Believing in Miracles
An important stage in this course of RE is that of the belief in God.
The belief in God has many different aspects to learn, one of which is
the belief in miracles and how miracles lead us to believe that God
exists.
This essay will look at the two sides of believing in miracles. On one
side of the debate is that of why miracles lead us to believe in God?
And to contradict this point of view will be the problem of believing
in miracles.
A miracle is defined as something wonderful and good that happens,
especially something believed to have a supernatural or unexplainable
cause. So when a miracle does occur then people are astonished and
amazed. This leads us to the first stage of the essay which is one of
the two points of view. This is the reasons for why a miracle makes
people believe in God. This consists of 4 statements.
The first point states that miracles are super-natural events and
whoever witnesses them are always going to be convinced that a miracle
has occurred. For example if a friend is dying from an incurable
disease, and you pray for their well being and for them to recover. If
they suddenly do recover then people will believe a miracle has
happened and this will therefore help you to start believing in God
and that God helped with this extraordinary miracle.
This point is a very good one, expressing the idea that a miracle is
linked with God and then people start to believe in God. There are
still many more points to be added and here is another.
The second point states that a miracle could be signs from God to help
people believe in him. This statement is also a very useful one ...
... middle of paper ...
...orce anyone to
believe in miracles or visa versa (not). In this last stage of the
essay a conclusion will be written and will give my verdict on what I
believe.
I believe there is no such thing as a miracle. The main reason on
behind this view is the point which stated that most miracles can be
explained by science. Up until that point I felt that there are such
things as miracles. But this point changed my view, converting me to
believe the opposite. If science can explain miracles then miracles
are not supernatural events. Therefore if miracles are explainable
then the word miracle should not exist and a so called 'miracle' has
not occurred. This is the point that I believe in the strongest,
stronger than any other points mentioned in the essay. So, finally my
view on miracles is that I don not believe in them.
There are some literary devices or methods that can be applied in analyzing a given story that can either be short or long. Other aspects include literary devices, contrast, repetition, and anomalies (Wallek and Warren, 1956). In this task, I will use the short story, The First Day, which is written by Edward P. Jones. I will provide a summary of the story and later analyze it by identifying the devices used and how they have been applied to bring out the meaning of the story. The story is about a little girl seeing her mother as a flawed woman. The first day of school or the young girl, she found out her mother is not perfect. It’s not easy when you grew up expecting something, but after a while you find out the opposite is completely right.
In her tone, Didion remains clear, consistent, and vivid. Her choice of words remains simple as if to not alienate the readers of her essay. Her tone for the first half of the opening, primarily the first and second ...
The essay is written in a very critical style where the reader will feel like they have been wast...
The Question of God is divided into two parts. The first part, titled: “What Should We Believe” seeks to answer the first half of the questio...
The foundation of a Christian worldview is the belief in a personal God, creator and ruler of the universe. The Christian worldview views the world through God’s word, providing the framework for humanity to live by giving meaning and purpose to life. It defines who Jesus is, human nature, and how salvation is achieved. In essence it is the basis of which Christians behave, interact, interpret life and comprehend reality. A Christian worldview imparts confidence, answers to life’s problems, and hope for the future. In this paper I will discuss the essentials of a Christian worldview and an analysis of the influences, benefits, and difficulties sustaining the Christian faith.
In this essay we will be looking at one of the comments that one of
bringing the dead to life. I am going to look at two examples of each
Entering the ancient discussion about the tension between faith and reason is not an easy task. Of course, when engaging in tensions it is always important to define terms. For the sake of consistency I will refer to Oxford’s online dictionary for both the definition of faith, as well as reason. Faith is “complete trust or confidence in someone or something.” Reason is “a cause, explanation, or justification for an action or event.” These are the definitions that will be used throughout this paper. From the above definitions, the conclusion that is logically deduced is that reason precedes faith.
I believe that religion has to do with spirituality and having faith. On the other hand, magic is a practice and is sometimes used for good like healing people and bad, causing someone harm. Whether or not people believe in it is there choice but to me, one wouldn’t exist with out the other. Religion and magic are both very similar in some aspects but they differ in other ways too. Some people may argue that they are more similar than different since they rely on one another so much and sometimes religion can act as the foundation of magic.
The above is excerpt is provided to indicate the focus of the essay. The complete essay begins below:
In today’s modern western society, it has become increasingly popular to not identify with any religion, namely Christianity. The outlook that people have today on the existence of God and the role that He plays in our world has changed drastically since the Enlightenment Period. Many look solely to the concept of reason, or the phenomenon that allows human beings to use their senses to draw conclusions about the world around them, to try and understand the environment that they live in. However, there are some that look to faith, or the concept of believing in a higher power as the reason for our existence. Being that this is a fundamental issue for humanity, there have been many attempts to explain what role each concept plays. It is my belief that faith and reason are both needed to gain knowledge for three reasons: first, both concepts coexist with one another; second, each deals with separate realms of reality, and third, one without the other can lead to cases of extremism.
Pope John Paul II once said, “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth – in a word, to know himself – so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.” (Fallible Blogma) Based on this significant and powerful quote, one can infer that faith and reason are directly associated and related. It can also be implied that the combination of faith and reason allows one to seek information and knowledge about truth and God; based on various class discussions and past academic teachings, it is understood that both faith and reason are the instruments that diverse parties are supposed to use on this search for truth and God. There are many stances and viewpoints on the issues of faith and reason. Some believe that both of these ideas cannot and should not be combined; these parties deem that faith and reason must be taken as merely separate entities. However, this writer does not understand why both entities cannot be combined; both terms are so closely compatible that it would make sense to combine the two for a common task. Based on various class discussions and readings, there are many philosophers and theologians who have certain opinions regarding faith, reason and their compatibility; these philosophers include Hildegard of Bingen, Ibn Rushd, Moses Maimonides, and St. Thomas Aquinas. The following essay will examine each of the previously stated philosopher’s viewpoints on faith and reason, and will essentially try to determine whether or not faith and reason are ultimately one in the same.
the extra meaning of being "an act of god". In the Bible, one can find
Today, faith is the cornerstone of all major religious knowledge claims because there is no definitive way of...
A Christian's entire religion and faith is based on the idea of the miracle, or supernatural occurrence, of Christ's resurrection. As the question arises, are miracles possible, one must explore their individual feelings regarding the meaning of a miracle or what a miracle is. "Religious believers refer to many things as miracles: the occurrence of something they prayed for, needing something and having that need unexpectedly filled, unexpected recoveries from illnesses, unexplained events, and strange coincidences of all kinds." (Hall, 2014) Contradictory, the religion also believes in God's omniscience, which in itself could have different meanings and interpretations. However, logically and rationally, one could argue that if God is truly omniscient, the need for miracles would be eliminated because divine intervention wouldn't be necessary. If God already knows everything that is going to happen throughout a person's life, then there should be no reason to supernaturally alter the course of what is happening to that person. Therefore, one is lead to continue thinking about what or who might be the source of a miracle. Other explanations aside from God performing miracles could include the possibility of mediums on our planet with beings and events that we cannot see