Wonders of Nature and the Operations of Creatures Essay Example for Free

Wonders of Nature and the Operations of Creatures Essay This essay will attempt to differentiate natural wonders that occur in the world, from what is described as miracles. It will also explore events classified as miracles, and examine whether miracles must have an immediate benefit, or if natural disasters can in some way, be defined as miracles as their consequences can fulfill the criteria for the purposes of miracles. This essay will not be questioning the existence of miracles as, for the purpose of this essay, they do. First one must seek to define what the different terms in the title are, by looking at how different philosophers and theologians have described them. David Hume, on miracles, seems to argue that there are indeed extraordinary events that occur, but they cannot justifiably be called miracles. The next term needing examination is â€Å"wonders of nature†. Science has shown us that nature is not a series of random events, and that it is governed by laws which make it in some way predictable; the law of gravity for example, which keeps the world revolving around the sun. The last term to be defined is, â€Å"operations of creatures†. This is not just the operation of living things. It can be applied to beings as small as atoms, or intangible concepts such as time. It is the operations of creatures that are often confused with miracles when they are coincidence. After clarifying what the question is looking for, this essay will look at examples of miraculous events and analyse them with focus on God’s being, particularly their role in revealing God’s being to creatures. Mary Hesse’ article, Miracles and the Laws of Nature, begins with a discussion of how the term miracle is applied in today’s society; â€Å"Someone may say ‘his recovery was a miracle’, or, ‘It was a miracle that a serious accident was avoided’†.[1] Whilst Hesse disregards this as likely not to be a divinely inspired, she goes onto talk about how, the conventional definition of a miracle, something that is a violation or turn against the natural order, is not so surprising, as we live in such a complicated world. Miracles are seen to be violations of the natural order, and examples can be found all over the world, in ancient and modern history. The most common examples in the Western world can be found in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testament, which reveal God’s being, whether it is God’s direct action or God working through another being to create a miraculous event. This is what natural theology argues is the miracle’s being: to in some way reveal God, or to impart knowledge of some kind to someone. This can be seen in examples found in the Bible; the story of the burning bush, found in Exodus, where God imparted knowledge if himself to Moses, with both the great â€Å"I Am†, and in his plans to free the Israelites from Egypt. However, it is here that Hume draws his first criticism, questioning the validity of those that witness or experience the miracle: â€Å"We cannot trust that those who testify to miraculous events occurring are not being deceived, deluded or even lying. Also Humans are naturally drawn towards the miraculous, and love being dazzled by the mysterious, and they can often form unreasonable beliefs on the basis of these experiences, which should not trusted.†[2] Hume was traditionally an empiricist, and believed that for the claims of a miracle to be true it must reflect the experiences we already have learnt from. Because of this Hume would doubt the miraculous event of Jesus Christ, when he rose from the dead, as there is no experience on earth, other than this, that one can look to for a confirmation that such a thing is possible. Hume then assumes that such events are born from either delusion, or from people lying, for whatever motive. However scholars are often split in their opinion of Hume’s position on miracles, as it is possible to take his work as an argument against the possibility of miracles. Yet it is also possible to argue that Hume did believe that miraculous events could occur, however, as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy writes: â€Å"only that justified belief in a miracle on the basis of testimony (may be) impossible.†[3] Hume was not alone in writing against the testimonies of people through history, as Wittgenstein writes: â€Å" A miracle is, as it were, a gesture which God makes. As a man sits quietly then makes an impressive gesture, God lets the world run on smoothly then accompanies the words of a saint by a symbolic occurrence, a gesture of nature, it would be an instance if, when a saint has spoken, the trees around him bowed, as if in reverence. – Now do I believe this happens? I don’t.†[4] Here Wittgenstein, whilst he says that he does not believe that miracles, as he believes they are defined, actually occur, he adds to the definition of what a miraculous event is with natural theology. Wittgenstein does not deny the possibility for them to be real, only that he is yet to be â€Å"impressed† by an event, as he does not find reports of such events enough to believe in them. The operations of creatures are often called miraculous, particularly when the scale of the event is massive, for example, the smallest of atoms have been seen to produce the hugest explosions. However, whether these are miracles or not is something to be debated. Certainly, when such events occur that goes against what is considered the normal flow of life, it is curious enough for one to refer to it as a miraculous event. However, this alone does not make such an event a miracle within natural theology. This is something that theologians, when writing about miracles, often draw their attention to first. Hesse writes that such events, which violate the laws of the natural order, but do not contain the same meaningfulness as what theists might define as miracles, are â€Å"the pointless demonstrations of a wonder-worker or magician†[5]. However, Hesse does not go any further with this classification, stating that such miracles contain qualities which also put them in the category of coincidence, or of divine purpose. The role of a miracle is to draw people to God, or to reveal his being in one form or another to mankind, and if that is so then something seemingly miraculous may be just coincidence. C.S. Lewis