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The importance of miracles
Critically examine the concept of miracle
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Meaning of the Term Miracle
The term miracle means according to the Chambers Oxford Dictionary, ‘a
supernatural event: hyperbolically, a marvel, a wonder: a miracle
play.’ It is something extraordinary and is thought to be when God
does something to break all the normal rules and laws of nature.
Miracles generally do not seem to happen much nowadays as it is more
associated with Jesus’ time than ours. Some people e.g. Newspaper
journalists and magazine editors use the term ‘miracle’ in the wrong
sense. They can use it from something like “It is a miracle that he
got out alive” when someone has been in danger of some sort or “This
product can work miracles” trying to promote some cream or new
product. A book on Mark’s Gospel called Synoptic Gospels by R. Cooper
says ‘A miracle is simply an event which is not explicable in any
normal way’. Scientists may think of a ‘miracle’ as an extraordinary
event which have no scientific explanation (events that they can not
work out why they happen). People in Mark’s Gospel might also think
that some the events that happened when Jesus was around at that time
could be classed as a miracle when we would not see them as one
because we now have the knowledge to know the power of medicines and
other illnesses that they never knew about.
A.) (ii) Describe how Jesus was presented as a worker of miracles
giving examples from Mark’s gospel.
Jesus is shown in Marks’s Gospel to us as a worker of miracles through
three different forms. Mark presents Jesus as the son of God. The
miracles can be divided into healing and exorcism-nature-life/death.
Here is an example of a healing miracle from Mark’s gospel. It takes
place in Capernaum on the Sabbath. The person being healed is a Jew.
Jesus heals the man directly (meaning that he was there right next to
the man) not from a distance. At the time he is teaching in a
synagogue. Then a man with an unclean spirit comes in and cries “What
In the Miracle speech, the coach is using pathos to get to the player’s heart and wanted them to win by saying : “ Tonight, we are the greatest team in the world. You were born to be hockey players--every one of you, and you were meant to be here tonight” . He puts pressure on them for being the best team that they can be, for them to shut down the Soviet’s team. He speaked aggressive so the players would want to push their capability of playing, and for the players to put in their head that they’re the best so that they won’t give up in the game. Moreover, the coach want to put the team in the situation that they have to beat the Soviet’s team by using pathos when he said: “ This is your time. Their time is done. It’s over. I’m sick and tired
... Egyptians close behind. As the bible explains the miracle takes place the Red Sea splits leading the Israelite’s to freedom. As the Egyptians were crossing the sea it closed it’s gates and let them drown with in the waters of the sea. In justifying whether Hume would discredit this miracle he would definitely see how one may say it is a miracle, but again would have a hard time validating the testimony of the miracle. Again we see the pattern of the fact that there is no one to testify for the event. We can only view this as a truthful experience through our belief in God and the bible. It is what we are taught to believe through religious texts, and our house of worship. It is the individuals perception of reality and what he or she believes to be a valid event. In conclusion, a miracle is actually based on an individuals own perception of past and present experiences. The belief in a miraculous event tends to have no real evidence through mans hope, it tends to be something better through our expectations. I can not debate the belief of a miracle. There is no right or wrong belief. It is viewed through our own individual perception and faith, our existence and sense of reality.
Josephus, a non-Christian contemporary writer of the apostles, attests that, ‘at that time there was a wise man named Jesus, a teacher, who performed wonderful works among the Jews and Gentiles.’ (Powell/Attridge:P.492). The Jewish Talmud, C5thC.E., attributes Jesus' miracles to sorcery. Opponents of the Gospels do not deny Jesus performed miracles, they just give different explanations. (Twelftree:P.50).
The central claim that Hume is trying to make is that no testimony given by a person can establish a miracle. Hume explains how a miracle may exist, “Unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous” (Enquiry X.1, p. 77). Hume believes that the only way a miracle may occur is if the falsehood of the testimony would be a greater miracle, which is not possible to occur. Human testimony has no real connection with any miraculous event. Experience is what provides the ability for humans to believe in something. Experience provides truth, remembrance, and dismisses false statements when they are presented. The only way a miracle can exist is if the testimony given by the person could actually establish a miracle, which to Hume is not probable.
The No-Miracles Argument maintains that the success of scientific theories requires an explanation, and that the best explanation for these theories is that they are true, not miraculous. If anti-realists are correct in their assumptions, then all of the achievements and predictions made by scientists in the observable world based on theories about the unobservable world would be an “extraordinary coincidence.” As such, the no miracles argument allows the realist to argue that unobservable entities do exist and scientific theories are empirically successful in describing reality. If this weren’t the case, all advances and predictions made by science would be nothing short of miraculous. This theory is meant to explain why so many scientific theories are empirically successful.
Holzer, Harold (2004). Heroes of History Lecture: Abraham Lincoln, American Hero. National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved from We the People.gov.
