nsature being used e.g instantaneous healing
        • Three types of ways God interacts with his creation
          • Sustaining activity- the creation of the laws of nature
          • Primary activity- God's dircet intevention
          • Secondary activity- God workng through people
        • Primary form of activity- natrual laws broken
      • Theism and Diesm
        • Theists believe God interacts with his creation
        • Deisists believe God has only created and no longer interacts with his creation
      • God is a Iintevetionist God
        • Arguemnts For a inteventionist God
          • Three types of ways God interacts with his creation
            • Sustaining activity- the creation of the laws of nature
            • Primary activity- God's dircet intevention
            • Secondary activity- God workng through people
          • Shows God answers our prayers
        • Arguments Against a inteventionist God
          • Mauriee Wiles
            • A arbitary God with a changeable naturw
              • Arbitrariness of God's intevention shows God is a unfair God
                • A God chooses to feed 5,000 people yet does nothing to stop famine in sudan or a God that allows inncocent civilians to be killed in hiroshima yet intervines in a trivial emergency by turning water into wine.
            • The problem of Evil
              • inconsistent triad
                • God is either omnipotent or not
                • God is either omnibenevolent or not
            • living in uncertainty, Gods inteventions makes the world uncertain never knowing when a natrual law will be broken
            • God only intervened to perform one miracle which was the craetion of the world
        • Theists believe God interacts with his creation
      • Humes
        • " Transgression of the laws of nature by a particular Diety or interposition of a invisible Agent"
        • Argues against violation miracles
          • Two Arguemnts
            • Laws of nature
              • 1: Human experinces tell us that miracles proabaly do not happen
                • " the wise man proportions his beliefs to the evidence"
                • Miracles are "contrary to custom and experience"
            • Quality of testimonies
              • No "sufficient number" of witnesses with a good "reputation"
              • so called "miracles" produce "agreeable emotion" (people like to gossip)
              • Claims of miracles come from "barbarous nations" (uneducated)
              • miracles appear in rivial religions and discredit eachother  (religious pluralism)
          • Natrualistic Explanation according to scientist
            • God of the Gaps thinking
            • Scientific challenges
              • Definition 1: violation of natrual law or and exception
                • Aquinas
                  • Three types of miracles
                    • Events which nature could never do e.g the sun and moon stand still
                    • Events nature can do but not this order e.g rasing the dead
                    • Events thast could usually happen but without the principles of nsature being used e.g instantaneous healing
                  • Primary form of activity- natrual laws broken
                • Theism and Diesm
                  • Deisists believe God has only created and no longer interacts with his creation
                • God is a Iintevetionist God
                  • Arguemnts For a inteventionist God
                    • Shows God answers our prayers
                  • Arguments Against a inteventionist God
                    • Mauriee Wiles
                      • A arbitary God with a changeable naturw
                        • Arbitrariness of God's intevention shows God is a unfair God
                          • A God chooses to feed 5,000 people yet does nothing to stop famine in sudan or a God that allows inncocent civilians to be killed in hiroshima yet intervines in a trivial emergency by turning water into wine.
                      • The problem of Evil
                        • inconsistent triad
                          • God is either omnipotent or not
                          • God is either omnibenevolent or not
                      • living in uncertainty, Gods inteventions makes the world uncertain never knowing when a natrual law will be broken
                      • God only intervened to perform one miracle which was the craetion of the world
                • Humes
                  • " Transgression of the laws of nature by a particular Diety or interposition of a invisible Agent"
                  • Argues against violation miracles
                    • Two Arguemnts
                      • Laws of nature
                        • 1: Human experinces tell us that miracles proabaly do not happen
                          • " the wise man proportions his beliefs to the evidence"
                          • Miracles are "contrary to custom and experience"
                      • Quality of testimonies
                        • No "sufficient number" of witnesses with a good "reputation"
                        • so called "miracles" produce "agreeable emotion" (people like to gossip)
                        • Claims of miracles come from "barbarous nations" (uneducated)
                        • miracles appear in rivial religions and discredit eachother  (religious pluralism)
                    • Natrualistic Explanation according to scientist
                      • God of the Gaps thinking
                      • Scientific challenges
                        • Placebo affect- people attending faith healers feel better beacuse they expect to.
