Investigating What a Miracle is and how it Indicate the Existence of God

Authors
Ehsan Simchizadeh 1
Abbas Yazdani 2
1 University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 University of Tehran
10.61186/mi.4.2.41
Abstract
Miracles have often been used as evidence for the existence of God. In this article, we attempt to answer the question of how miracles can be epistemologically justified as a proof of God's existence. In other words, can a miracle alone prove God's existence to an impartial audience, without taking into account the issues related to historical evidence and by either assuming the reliability of historical evidence or assuming direct perception? Before addressing the main question, we discuss the concept of miracle and critique David Hume's famous definition (Violation of natural law) and then present our preferred definition. Next, we provide an overview of the types of reason and argument. First, we examine the types of arguments in which the miracle may be considered as a proof of God. Second, we demonstrate the inability of the miracle to prove the existence of God as a deductive argument. Third, we propose the inference to the best explanation as the most suitable argumentative form for miracles to prove God and review its challenges. The method of this research is descriptive-analytical, which involves the study, review and analysis of concepts, propositions and arguments.
Keywords
Miracle
Violation of natural law
The existence of God
Inference to the best explanation
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Metaphysical Research
Volume 4, Issue 2 - Serial Number 8
December 2023
Pages 41-70