Miracles are fore-facts of the future done on a small scale. There had been no appearance of God to anyone for more than four hundred years, so people probably thought the age of miracles was long gone. The people would not have accepted Moses as God’s spokesperson without some kind of proof. The miracle-plagues were just that. They are significant because of the number of them that were brought forth. There were ten. The number ten is significant to completeness. God said that he would execute judgment against all of the false gods of Egypt, and each plague was said to be directed toward a particular heavenly deity. So the ten plagues reveal the full wrath of God’s judgment on Egypt. The first nine Plagues were just God proving that he was more powerful than the Egyptian gods. They were simply tricks in comparison to the final one. The tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, was the most powerful of all. This final plague brought death to all Egyptian homes, even the home of the beloved pharaoh, and ensured Israel’s release from slavery. After this calamity, pharaoh had no choice but grant Israel their demands and he even pleaded for blessings from them. This plague destroyed idolatry and showed that life and death are in the hands of God.
God uses Jesus to help the population in all different ways. Jesus helps the blind see, he clothes the poor, and overall, can cure anyone who is worthy. God shows his presence through Jesus so the people of earth have someone to follow. Even today we see God work his wonders even without the presence of Jesus. God shows miracles which no one would believe if they were not reality. God’s presence in the world is mediated through nature and reality as seen in the readings of The Gospel of Matthew and The Book of Exodus.
A miracle is often defined as being a supernatural act or an act of God. Sometimes it is more specifically and negatively defined as a violation of a natural law. In philosophy class we discussed different philosophers views on miracles. David Hume’s critique of miracles included the criterion that for something to be deemed a miracle, there must be substantial group of credible witness to attest to its occurrence. Hume believes miracles do not exist. If something of the supernatural does happen it is not really supernatural it is part of nature, we just don not experience it often so we consider it to be supernatural or a miracle. Kant believes miracles have no role to play except in the rise and spread of a religion. Kant says miracles have no role to play in validating a religion since the truth of religion can be supplied by reason alone. The difference between Kant and Hume is that Kant resists the idea that miracles are a violation of the laws of nature and considers them to be outside of the laws of nature.
A majority of Mark deals with Christ’s travels throughout the area around the Sea of Galilee and the various miracles he performed during that time. Most of these involved healing those with leprosy or other plagues, exorcising demons, or curing the blind/deaf/dumb. The stories of Christ feeding thousands with but a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish are also told, as is the story of Jesus walking on water. All of the miracles are described well, without getting too wordy. The style of writing also makes them believable.
Day 1: Define heroism and list the criteria that you would use to grant Carnegie awards. Is your list consistent with the text's definition of prosocial behavior? I think people often get acts of heroism and acts of bravery mixed up. I think an act of heroism is defined as someone risking their life, and limbs to save another person. Furthermore, I think that acts of heroism cannot be done for selfish reasons, while acts of bravery can. For instance, a soldier saves a fellow soldiers life even though he receives fatal wounds for doing so is considered an act of heroism. While a soldier who is hoping to get a medal risks his life, but also endangers fellow soldiers is an act of bravery, because they are looking for something in return, and it is not an instinctual behavior. My definition of heroism is consistent to prosocial behavior.
In the gospels of Mark and John, both showed a vivid portrait of Jesus in their writing. Mark’s gospel describes much more of Jesus' life, miracles, and parables as suffering servant. However, John’s gospel was written to convince people to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Nonetheless, both John and Mark present many of the crucial events of Jesus' life, including his trial, crucifixion, and resurrection.
The word hero means a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. For some people the word hero might mean a superhero. For example Batman,Spiderman,and Captain America. That is not what the word hero means it means a person who helps people and is a good person and tells others to do good things and not the bad. In that case my hero would be my dad because he courage’s me to do good things and do good in school, he wants me to be successful and life he pushes me to get good grades.
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to the Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14). Jesus reiterates that the people of God should strive to bring glory through their actions to God so that their light shines and all the nations can be blessed. We see in Matthew that Jesus preforms many miracles, and is able to bless many people through them. “And in his name the Gentiles will hope” (Matthew 12:21). This verse, along with the ones before it, from the prophet Isaiah, explain why Jesus healed the crippled man; Jesus’s miracle will bring hope to the Gentiles. This hope to the Gentiles brings God to all nations, as part of the global restoration
The miracles of Jesus are the supernatural deeds attributed to Jesus in Christian text. They were categorized into four groups; cures, exorcisms, resurrection of the dead, and control over nature by Henrik Van der Loos. Many Christians and Muslims believe the miracles are real historical events. Liberal Christians consider these stories to be figurative. Modern scholars tend to be skeptical about miracles. In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus refuses to give a miraculous sign to prove his authority. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is said to have performed seven miraculous signs that characterized his ministry.