2. CHOOSE A DEFINITION OF MIRACLE YOU MOST
AGREE WITH
“An event or effect in the physical world that
deviates from the known Laws of Nature.”
“Miracles happen not in opposition to nature
but in opposition to what we know of
nature.” – St. Augustine
“A transgression of the law of nature by a
particular volition of deity.” - Hume
3. IF YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES YOU WOULD
ADOPT ONE OF THESES VIEWS
Anti realist
You don’t believe that miracles are literally
real.
Realist
Miracles have to take place in order for it to be
meaningful.
4. SCHOLAR VIEWS ON MIRACLES
Events that don’t break the laws of nature can be
viewed as miracles – a coincidence – R.F.
Holland
Miracles can be seen to be caused by God
through human aid. In a way ordinary events
are seen as miracles through the eyes of faith.–
John Hick
Albert Einstein wrote, “There are only two ways
to live your life. One is as though nothing is a
miracle. The other is as though everything is a
miracle.”
[4]
5. RICHARD DAWKINS
All miracles are simply coincidences bound
to happen due to the 7 billion people on the
planet, therefore 7 billion opportunities for
coincidences everyday.
[5]
6. THE IMPROBABILITY PRINCIPLE: DAVID J HAND
“The Improbability Principle tells us that events which we regard
as highly improbable occur because we got things wrong. If we
can find out where we went wrong, then the improbable will
become probable.”
Five Laws : the Law of Inevitability, the Law of Truly Large
Numbers, the Law of Selection, the Law of Probability Lever and
the Law of Near Enough.
E.G. “The King James Bible was published in the year that
Shakespeare turned 46. Psalm 46 of this bible is God is Our
Refuge and Strength. The 46th word of this psalm is shake. The
46th word from the end is spear. A bizarre coincidence or
something more? As explained in The Improbability Principle,
this is just the sort of thing we should expect to see: it is
explained by the five laws constituting the improbability
principle.”
[6]
[3]
7. THE HUDSON PLANE CRASH
In January 2009 the US Airways flight 1549
crashed into the Hudson river, this day was
described as a miracle by many, the landing itself
saved the lives of everyone on-board and then the
rescue had to take place. Miraculously everyone
survived this ordeal despite all the odds against
them.
Is this an act of God? Or is it purely just a
coincidence that the day unfolded the way it did?
8. THE HUDSON PLANE CRASH CONTINUED
Dr Ray Basri was on his way back from colleting some medical
equipment on the day of the plane crash, this job was one he would
not normally do himself but it just happened that he decided to on
that day. He heard the report of the Plane crash on the radio and made
his way to the scene expecting devastation and he found the opposite.
It seems very clear to Dr. Basri why a series of coincidences led him to be
the only attending physician in a ferry terminal full of plane crash
survivors.
“Finding a miracle when I expected a tragedy… celebrating life and not
facing death… being in the right place at the right time…”
• These were the miracles reported by Dr Basri on the day of the crash.
9. THE HUDSON PLANE CRASH CONTINUED
Many articles have stated the pilot and crew did exactly what they were
trained to do...that the safety of the passengers was a product of good
training and good engineering, but does this make the event a
miracle?
The pilot is an ex-fighter pilot who is also a consultant in aircraft and
airline safety, as well as a glider pilot in his private life. The fact that he
is an expert pilot with gliding skills was most likely key, as was having
a great co-pilot.
The question is does the crash actually break any laws of nature? Yes the
landing was one in a kind but this could just be put down to the skills
of the pilot.
It was lucky that there were three ferries about at the time of the crash to
assist with the rescue , but is this miraculous or just a coincidence?
10. BIBLICAL MIRACLES
A major question that should be asked is; a the miracles in the
Bible a coincidence too?
It doesn’t matter what evidence is given to a Christian, the greatest
miracle in the Bible cannot be discounted as a coincidence. It
would be unreasonable for anyone to believe that it was by chance
that Jesus was raised from the dead. Many Christians believe the
Bible is divinely inspired so believe it to be inerrant, for this reason
the miracles in the Bible are fully truthful to them.
Many Christians believe the Bible is divinely inspired so believe it to
be inerrant, for this reason the miracles in the Bible are fully
truthful to them which would mean that to argue that they are
coincidence miracles would be wrong.
11. BIBLICAL MIRACLES
The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is one miracle
among others that is very difficult to label as a coincidence
miracle, this is because in what way is it possible that five
loaves of bread and two fish was enough to feed 5000
people?
