This mini-lesson covers miracles — how they are defined and whether belief in them is justified.
AquinasHumeHollandSwinburneWiles
Notice the two kinds of challenge: Hume's is evidential; Wiles' is theological.
Work through each screen, answer the questions as you go and collect ⭐ stars. This is A-level: aim to hold several scholarly views in tension, not just recall one. Press Start when you are ready.
Philosophy · definitions
What is a miracle?
Definitions of a miracle shape the whole debate:
Aquinas: an event done by God that is beyond the order usually observed in nature — he lists events nature could never do, events nature could do but not in that order, and events nature could do but which God does without natural forces.
Hume: "a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity" — a violation definition.
R. F. Holland: a contingency (coincidence) miracle — a naturally explicable but remarkable coincidence interpreted religiously (his child stuck on a railway line whom the train happens to stop before).
Philosophy · Hume
Hume against belief in miracles
Hume's central principle: "a wise man proportions his belief to the evidence". Since a law of nature rests on the firm, uniform experience of humankind, the evidence against a miracle is always maximal. So:
Believe testimony only if its falsehood would be more miraculous than the eventHume: otherwise the balance of probability always favours rejecting the report
He adds four practical arguments (Part 2): witnesses have lacked good sense and education; people love wonder and gossip; miracle reports flourish among "ignorant and barbarous nations"; and the conflicting miracles of rival religions cancel one another out.
Quick check
Hume's test
?According to Hume, we should accept testimony to a miracle only if:
Philosophy · replies
Replies to Hume
Definition: critics (e.g. via Swinburne) argue a law of nature can be reformulated as holding except for non-repeatable counter-instances; a one-off exception need not "violate" it in a question-begging way.
Testimony: Swinburne's principle of testimony — we normally trust reliable witnesses, so strong testimony can outweigh Hume's presumption.
Circularity: Hume seems to make the uniformity of nature certain in advance, ruling out miracles by definition rather than examining the evidence.
Cancelling claims: do rival miracles really cancel, or might some be better attested than others?
Philosophy · Wiles
Maurice Wiles: God does not intervene
Maurice Wiles (God's Action in the World) objects to miracles on theological grounds:
If God performs selective miracles — parting a sea, turning water to wine — yet does not act to prevent Auschwitz or famine, God appears arbitrary and partial, even morally indefensible.
Wiles prefers to see the whole of creation as God's single great act; God does not intervene in particular events.
Evaluation: this preserves God's goodness and consistency, but seems to conflict with scripture and lived faith, and pushes toward deism (a non-intervening God).
Quick check
Whose objection?
?The argument that selective miracles would make God arbitrary and partial (helping some but not the victims of the Holocaust) belongs to:
Philosophy · significance
Why the debate matters
Miracles feature in the foundational claims of religions (e.g. resurrection), so denying them has doctrinal consequences.
They test the relationship between faith, evidence and the laws of nature — and between religion and science.
Different definitions (violation vs coincidence vs Aquinas' "beyond nature") lead to different verdicts, so candidates should state which definition they are assuming.
Quick check
Match the definition
?A child is trapped on a railway line and the train happens to stop just in time for natural reasons; the mother calls it a miracle. This fits which definition?
Sort it
Sort each idea by thinker
Tap a claim, then drop it under the thinker it belongs to.
Hume
Wiles
Aquinas / Holland
Match it
Match the position
Tap a description, then the thinker it belongs to.
Statement
Thinker
Recap
The big ideas to hold together
Definitions: Aquinas (beyond nature's order); Hume (violation of a law); Holland (coincidence)
Hume: Proportion belief to evidence; testimony credible only if its falsehood is more miraculous; plus four practical arguments
Replies: Swinburne's testimony and non-repeatable counter-instances; charge of circularity
Wiles: Theological objection: intervention is arbitrary; God acts once, in creation — but tends toward deism
You can now define a miracle, deploy Hume, and contrast his evidential worry with Wiles' theological one. Press Finish to see your score.
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Mini-lesson complete!
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You have worked through miracles for AQA A-level RS. 🎉
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Next: test yourself in the Evaluate stage Confidence Quiz, then lock it in with Verify.
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