Are Miracles Possible?

Since the days of David Hume and in recent history philosophers such as Anthony Flew, the debate about the possibility of miracles has been alive and well. In his book Miracles, C.S. Lewis speaks to the plausibility of such a supernatural event. He divides everything into two camps: the naturalist and the super naturalist. The foundation one sets forth in the beginning will always determine the outcome in its fruition. So, if one is a naturalist, which basically says there is no transcendence beyond the present system, then the plausibility of miracles seems very absurd and would logically follow if this is the position one is to hold. If one is a super naturalist, believing there is something outside the system at work, then miracles are very plausible. One must first decide which camp to give allegiance to. Now to give one’s allegiance to naturalism does not mean that miracles do not exist because they either do or do not, but what does matter is the ability of the worldview to explain such events. So, if a person takes the naturalist point of view, then when an event occurs that would hold the traits of being a miracle then one has to explain these events through a naturalist’s worldview. This is where the rub begins because there is no room for miracles in naturalism. So, are miracles plausible and how can they best be explained? There are three main contingencies that shall be discussed, there could be more but only three will be addressed here, to whether a miracle is plausible. The three are as follows: the purpose of a miracle, the descriptions of the laws of nature, and the possibility of God’s existence.

The first is the purpose of miracles. This brings us to question what miracles are or tend to be. Miracles are events that seem to overrule the laws of nature for a particular reason of some sort. What is the purpose of miracles? Well, according to the Scriptures God is sending a message. When you look at the miracles recorded in Scripture God is showing us a sign that relates to Him. God is not in the business of just doing miracles because He has the power. That would be closely related to a pride issue which God is absent of pride. So when a miracle occurs God is sending a message to the recipients to relate some meaning into their existence. For instance, when Jesus turned the water into wine it was recorded as His first sign of showing those around Him that He was Yahweh incarnate. When Christ calmed the storm and told His disciples not to fear, the message was not to be afraid because they were with God Himself who is in complete control. The greatest miracle of all came in the form of Christ’s resurrection. This miracle gives us the greatest message of hope because it tackled and overcame mankind’s greatest fear, death itself. In light of such a miracle this message of God gives great meaning to life and how to live life, and the hope beyond it.

The second is the descriptions of the laws of nature. In recent days Stephen Hawking, one of the great scientific minds of recent history, has concluded in his book The Grand Design there is no reason to believe in a Creator because Hawking deduces that the universe was made because of the law of gravity. Dr. John Lennox of Oxford University stated in his response to Hawking that the laws of gravity could not create anything because they are within the system that was created. He posits that there must be something outside of the system to be a creator. This brings us to Lewis’s point that laws of nature are only descriptions and not causes within themselves. When Sir Isaac Newton identified the law of gravity, he did so because he previously believed in a law giver, God Himself. This began the search for laws in nature which are only identifiers of repeated events that seem to take place under similar conditions. For instance, the reason the resurrection is classified as a miracle is because the norm in life is that dead people do not come back to life. They tend to stay dead. This was a break into the repeated law of nature concerning the patterns of death. So how are miracles plausible?

This forces the skeptic to deal with the question of God’s existence. The only way a miracle could be plausible within the system is if there is something outside the system that is greater than the system itself. According to the Christian worldview this is exactly the case. God created the universe with particular regularities which are identified to be the laws of nature. So, if God created a system with regularity, and He Himself is greater than the system, then it is plausible that He could suspend or extend these regulatory laws of nature at any given time. This means that God could feed a new event into the system for a particular purpose. Lewis puts it something like this that if someone were to put two pounds into a Chester drawer tonight and also tomorrow night that on the third morning it would follow that they would have four pounds. If they only found one pound, then they could conclude the laws of arithmetic were not broken but the laws of England. They could be assured that someone had stuck their hand into the event, which prevented the normal regularity. That is precisely what a miracle is. It is when God sticks His hand into the regulatory system of creation and alters it to create a new event.

So it all comes down to the existence of a transcendent being known as God. There are four major arguments for God’s existence which are the cosmological, ontological, teleological and the moral arguments. If one concludes the possibility of God’s existence then it would follow that miracles are plausible. If miracles are plausible then they are possible, and the question must be asked what the message is and meaning behind such an extraordinary event. According to the Christian, God has granted mankind the greatest miracle of all by Himself becoming a man, paying for the sins of humanity, defeating the grips of death so that all of humanity might experience His great love. This shows many miracles tied into one great meaning that God loves mankind.