                        • Psychological triggers such as music, tone of voice create positve atmosphere causing chain reactions on people
                          • " Better to convince 1,000 rather than 100"
                    • An empiricist (looks at things that human senses detect)
                  • Swineburn
                    • Natrual Laws are not fixed but expressions of probablity
                    • Not violations but exceptions to the laws/counter instances
                    • We can tell miracles take place with three types of evidence left behind
                      • Memory, Witness and physical traces
                    • what is the "sufficient number" of witnesses according to hume
                    • principle of credulity and testimony
                    • argument against pluralism is that perhaps it was one God who performed the different miracles
                    • Not all religious people believe in miracles
                    • theistic belivers claim God can intervene in his own creation because he is the creator
                    • reductionism- Humans are complex with spiritual nature. God can work in a less obvious way through natrual explanations
                      • Analogy- Flour+Eggs+Milk= A cake
                    • important thing is how a miracle is interpreted
                    • violation miracles teach that we should show love and care for others as jesus did. it is God's will
              • Placebo affect- people attending faith healers feel better beacuse they expect to.
              • Psychological triggers such as music, tone of voice create positve atmosphere causing chain reactions on people
                • " Better to convince 1,000 rather than 100"
          • An empiricist (looks at things that human senses detect)
        • Swineburn
          • Natrual Laws are not fixed but expressions of probablity
          • Not violations but exceptions to the laws/counter instances
          • We can tell miracles take place with three types of evidence left behind
            • Memory, Witness and physical traces
          • what is the "sufficient number" of witnesses according to hume
          • principle of credulity and testimony
          • argument against pluralism is that perhaps it was one God who performed the different miracles
          • Not all religious people believe in miracles
          • theistic belivers claim God can intervene in his own creation because he is the creator
          • reductionism- Humans are complex with spiritual nature. God can work in a less obvious way through natrual explanations
            • Analogy- Flour+Eggs+Milk= A cake
          • important thing is how a miracle is interpreted
          • violation miracles teach that we should show love and care for others as jesus did. it is God's will
      • Defintion 2: An event of religious significance
        • Coincidence miracles- A coincidence that holds religious significance
          • Example one- Child and the toy car, mother witnesses a on coming train  approaching her son who is stuck in the tracks yet the train stops in time and the mother says its a miracle
          • Example two- church choir who usually are never late turn up to church suprisingly late avoiding a major gas explosion in the church, the choir claim it to be a miracle
          • its Ambigiuous whether God intervened in a coincidence miracle or not
          • God intervenes in a less obvious way through things rather than directly e.g when a person goes into cardiac arrest the doctors and the machine can bring them back to life
            • Secondary activity
          • Most important feature is how  the person interprets the event and whether it holds religious significance
          • No violation of the natural laws have to be broken
          • Miracles only exist beacuse thats how they are interpreted
            • Argument for
              • Atheists accuse religious people of seeing what they want to see "illusions" and claim coincidence miracles are too subjective
              • Religious arguments
                • This definition is not in line with the more traditional understandings of miracles e.g miracles as direct intevention from God in which broke natrual laws
                • Subjective approach on whether a miracle has happened, easily open to manipulation
                • most supporters of miracles would argue that for a miracle to be claimed to have happened there should be evidence
            • Argument against-
              • Its a sign to which a person can choose to believe that it is a event taken place with the prescence of God
              • Miracles can be true to one person and not true to another it dpends on realism and anti- realism
        • Sign miracles- Events seen as revelations of God's intevention with his people.
          • Example- Jesus healing the blind man revealing he is the messiah
          • key features, Tells us something about the nature of God, it's a beneficial event and lastly is an exception to the laws of nature
            • Religious opinions and ideas about how God interacts with his creation
              • God is a loving and caring God
              • God is omniprence ( activily involved and present)
              • Miracles are revealtions of God allowing us to choose to believe
              • Theistic ideology

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