Miracles

• Miracle


  An extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural laws and is therefore attributed to a divine agency
• Famous miracles


  • Moses parting the red sea
  • Virgin birth
  • Jesus rising from the dead
• Roughly 1 in 6 British people believe in miracles
• Deist


  Those who believe that God exists as a purely impersonal force that doesn't intervene
• Types of miracles Jesus performed


  • Power over nature (e.g. walking on water, turning water into wine)
  • Raising the dead (e.g. resurrecting Lazarus)
  • Healing the sick (e.g. healing the blind man, curing the leper)
  • Exorcism (casting out demons)
• A boy possessed by a demon is brought forward to Jesus. The boy is said to have foamed at the mouth, gnashed his teeth, become rigid and involuntarily fallen into both water and fire. Jesus cast out the demons and he was healed.
• Belief in the accuracy of miracle-stories is declining amongst Christians
• In 1968, 70% agreed these definitely or probably happened, yet by 1987, this was down to 54%. Four polls between 1984 and 1996 reveal that only around one-fifth (20%) considered the miracles historically true, fewer than regarded them as legends, and fewer still than as interpretations by gospel writers.
• Since 1860 Lourdes has had over 200 million visitors
• By 2015, 69 cases had been recognised as miracles by the Roman Catholic Church
• Faith healing


  The practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice
• According to a 2004 Newsweek poll, 72 percent of Americans said they believe that praying to God can cure someone, even if science says the person has an incurable disease
• Lourdes receives millions of sick visitors per year, yet in over 150 years only 69 confirmed cases of healing have occurred
• Derren Brown produced a show on faith healing entitled "Miracles for sale" which arguably exposed the art of faith healing as a scam
• Psychologists would argue that "the placebo effect" would account for many cases of supposed healing
• David Hume argued that stories of miracles in The Bible cannot be trusted
• Hume's five arguments against the belief in miracles

  • A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence
  • We must choose the lesser miracle
  • Inadequate witness testimony
  • Miracles often come from "ignorant and barbarous nations"
  • Miracles in other religions cancel each other out
• Miracles have never occurred in a controlled environment where they can be scientifically studied
• Psychologists would argue that cases of "miraculous healing" are caused by the placebo effect
• Miracles are reported in other religions
• In the case of an unexplained healing, it is impossible to verify what the cause of the healing was