Miracles and Christianity

Miracles and Christianity

In society today, the word miracle is commonly used to describe

unexpected and surprising events: it was a miracle that I passed the

exam, however, when it is used in a religious sense, it generally has

the extra meaning of being "an act of god". In the Bible, one can find

many examples of miracles, but the central miraculous event is the

claim that Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion, this was

easier to accept as the truth in the past, but now modern science and

medical advances prove that dead people do not rise again, they can be

resuscitated at the point of near death, but do not come back to life

after hours of death. Therefore, can people believe in miracles in

this modern scientific age? or are miracles a belief held by the

superstitious and credulous people of the past? And if science

discovers causes for these "events" once regarded as a miracle, does

such events conclude an intervention of God?

It is acceptable to take science as the study of the physical world

and to discuss questions about God as a separate question and it is

possible to believe in both, that miracles are acts of God, even

though there are physical explanations for how they happen. Some

people look for gaps in the knowledge of scientists and if they find

any unexplained gaps that scientists do not understand, then they

believe that this specific unexplainable knowledge is work of God.

This type of thinking, where gaps in scientific information are

plugged with religious explanation is called God-of-the-gaps thinking.

Religious people who use god-of-the-gaps thinking believe that certain

areas are out of bounds to ...

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...lanations for things and eventually in this scientific

era, God will be pushed out.

In conclusion, it is possible for Christians to believe in miracles,

even though it is more difficult to have such beliefs in this modern

scientific age. The Bible does not necessarily have to be taken as

literally as it was in the past and a deistic view means that

Christians can still believe in God. Although with science advancing

all the time will God be pushed further and further out in the future?

Christians can still regard miracles as true, because there has been

no proof, religious or scientific that indeed they do occur as an act

of God, or that they can be completely explained by Science.

"To someone who believes, a miracle Is not necessary:

To someone who does not believe, a miracle is not enough."

(Equinox 1998)