Questions tagged [miracles]
A miracle is an event attributed to a supernatural agent even if there is a naturalistic explanation for the event.
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What should a rational person accept as a miracle?
I was reading through this collection of short essays from theologians, scientists and thinkers each responding to the question "Does the Universe have a purpose?" which was suggested to me in a ...
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Is watching an amputated limb regrow proof of the supernatural?
A typical challenge skeptics present when confronted with claims of alleged miracles is "why won't God Heal amputees?". But, would that do the job? Consider the following thought experiment: ...
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God's paradoxes and their implications [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is the definition of God consistent?
As many of you, I've come across a few paradoxes of all sorts, from logic to math, linguistics and so forth. Some of such involve God or, ...
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Is there anything a supernatural entity (e.g. God) could do to irrefutably prove its existence to humans? [closed]
I just posted a question in which I ask if spontaneously regrowing amputated limbs would constitute a proof of the supernatural, and several of the answers have presented interesting objections. This ...
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How does the success of science offer an objection to religious miracles?
I see today many newspaper columnists etc. say that atheism is a faith as much as any religious one. But surely (I say to myself) the success of science makes any religious claim about a supposed ...
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What is a miracle, and why should it influence our metaphysical beliefs?
There's a question on this site regarding what a rational person should accept as a miracle, but the question and its answers seem to take the definition and categorization (as well as consequence) of ...
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Are miracles compatible with our belief in empirical predictions?
I read the SEP entry on miracles a while ago and plan to take a shot at Hume's Of Miracles soon.
Before I get started - I cannot understand how miracles even make sense. Here's my thinking so far:
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Can a zero prior probability for some theories be justified?
Let us assume the case of psychics and call the hypothesis of a “psychic explanation” H. Bayesian theory tells you to never assign a prior of zero. This is because if P(H) = 0, then no amount of ...
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Does quantum mechanics make miracles merely coincidences?
Part of the reason events like Moses parting the Red Sea or a person tunneling through a wall is considered miraculous is because this is considered a violation of a law of nature.
But doesn’t the ...
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Can we assign probabilities to God and is the argument from improbability from Dawkins valid?
Dawkins essentially argues that if one observes some event that seems to be designed because it seems very improbable to have occurred, positing God as a hypothesis doesn't make sense, since God is ...
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Is Hume's famous quote on miracles equivalent to Sagan's extraordinary claim principle?
Hume said
"That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the
testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more
miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavours to ...
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Bayes and unknown probabilites: is this reasoning from the failure of explanation a fallacy?
Bayesian probability is an interpretation of the concept of
probability, in which, instead of frequency or propensity of some
phenomenon, probability is interpreted as reasonable expectation
...