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Summary Definition of Miracles
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- WJEC
This document details the important information regarding the Definition of Miracles in the WJEC Religious Studies A Level course
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Definition of MiraclesThomas Aquinas
‘Those things which are done by divine power apart from the order generally followed
in things’
● This is how Aquinas defined miracles and simply put it is something that is out of our
regular everyday experience
● He stated that a miracles must go beyond the order usually observed in nature
○ However, he insisted that a miracle is not contrary to nature as it is in the
nature of all created things to be responsive to God’s will
● Aquinas proposed three different categories of miracles:
1. Events done by God that nature could never do
a. These events are logically impossible
2. Events done by God that nature could do but not in that order
a. They are highly unexpected
b. This is mostly healing miracles
3. Events done by God that nature can do but God does without the use of
natural laws
a. The means that God brings them about is what makes it a miracle
David Hume
‘A transgression of a law of nature brought about by a particular volition of the Deity’
● He requires a miracle to break a law of nature and for it to be done at the will of God
○ A miracle must therefore express divine agency
● He claims that if we balance the improbability of miracles occurring and the evidence
that they have occurred, we will always come to the conclusion that it is more likely
natural laws have held good
● He based his argument on the fact that the laws of nature have seen to work
regularly for thousands of years
● Hume gave four reasons why there was insufficient evidence for miracles:
1. Not enough reliable witnesses
2. Human nature is such that it tends to believe the unbelievable
3. Miracle stories come from ignorant and barbarous nations
4. All religions report miracles so these stories cancel each other out
● He states that ‘there is not to be found in all of history any miracle attested by a
sufficient number of men of such unquestioned good sense, education and learning
as to secure us against all delusion’
○ There is no one of good enough sense to have witnessed a miracle and for us
to believe it
● He also believes that the viewer can be too enthusiastic and see things that aren’t
really there
● Those who do not understand science (barbarous nation) cannot be reliable as they
have no understanding of how the world works
R. F. Holland
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