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Assess whether belief in miracles is rational.

It seems clear to me that miracles are not a rational notion at all. Instead, they can be explained through psychological and social theories. The belief that miracles occur can be disregarded as null as there is no empirical, solid evidence to suggest that there could be such an event that breaks the laws of nature. If there was empirical evidence that something broke the laws of nature, everyone would believe in miracles. Instead, it is much more rational to believe that theists have created miracles in their own mind to strengthen their belief in God; however the belief in miracles is largely irrational.

A theist would disagree with this idea; they would argue that miracles are God’s way of intervening with the world. They would continue by saying that God is an omnipotent being and he has the power to break the laws of nature. For example, Aquinas supported this view, he argued that miracles are a completely rational occurrence and they are Gods way with intervening with the world around us. He highlighted how there are three types of miracles. They are as follows; events that nature couldn’t explain, events that nature couldn’t explain in that order or an event that incredibly unlikely but God allows (healing).He would be supported by many Christians, who may use the bible as evidence for the existence of miracles. There are many miracles depicted within the bible, including the water into wine, the resurrection and calming the storm, these events could not possibly be explained by any scientific explanation and as a result Christians would argue that is enough bases for the existence of miracles to be rational as they have faith in God and Jesus.

There are huge criticisms to be made about these claims made by Christians. To start, there is no empirical evidence for the existence of miracles. There are only testimonial reports from people who have experienced miracles. If miracles were a true entity, there would be concrete empirical evidence that proves that God and miracles do exist. However, the bible is not sufficient evidence to support the claims that miracles do occur. It is a book that is over two thousand years old, as a result, the integrity of the claims are skewed; there is no way of proving that Jesus was in fact a miracle worker. In terms of modern miracles, it seems as though the more rational alternative into these occurrences is that it was an event that is explainable by the laws of nature however the Christian believes it was a miracle because of their irrational faith in God. Modern miracles could be explained away as those who experience the miracles have no solid evidence to support their claim, it seems as though all supporters of miracles can speak of them but don’t have the backing to support the claim. In addition, by using Ayers verification principle, it seems clear that talk of miracles is meaningless. They…