describes miracles as â€Å"an interference with nature by supernatural power†[6]. By this Lewis means that it could be nature itself performing these events, or it could be a divine being, â€Å"interfering† with the natural order. When Lewis talks about nature being the interfering party, he does not mean nature as an intelligent being, but he means from the naturalist’s belief, there is nothing else but nature. From this one could then argue that miracles are just coincidence. Miracles have been used by Jesus and by his apostles after his ascension to spread Christ’s message, an example of this is the miraculous event at Pentecost: â€Å"On the day of Pentecost all the Lord’s followers were together in one place. Suddenly there was a noise from heaven like the sound of a mighty wind. It filled the house where they were meeting. Then they saw what looked like fiery tongues moving in all directions, and a tongue came and settled on each person there. The Holy Spirit took control of everyone, and they began speaking whatever languages the Spirit let them speak.†[7] This event can be called a miracle because it a purposeful act by The Holy Spirit, which enabled the apostles to talk in the different languages that they required to go out and spread their beliefs, something that is a demonstration of God’s being, as it is a revelation of his will. This event is also a demonstration of knowledge. In the event of Pentecost, we see the knowledge of language to the apostles, and as said above, an imparting of God’s intention. Michal Goodich supports this belief of the role of miracles in his book, Miracles and Wonders, in which he says: â€Å"The ultimate aim is to console and bring the faithful closer to God or to confound the nonbeliever or heretic.†[8] Goodich talks about one of the purposes of miracles here is to â€Å"bring the faithful closer to God†, which is very much a role that miracles fulfill, and this can be seen in examples from biblical passages such as the conversion of Saul, who became Paul, when God appeared to him, and he temporarily lost his sight. Paul, who was famous for his persecution of the early Christians went on to become one of the founding members of the church, and the New Testament contains some of his letters and his book â€Å"Acts of the Apostles†. This is an example of a miraculous event bringing people closer to God. It is clear that in the world, events occur that seem to be violations of the natural order. For many of these events, science has been able to explain why they happened, and for the majority of the oddities in the world they do not appear to serve any real purpose. However, there are examples in both ancient and modern times of events that, whilst they are violations of the nature order of the world, it is clear that they are not just random events, and that they were caused by a supernatural being, and they are for a purpose. The miracles worked by our Lord Jesus Christ, St. Augustine writes, are divine works which raise the human mind above visible things to understand what is divine[9]. This writing by Augustine also highlights another unique property that miracles possess, which can be difficult to find in other events, that is that miracles have a tendency to inspire change, and a renewed sense of God, even centuries after the actual event, as examples from the very earliest writing of the Bible still have said effects today. However, in today’s society with such a vast mix of belief systems and scientific explanations, it is incredibly difficult to distinguish between the wonders of nature and supernaturally inspired events. Even a brief study of any natural disaster in recent history will reveal mixes of opinions by both those directly affected by it and those who saw it through the media. For example, the recent earthquake in Haiti, where an already poverty stricken county is further devastated. Interviews shown on the media of those who suffered directly show that they believe this to be an act of God, and that it has only increased their faith and brought their families closer together. Yet there are opinions of those who have not suffered because of the event and yet question where is God in such a time, finding it hard to believe such an event of massive devastation can have positive outcomes. The grandfather of a 15 day old baby surviving 7 days buried in the rubble of her house was quoted by The Times saying, This wasnt the way Jesus wanted the baby to die. Everybody knew the baby was dead, except the Lord.[10] Overall, distinctions can be drawn between wonders of nature and operations of creatures, and miraculous events. It is said that miracles, in the traditional sense are literally violations of the laws of nature. That is, they defy what science believes is our understanding of the world. This is an a posteriori argument; our experience reveals what miracles are, as they are not something that can happen according to our knowledge of the mechanisms of the world. Richard Swinburne, in his article Violation of a Law of Nature, questions if such a term is applicable to events that seem less than ordinary: â€Å"I think that those who, like Hume, have used this or a similar expression have intended to mean by it an occurrence of a non-repeatable counter-instance to a law of nature†¦ But if we have good reason to believe that they have occurred and good reason to believe similar events would occur in similar circumstances, then undoubtedly we have good reason to believe that the formulae which we previously believed to be the laws of nature were not in fact such laws.†[11] Swinburne argues that events that are sometimes, possibly because of their outcomes or because of the number of those affected, deemed miraculous by people who have reason to believe it has religious significance, so therefore he concludes â€Å"miracles are events with a point in the overall scheme of things, and in a sense are very much regular† as Swinburne comments.[12] This points to the original issue that miracles, in comparison to the wonders of nature, depend upon personal opinions. It is clear if one believes a miracle to be a seemingly impossible event based on our experience of the laws of nature, then yes they can be distinguished from the wonders of nature, however, if one believes it to be any event, which holds religious significance, then it would be nigh impossible to distinguish miracles.