Miracles
AQA Requirements:
1. Differing understandings of ‘miracle’
2. Realist and Anti-Realist view
3. Violation of natural law or natural event
4. Comparison of the key ideas of David Hume and Maurice Wiles on miracles
5. The significance of these views for religion
1. Differing understandings of ‘miracle’
What is a miracle? - Comes from Latin work MIRACULUM meaning wonder. In religious under-
standing a miracle is more specific than any wonderful event it is something extraordinary.
• Stephen Evans: Miracles are not just magic tricks - “Obviously miracles of a religion such as
Christianity are not merely bizarre events or stunts. They have a function and purpose, and usu-
ally that function is a revelatory one”
• J L Mackie: “A miracle occurs when the world is not left to itself, when something distinct from the
natural order as a whole intrudes into it”
• Peter Vardy: An event with religious significance. Vardy also suggests that a change for the bet-
ter in a person might justifiably be called a miracle. This may be the result of a conversion experi-
ence (which could in itself be described as miraculous).
2. Realist and Anti-Realist view
Realism: those who believe that a statement is true if it corresponds to an actual state of affairs.
Anti-Realism: a statement is true if it fits in with other true statements. So in a sense they make re-
ligious truths rather than discover them.
Realist View:
• Scholars: Hume, Swinburne, Flew
• Just as scientists can be realists about the world, religious people can be realist about miracles
• Miracles are a real part of what happens in the world
• They are brought about by God or by someone who is empowered by God to bring them about
• These are true despite the fact that we do not understand everything about miracles
• To them miracles are something that have happened in the external world
• Realist example of a miracle: Miracles as an extraordinary coincidence of a beneficial nature:
• Juliane Koepcke’s - In 1971 she was on board a flight that encountered a thunder-
storm and crashed over the Peruvian rainforest. The fall was 10,000 feet, killing all
6 crew and 85 of 86 passengers. Juliane was the sole survivor, suffering a broken
collar bone she survived a 9-day journey through the forest in order to reach help.
• There is no dispute that this event happened or not - good evidence they did
• No dispute that some identified this as a miracle
• Realist view is limited - only describes the event - does not make any claims about the involve-
ment of God - this interpretation comes from those who observed what happened.
• Problem with describing these events as religious miracles = if God helped Juliane survive, what
about the other passengers? Were they somehow less worthy?
• Miracles as an event bought about by the power of God, working through people: - significant re-
ligiously
• The bible contains numerous examples of God acting through persons e.g. Moses - 10 plagues
• Miracles of Jesus
• Miracles invite belief in God and strengthen faith
• A person cannot become a Saint in the Catholic Church unless he or she has performed miracles
Anti-Realist View:
• Scholars: Tillich, Holland, Hick
AQA Requirements:
1. Differing understandings of ‘miracle’
2. Realist and Anti-Realist view
3. Violation of natural law or natural event
4. Comparison of the key ideas of David Hume and Maurice Wiles on miracles
5. The significance of these views for religion
1. Differing understandings of ‘miracle’
What is a miracle? - Comes from Latin work MIRACULUM meaning wonder. In religious under-
standing a miracle is more specific than any wonderful event it is something extraordinary.
• Stephen Evans: Miracles are not just magic tricks - “Obviously miracles of a religion such as
Christianity are not merely bizarre events or stunts. They have a function and purpose, and usu-
ally that function is a revelatory one”
• J L Mackie: “A miracle occurs when the world is not left to itself, when something distinct from the
natural order as a whole intrudes into it”
• Peter Vardy: An event with religious significance. Vardy also suggests that a change for the bet-
ter in a person might justifiably be called a miracle. This may be the result of a conversion experi-
ence (which could in itself be described as miraculous).
2. Realist and Anti-Realist view
Realism: those who believe that a statement is true if it corresponds to an actual state of affairs.
Anti-Realism: a statement is true if it fits in with other true statements. So in a sense they make re-
ligious truths rather than discover them.
Realist View:
• Scholars: Hume, Swinburne, Flew
• Just as scientists can be realists about the world, religious people can be realist about miracles
• Miracles are a real part of what happens in the world
• They are brought about by God or by someone who is empowered by God to bring them about
• These are true despite the fact that we do not understand everything about miracles
• To them miracles are something that have happened in the external world
• Realist example of a miracle: Miracles as an extraordinary coincidence of a beneficial nature:
• Juliane Koepcke’s - In 1971 she was on board a flight that encountered a thunder-
storm and crashed over the Peruvian rainforest. The fall was 10,000 feet, killing all
6 crew and 85 of 86 passengers. Juliane was the sole survivor, suffering a broken
collar bone she survived a 9-day journey through the forest in order to reach help.
• There is no dispute that this event happened or not - good evidence they did
• No dispute that some identified this as a miracle
• Realist view is limited - only describes the event - does not make any claims about the involve-
ment of God - this interpretation comes from those who observed what happened.
• Problem with describing these events as religious miracles = if God helped Juliane survive, what
about the other passengers? Were they somehow less worthy?
• Miracles as an event bought about by the power of God, working through people: - significant re-
ligiously
• The bible contains numerous examples of God acting through persons e.g. Moses - 10 plagues
• Miracles of Jesus
• Miracles invite belief in God and strengthen faith
• A person cannot become a Saint in the Catholic Church unless he or she has performed miracles
Anti-Realist View:
• Scholars: Tillich, Holland, Hick