On the other hand there are some miracles in the Bible that
could be argued to be a coincidence if the Bible is taken to be
inerrant. For example when Jesus calms the storm, this could
have just been a coincidence rather than the result of a
command.
12. REASONS WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE IN COINCIDENCE
MIRACLES
As Christians believe in God they are more likely to believe a
miracle is caused by God, when in fact it could be a
coincidence.
The definition of a miracle which is down to God doesn’t
make sense as if God is able to perform miracles why is
there evil and suffering in the world?
If God can perform miracles why do only some people get
healed – selectivity?
Things can happen by chance there doesn’t always have to
be a cause or causer
13. EXAMPLE OF A MIRACLE
R.F. Holland gives the example of a child on a railroad track
who is playing around the bend from an approaching train,
so that neither the child nor the train's engineer know of
the other's location. The child's poor mother is up the hill
from this developing tragedy, and can see both her son
and the train, but because of distance, is unable to do
anything. Suddenly, the train slows, and comes to a halt,
only a few feet from her child.
What do you think?
14. CONTINUED…
The mother thanks God for the miracle, which she never
ceases to think of as such.
Although, as she in due course learns, there was nothing
supernatural about the manner in which the brakes of the
train came to be applied. The driver had fainted, for a
reason that had nothing to do with the presence of the
child on the line, and the brakes were applied automatically
as his hand ceased to exert pressure on the control lever.
15. OTHER WORDS FOR COINCIDENCE
Accident, chance, serendipity, fate, destiny, fortuity, fortune, providence, freak,
hazard.
From our research we found that the words ‘accident’ and ‘miracle’ go hand-in-
hand quite often, usually following reports of a person being saved from an
accident due to a miracle. For example a cyclist surviving an accident, people
surviving accidental plane crash, driver surviving a car accident. Phrases such
a ‘God was looking over…’ or ‘It’s a miracle…’ were commonly found.
When researching ‘chance miracles’ we found that a common concept was; being
given a second chance and give miracles a chance. It can be argued that
indeed near death miracles give people a second chance at life, to live it to the
full.
‘fate miracles’ led us to a book written by Ari Schonbrun called “Miracles & Fate
on 78”. It is his first-hand 9/11 experience in which he explains the miracles
that allowed his to escape the building as well as his belief in fate.
[7]
16. BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Adam, J. (2001) ‘“The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events
Happen Every Day” by David J. Hand’, Washington Post, 21 February. Available at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-improbability-principlewhy-coincidences-
miracles-and-rare-events-happen-every-day-by-david-j-hand/2014/02/21/4d94c5d8-718d-11e3-
8b3f-b1666705ca3b_story.html (Accessed: 12 December 2014).
[2] Hendrickson, M. (2013) ‘Are Life’s Miracles A Major Coincidence, Or Do They Signal Much
More?’, Forbes, 14 November. Available at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhendrickson/2013/11/14/are-lives-miracles-a-major-
coincidence-or-do-they-signal-much-more/ (Accessed: 12 December 2014).
[3] Navin, J. (2014) ‘Why Coincidences, Miracles And Rare Events Happen Every Day’, Forbes, 18
February. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnnavin/2014/02/18/why-coincidences-
miracles-and-rare-events-happen-every-day/ (Accessed: 12 December 2014).
[4] Miracle or Coincidence? (no date). Miracle or Coincidence? Available at:
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/miracle_or_coincidence.html (Accessed: 12 December
2014).
[5] Miracles and Coincidences (no date). Miracles and Coincidences. Available at:
http://www.proof-of-evolution.com/miracles-and-coincidences.html (Accessed: 12 December
2014).
Just in case you want to
find out more or quote
from these sources.
17. BIBLIOGRAPHY
[6] The really unusual day would be one where nothing
unusual happens…(no date). The really unusual day would
be one where nothing unusual happens…. Available at:
http://improbability-principle.com/ (Accessed: 14
December 2014).
[7] Miracles & Fate on 78 [Kindle Edition] (no date).
Amazon.com: Miracles & Fate on 78 eBook: Ari
Schonbrun: Kindle Store. Available at:
http://www.amazon.com/Miracles-Fate-78-Ari-Schonbrun-
ebook/dp/B005LIMYDM (Accessed: 14 December 2014).
Just in case you want to
find out more or quote
from these sources.
