Do miracles exist?

Today we live in a skeptical world. People like Richard Dawkins sneer at the idea of miracles, especially those connected with Christianity. They envision a world of the future ruled by science and logic where there is no place for superstitions and silly stories of gods performing miraculous feats. But for the Christian, miracles are crucial -- the birth , life and ministry, and death of Jesus of Nazareth is the heart of the message.

Can we today in the 21st century make a case for miracles? I believe we can. So I would like to give some reasons to believe in miracles and consider objections from skeptics.

Let's start with the existence of God. Something like 98 percent of the world believes there is a God of some type. If you are talking to one of these people, your work is pretty well done if you are defending the idea of miracles. God exists in a supernatural world, so if miracles require divine intervention, we can readily argue that such a being is capable of performing them. If you're dealing with someone who does not believe in God, there are many good ways to argue that he or she is wrong. For example, there are three major ways to prove your case -- the cosmological argument (where did the universe come from?), the design argument (where did such exquisite design come from?), the existence of morality (how did morality come from atoms and molecules alone?).

The second line of evidence for the existence of miracles involves the New Testament, source of many miraculous stories. We can make a strong case for the reliability of the four gospels If we consider the existence of so many manuscripts, their existence so close to the original documents, and affirmation from hostile, non-Christian sources.

A third reason to believe in miracles has to do with science. That may seem surprising to some who believe science and Christianity are at war. But many recent discoveries of science actually suggest the possibility of a supernatural world. For example, physicists now believe that there were 10 dimensions at the Big Bang event. So at the beginning of the universe, extra dimensions (God’s realm) were there. In addition, we now know a great deal about DNA, the building blocks of life which are information-rich. Where did this language come from? Such information must come from a language maker.

Finally, we can argue for miracles based on experience. There are so many people who have witnessed miracles. A few weeks back I spoke to thirty people or so, and I asked them if they had either witnessed a miracle or trusted someone who told them about experiencing a miracle. Nearly one-third of the people responded positively.

So what is a key objection to miracles? The one I have run into the most says that miracles do not exist because they violate natural laws. But let's consider that for one minute. Natural laws tell how things have usually happened; they do not predict the future. Consider a tennis ball that I have my hand. If I toss it up in the air, I may expect it to fall to the ground because I have seen it happen many times in the past. However, my wife may decide to grab the ball in mid air as it heads to the ground. Did she violate the law of gravity? No, she simply intervened just as God may intervene in our world.

There are other objections to miracles, but they do not seem especially strong. Some say miracles must not exist because most of the time they do not happen, so we are correct to be highly suspicious whenever a miracle is claimed. However, that is circular reasoning. Truth is not decided by a majority. Secondly, some say miracles are anti-science since science deals with what you can see, hear, etc. But that's not true; miracles are not anti-science. They are beyond science. That's why they're called "supernatural." There are others who argue that belief in miracles is bad because it would stop scientific research and investigation since no one could count on a rational universe. However, this is an orderly world which has natural laws dealing with regular events. Early scientists, many of whom were Christians, had faith that they could investigate the world because of its rational, orderly nature. Finally, there are those who refuse to believe in miracles simply because they have never seen one. But they are willing to believe in electrons even though they have never seen them either.

So there is a good case to be made for miracles. This blog has only been able to skim the surface. If you'd like more information, consider web sites such as str.org, equip.org, rzim.org, and answers.org. Some good books that deal with this include The Case for Faith, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Know Why You Believe, Skeptics Answered, When Skeptics Ask.