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Reconceiving Miracles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

James E. Gilman
James E. Gilman
Affiliation:
Mary Baldwin College, Virginia, U.S.A.
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Extract

The chief, but far from only, thinker to shape the modern discussion of miracles was David Hume. Ever since, his collaborating off-spring (both those who defend and those who reject the coherence of the idea of miracles) have routinely made several (false) assumptions about the laws of nature and the idea of miracles, which, together with the rich and varied debate arising from them, constitute what I shall refer to as the Humean tradition.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , December 1989 , pp. 477 - 487
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

page 477 note 1 Hume, David, Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingGoogle Scholar, Sec. X. Others who assume Hume's conceptualization of miracles are Swinburne, Richard, The Existence of God (Oxford, 1982)Google Scholar, Davies, Brian, Thinking About God (Geoffrey Chapman, 1985)Google ScholarPubMed, Mackie, J. L, The Miracle of Theism (Oxford, 1982)Google Scholar, and Everitt, Nicholas, ‘The Impossibility of Miracles’, Religious Studies, XXIII (1987), 347–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 477 note 2 Everitt, Nicholas, ‘The Impossibility of Miracles’, Religious Studies, XXIII (1987), p. 349.Google Scholar

page 478 note 1 See, for example, Davies, Paul, The Cosmic Blueprint (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988)Google Scholar; also by Davies, , God and the New Physics (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983).Google Scholar

page 478 note 2 Larmer, Robert A., ‘Miracles and the Laws of Nature’, Dialogu (Canada), XXIV (1985), 227–8.Google Scholar

page 479 note 1 Lowe, E. J., ‘Miracles and the Laws of Nature’, Religious Studies, XXIII, p. 273.Google Scholar

page 479 note 2 Craig, W. L, The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus During the Deist Controversy (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellon Press, 1985), pp. 483–4.Google Scholar See also, Bilynskyj, Stephens S., ‘God, Nature, and the Concept of Miracle’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Notre Dame (1982), 117–46.Google Scholar

page 479 note 3 Mill, J. S., A System of Logic (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1949)Google Scholar, Bk. VI, ch. 25, Sec. 2 and 3.

page 480 note 1 Everitt, Ibid.

page 480 note 2 Lowe, Ibid p. 276.

page 480 note 3 Craig, Ibid.

page 481 note 1 Gilman, James E., ‘Rationality and Belief in God’, International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion, Vol. 24: 143–157 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 482 note 1 Craig argues, I think rightly, that ‘Only the atheist can deny the possibility of miracles, for even an agnostic must grant that if it possible that…God exists, then it is equally possible that He has acted in the universe’, Ibid pp. 490–1.

page 482 note 2 There is, perhaps, some basis for arguing that the act of Divine creation counteracts the rule of chaos in the universe: (gen. 1:2, RSV). The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. Here is depicted the greater power of Deity countering the forces of chaos and degeneration to bring about order and goodness in creation.

page 483 note 1 Larmer, Ibid. pp. 232–3.

page 483 note 2 Larmer, Ibid. p. 235.

page 483 note 3 J.S. Mill Ibid. Bk III, Ch. 25, Sec. 2.

page 484 note 1 Theologians sometimes distinguish a resurrection from a reanimation or resuscitation, the former referring to the reception of a new, incorruptible body, the latter referring to the temporary rejuvenation of a body's biological life. In my discussion, I have in mind resurrection in the sense of rejuvenation of biological life.

page 485 note 1 Larmer, Ibid. p. 231.

page 486 note 1 David Hume, Ibid. Sec. X, Pt I, n. 20.