The Search for a Universal Miracle
Austin Eichinger
Dr. Godfrey
Philosophy of Religion
25 November 2014
The Search for a Universal Miracle
Picture this: a woman in her forties has just been diagnosed with stage IV cancer by her doctors and according to their diagnosis; the woman has no more than a month to live due to the severity of her cancer. Now ten years removed from her diagnosis, this same woman is alive and amazingly cancer free. Her survival is truly an extraordinary event and some may even categorize her feat as a miracle. But is her feat really a miracle? While her story may widely be considered a miracle, it is fairly important that a definition for a miracle be presented before any decision is made. With that being said, there is a certain degree of difficulty in assigning a universal definition for a miracle. Certain criteria and theories must be explored and understood before performing such a task. By examining the different religious and philosophical views written about miracles, in particular those of David Hume, a more universal and coherent definition of a miracle and the criteria concerning it be established.
In order to get a clearer picture of what the true definition and criteria for a miracle is, one must first identify and examine that which has already been established. The word “miracle” originates from the Latin term miraculum. This Latin term is derived from mirari, which can be translated to “to wonder”. One of the most common and general characteristics associated with a miracle is that it is an event that provokes wonder (Corner). While wonder is a vital part to most miracle definitions, other elements such as: produced by God, nature (Godfrey 125), divine intervention, religious significance, types of evidence (Godfrey 126), and perceptibility to the sense, have all been mentioned with regards to miracle definitions (Godfrey 127). In his early work, “City of God”, philosopher and theologian St. Augustine of Hippo held that a miracle is not contrary to nature, but only to our knowledge of nature; miracles are made possible by hidden potentialities in nature that are placed there by God (Corner). Augustine observed that a miracle is a product of our lack of knowledge about nature and that what we do not know in nature can be conceived, with the help of God, as a miracle. Many years later, St. Thomas Aquinas went on to give a more expanded definition based off of Augustine’s. In his expansion, Aquinas stated that he believed a miracle must go beyond the order usually observed in nature (Corner). He thought that a miracle was an event which arose from the disruption of nature’s normal routine. A similar declaration can be found within the Islamic religion but instead of using nature, they believe that a miracle is a break in God’s customary order of things (Godfrey 125). While many similarities do exist between definitions, many differences between definitions also exist. It is important to understand that the definition of a miracle may vary greatly depending upon which part of the world we are in. A part of the world that holds a theistic view may heavily favor or create a definition centered upon the existence of an omnipotent god, while a complete opposite part of the world may hold views in ontological naturalism, which would make the denial of the existence of anything beyond nature the foundation of their definition (Corner). The different schools of thought provide a clear insight to the difficulty involved with creating a universal definition for miracles.