A02 Shortened
Cards (4)
- Realist (strengths of realism = weaknesses of anti-realist and vice versa)
- Examples such as Juliane Koepcke and Nebraska church choir support it —> Why would God only intervene for some people? Problem of evil - Wiles
- Miracles clearly violate natural laws. Hume defined it as this —> science does not accept it. The law has to be revised in this case. Hume agrees with science
- Realist understandings of miracles are evidence of God’s existence and his care for the world —> Holland says that even if miracles are coincidences people will believe they are caused by a supernatural being
- David Hume A02
- High probability that miracles cannot be real events. It suggests that those who claim a miracle has occurred is mistaken or lying —> Swinburne’s principles of credulity and testimony do not support this. Christians would argue that improbability is what makes a miracle occur
- Hume’s argument is inductive. It deals purely in probability so he accepts a miracle could occur but believes it wouldn’t —> an inductive argument is not a proof
- Hume uses reason —> faith is more important to Christians
- Maurice Wiles A02

- Miracles do not occur as this would be a violation of nature —> how can Wiles explain the 70 confirmed miracles by the Catholic Church?
- Tillich agrees with Wiles. Miracles are symbolic, they point to something else. But it does not mean that God intervened —> to call religion symbolic is to demean central parts of the faith. It is real to them
- Points out the problem of evil —> but why would creation be a miracle? How can Wiles explain God’s intervention in other aspects of creation?
- Miracles significance A02

- Biblical authority. Tradition —> Bultmann Demythologisation
- God intervenes as a demonstration of power —> why would God only intervene in certain cases?
- Tillich and Wiles symbolic. They evoke emotions and point us towards something else. Do not occur but have great emotional significance —> Hume says it is highly improbable so they don’t occur