There are two categories of (claimed) miracles; 'coincidence miracles' and 'violation miracles'. Coincidence miracles are when something happens that is physically possible but which is taken to be an act of God - for instance, winning the lottery or cancer going into remission after prayers for those events to come about.

Violation miracles are where a law of physics is violated - the dead come back to life or missing limbs are instantly restored.

Coincidence miracles do not provide evidence for the existence of God unless they can be shown to happen more often than we would expect by coincidence. The evidence suggests that this is not the case. Violation miracles can never be adequately observed (according to Hume), since we only know the laws of physics by observation so a claim to have witnessed a miracle is a claim to have witnessed something that has never been witnessed. It is always more likely we are mistaken in our observation. Moreover, we know that erroneous claims of miracles are made. These false claims are more common when they cannot be checked, when observation was difficult, or when there has been a long trail of hearsay. This exactly matches what we see for violation miracles, strongly suggesting that this is the only explanation for them.

There is no evidence that one religion has more success in having prayers answered than any other religion.

Examples of Miracles

One example of a miracle that has been presented is the life of Smith Wigglesworth. Wigglesworth was a preacher who was alleged to have raised the dead on a number of occasions, as well as performing other healing miracles.

A counter-argument presented was that so many people attended Wigglesworth's meetings that a few would recover - permanently or temporarily - at the meetings or soon after by coincidence or the placebo effect. Wigglesworth was unable to cure either his own kidney stones or his daughter's deafness. This seems to fall into the category of 'coincidence miracles, presented above.

The resurrections, on the other hand, would be 'violation miracles'. Although there are several sources for these claims, they differ even on basic points such as how many people were brought back to life - some say 3 or 9¹, others "more than a dozen"², 14³, 15⁴, 19⁵, 20⁶, "about 20"⁷ or 23⁸ with other biographies of Wigglesworth not mentioning resurrections at all. Names, dates and places are usually absent or vague, so these stories cannot easily be checked, with one notable exception. The best-documented claim was that he brought his wife Polly back to life. However, as she was never examined by anyone (medically qualified or otherwise) prior to her 'resurrection', this claim seems unsubstantiated. Polly died in 1913, 34 years before Wigglesworth and minutes after he had 'resurrected' her.

Suitable evidence? You mean evidence that would help convince me? How about you help *me* out. Tonight I'm going to sincerely pray for a very simple miracle. I ask you to pray as well. I know a young lady who, among more severe medical problems, has a congenital deformity of a number of her fingers. I would like us both to ask that a single one of her pinkies be straight and normal when she wakes up tomorrow. Nothing too difficult. I'm not asking for a cure of any of her major medical problems. I'll check on it and let you all know how it turns out. (it's evening here now) anhaga

Resurrection

See Personal Experience.

Current Points

how, if the supernatural is parallel to the natural world, is it supposed to intersect or interact with it? - Clive

To me the 'existence of God' argument hinges on...is it unreasonable to suppose that there is an unseen spiritual dimension. - michae1

Yes, it is unreasonable. Reason tells us that if we start believing in things for which we have no evidence, we will quite literally believe anything, and we will almost certainly be wrong. Giford

Reading List

On Miracles - C S Lewis

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - David Hume