OCR Religious studies: Philosophy. Wiles on miracles

Wiles does not reject miracles for scientific, rationalist reasons.

He says: 'Certainly the notion of miracle cannot simply be ruled out on scientific grounds as logically impossible, since the world we know is not closed, deterministically ordered system.'

Although it would be possible for God to perform miracles and suspend the laws of nature if He wanted to, it would not be possible for this to happen very often otherwise there wouldn't be laws of nature at all.

It would be impossible for us to live normal lives and we wouldn't know what the natural world was going to do next.

Wiles argues that if we take the traditional view of miracle it is difficult to see why God did nothing miraculous to prevent tragedies such as the holocaust. 

Wiles therefore rejects miracles on moral grounds.

It would be unfair for God to sometimes perform miraculous events.

Miracles would suggest an arbitrary (random) or partisan (biased) God.

It is inconsistent with the Bible. The Bible has stories showing God peforming miracles.

Wiles is judging God by human standards. When and if God chooses to perform miracles is His choice and it is the right thing to do even if we cannot understand why.

Could be argued that Wiles misses the point of miracles, it's not about helping people in need but about revealing something about God.