Miracles

"Those things...which are done by divine power apart (different) from the order generally followed in things."

1. Events done by God which nature could never do e.g. water into wine

2. Events in which God does something which nature can do e.g. death to life

3. Events usually done by the working of nature, but without the normal principles of nature e.g. a person's broken bone heals instantaneously 

"A transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity."

Hume says that a miracle is God breaking his own laws of nature.

Hume states: 'Nothing is esteemed a miracle, if it ever happens in the common course of nature'

E.G. Child birth

Remember: Hume is an atheist. Therefore he only wrote it to eventually destroy this definition.

"A remarkable and beneficial coincidence that is interpreted in a religious fashion."

Holland uses this famous illustration to exemplify his point: a child is riding his toy motorcar, he strays onto a railway line, and one of his wheels gets stuck down the side of one of the railway tracks. A train is bearing down on him. As the boy is at a curve in the track the driver would not have enough time to stop the train by the time he sees the boy. Nonetheless, the train comes to a halt just in front of the boy: this is because the driver has fainted some distance back and fallen on the train brake.

Agrees with Aquinas and Hume but he states that: "Natural laws may be broken but there has to be a religious significance for the event to be a miracle" 

• Sacred writings e.g. Bible
• Affirmation with faith traditions e.g. In Islam. God performed a miracle at the hand of the Prophet Muhammed. The Meccans had demanded to see a miracle from Muhammad to show his truthfulness.  God split the moon in two separate halves and then re-joined them.  The Quran recorded the event: “The Last Hour draws near, and the moon is split asunder!” (Quran 54:1).
• Personal Testimony e.g. Lourdes
• Theological Support: C.S. Lewis: Lewis argued that miracles occur, but they do not break the laws of nature.  As Lewis states: "miracles do not, in fact, break the laws of nature." Instead Lewis argues God is an interactive God that, even today, continues to introduce new Laws of Nature.  As Lewis states: “nature behaves in accordance to fixed laws, and that a miracle is God introducing a new law…" A miracle is no more than God interacting with this world by introducing new laws of nature.  Therefore, Lewis is arguing, that miracles are just God acting through His own laws of nature. Lewis further argues God only does these ‘miracles’ to remind us of His omnipotent (all-powerful) nature as the creature of all laws of nature.  Lewis sums this up by stating: “Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."