The Case for Faith, Objection #2: Since Miracles Contradict Science, They Cannot be True

Objection #2: Since Miracles Contradict Science, They Cannot be True

It is not just a provocative rumour that God has acted in history, but a fact worthy of our intellectual conviction. The miracles of Christianity are not an embarrassment to the Christian worldview. Rather, they are a testimony to the compassion of God for human beings benighted (blinded) by sin and circumstance. Gary Habermas, Christian

Thoughts to ponder about:
1) Do you believe in the virgin birth?
2) Jesus and Peter walking on water?
3) Resurrection of Jesus Christ?

If you didn’t believe, then why did you become a Christian?
You don’t need to have all your questions answered to come to faith. “The weight of the evidence seems to show this is true, so even though I don’t have answers to all my questions, I’m going to believe and hope for answers in the long run.” Pg. 83

MIRACLES VERSUS SCIENCE
William Lane Craig’s definition of a miracle:
A miracle is an event which is not producible by the natural causes that are operative at the time and place that event occurs. Pg. 84

Does miracle contradict (oppose, go against) science?

William Lane Craig’s opinion:
- Miracles lies outside of science
- Science: natural, repeatable, governed by law

Natural law has implicit ceteris paribus conditions- natural law assume that no other natural or supernatural factors are interfering with the operation that the law describes.

Illustration of the law of gravity
- Pg. 85-86
- Natural law: exist on its own (idealized condition)
- Oxygen + Potassium = Combustion [but this does not happen in our body]
- Apple falls on the ground BUT you catch it

o Does this go against the natural law?
- Miracles: does not go against natural law, but intervention happens and overrides the natural causes of the circumstances


Do you believe in miracles?


REAL ACTS OF GOD
Scientists would someday understand the workings of the universe and thus vanquish the need for miraculous explanation. (pg.86) Richard Dawkin
- Pg.87
- Some superstitious people use miracles as an excuse for ignorance and sort of punit to God every time they can’t explain something.
- Science will squeeze out that kind of simplistic thinking
- Miracles: supernatural intervening in the process (real act of God) won’t be squeezed out by advance science, because they are not based on an appeal to ignorance
- They’re substantiated by the weight of the scientific and historical evidence
Probability Theorists (pg.89-90)
- In order to make a good judgement, you must weigh the improbability of the event’s occurring against the probability that the evidence would be just as it is if the event had not taken place (both sides of the coin)
- Don’t be quick to exclude miracles from happening
- Miracles found in the Bible shows that God is over nature

THE MIRACLES OF JESUS
If God really exists, then in what sense is it improbable that He would raise Jesus from the dead?
Jesus Himself is a miracle! (pg. 94-95)
- All the miracles and event were found in all the gospel sources. (compared to Mormon, pg. 97)
- If you believe God exists, then there’s no good reason to be sceptical about these events.
- Jesus miracles also involved lots of people (substantial truth)
- Resurrection: greatest miracle (nowhere near enough time for legend to have developed and wiped out a solid core of historical truth) (diff. From Muslim, pg.96)

The Christian fellowship was convinced that Jesus had done miracles and they told many stories of miracles of Him. Most of these stories contained in the gospels and legendary or are at least dressed up with legend. But, there can be no doubt that Jesus did such deeds, which were, in His and His contemporaries’ understanding, miracles; that is to say, events that were the result of supernatural divine causality. Doubtless He healed the sick and cast out demons.
Rudolf Bultmann, New Testament critics

THE HEART OF THE MATTER: CASE FOR GOD AND CHRISTIANITY
1) Philosophically: God Makes Sense of the Universe’s Origin (pg.104)
- Big Bang Theory: universe came from nothing and by nothing
- Something coming from nothing makes no sense.
- Whatever begins to exist must have a cause
- We were created by God from nothing (dust)

2) Scientifically: God Makes Sense of the Universe’s Complexity (pg.105-106)
- Scientifically speaking, it’s far more probable for a life-prohibiting universe to exist than a life-sustaining one
- God is the Intelligent Designer, God made sense of the universe

3) Ethically: God Makes Sense of Objective Moral Values (pg.109)
- If God does not exist, then objective moral values do not exist
- If there is no God, then morality is just a mater of personal taste, moral values are merely the products of socio-biological evolution

4) Historically: God Makes Sense of the Resurrection (pg.111-114)
- Jesus resurrection is not legendary (within 5 years, Paul included that in his 1st letter to the Corinth)
- Early independent attestation: Jesus tomb was found empty, many experienced Jesus after he resurrected
- No naturalistic explanation but the best explanation is that God raised Jesus from the dead

5) Experimentally: God Can Immediately Be Experienced (pg.114-115)
- “properly basic belief”
- You cannot prove but it’s grounded in our experience Conclusion: Christian faith is not merely believing that there is a God. It is believing that there is a God no matter what the evidence on the question may be. ‘Have faith,’ in the Christian sense, means, ‘make yourself believe that there is a God without regard to evidence.’ Richard Robinson, philosopher