Miracles Lesson 3

Question 1

What is natural law?

Answer 1

-The definition of what is possible or not possible within nature

-The laws of nature cannot be violated according to the convictions of
science that they are descriptive not proscriptive

-The laws are a summary of what has happened – they are based upon
empirical evidence observed overtime

Question 2

What is Hicks opinion if weather natural laws can be broken?

Answer 2

-Hick suggest that if there appears to be an exception to a law of nature, then the law simply expands to include the exception.

-Laws of nature do not dictate what must happen but summarise what has been found to happen; they are a summary of what we observe. If an event does not conform to what scientific law predicts, there are three possibilities:

1) The evidence for the event is faulty

2) There is an unknown factor that has not been taken into account

3) The law is inadequate and needs to be adapted or expanded

• Scientific laws, therefore, cannot be violated!

Question 3

What is Hicks view on telekinesis?

Answer 3

-Hick’s studies in paranormal/parapsychological phenomena, such as telekinesis, led him to see such events as analogous to miraculous happenings

-For example, miracles of healing will probably turn out to be caused in a naturalistic way by some as-yet unknown power of the human mind.

-God is used as an example to explain things we do not yet know - a ‘god of the
gaps’.

Question 4

What are the problems that are posed when asking if the laws of nature were violated?

Answer 4

-The description of any events as ‘violating the laws of nature’ is misunderstanding what these ‘laws’ are. They are descriptive,
not proscriptive. Where an event SEEMS to violate the laws of nature, one of three things is happening.

1. The event DID NOT HAPPEN as described. The event is made up or the person is mistaken in what they saw.
2. The law of nature is wrong and NEEDS UPDATING.
3. There is an UNKNOWN factor at work which the LAW does not take into account – so the SCIENTIFIC THEORY NEEDS CHANGING, to account for this anomaly

Question 5

What does seing the laws of nature as probabilistic impose?

Answer 5

Some events are so unexpected and hard to explain that laws of nature can’t be expanded to include what has happened, they are anomalies.

Ward states: “rare events which seem to be well beyond the possibilities of natural explanation available to us will be candidates for miraculous explanation”.

He is adapting the ‘violation of a law of nature’ explanation of miracles into the ‘coincidence’ one.

SUMMARY: miracles are rare, exceptional events which do not align with the laws of nature.

Even if this is not ‘impossible’ according to science, their improbability make them miraculous.

Question 6

What is an anti reaslist view of miracles?

Answer 6

-We can have no knowledge of a transcendent realm

-Therefore, miracles are in the mind - they are psychological and sociological events

-Miracles lift the spirit or transforms a community of people

-When an anti-realist talks about miracles, they are informing us of their state of mind and not making a claim about the event itself.

-Resurrection of Jesus can be understood as a miracle because the narrative has transformed Christians worldwide, who believe in salvation and atonement as a result of it BUT WE CANNOT SAY WHAT REALLY HAPPENED!