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Friday, May 14, 2021

Are Miracles Impossible?

A common objection to the possibility of miracles is that such prodigies as, for example, a man rising from the dead would entail a series of violations of the laws of nature, specifically the conservation laws, and that, as David Hume put it, it's been the "uniform experience" of mankind that nature's laws suffer no such violations.

Of course, as C.S. Lewis observes in his book Miracles we can only know that nature's laws have never been "violated" if we also know that every report of a miracle is false, but we can only know that every report is false if we also know that miracles are impossible, and we can only know that miracles are impossible if we also know that God doesn't exist. And how can we know such a thing as that?

Philosopher Alvin Plantinga explains in this 11 minute video why, even if the laws of nature were inviolable - even for God - it's a mistake to think that a miracle violates them. Whether the laws are Newtonian or quantum mechanical the occurrence of a miracle is not ruled out by them:
As noted above, if it's possible that God exists then it's possible that God acts in the world and that miracles occur, and since it's manifestly possible that God exists any report of a miracle must be assessed on the evidence for it and not on the apriori assumption of atheism.