Is It Reasonable to Believe in Miracles? (Aquinas 101)
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With respect to natural causes alone, miracles are improbable or even impossible. But with respect to God, miracles in general are probable given his intentions to work them. Those intentions are made known through time and experience of particular events. And with respect to a particular event, alleged to be a miracle, the probability is determined through a reasonable consideration of specific evidence as to the occurrence of the event, scientific evaluation of the explanation of the event, and theological reflection on the significance of all the findings. Like other matters, an open mind follows the whole body of evidence wherever it may lead.
Is It Reasonable to Believe in Miracles? (Aquinas 101) - Fr. James Brent, O.P.
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Life is a miracle, everything around us is a miracle, the fact that so many variables must meet perfectly in order to sustain life, to heal a wound, to grow a tree, etc. shows that everything in life is a miracle, the fact that sometimes certain things happen faster, or that more variables meet to make something happen in a quick and powerful way is just following the miraculous nature of life itself since life is given by God. Since our worldview became materialistic then the understanding of miracles must be described as "EXTRA" ordinary, as if the ordinary is not somehow pretty incredible and improbable, or described as "SUPER" natural, as if God's nature is not already omnipotent enough...
Eucharistic miracles, the life of St. Padre Pio, the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917... Miracles aren't fairy tales from the Medieval times, they are real.
Lady of zeitoun too
Miracles are gifts, given by God for His glory; not something we demand out of our own needs and will.
Well said! I’m publishing a weekly CZcams video on episodes from the life of Don Bosco, entitled ST JOHN BOSCO by JOE ZAMMIT. In this series I’m narrating events and miracles from the splendid life of Don Bosco. St John Bosco used to perform a miracle almost every day, through the intercession of Mary Help of Christians. From the lives of saints we can learn how to love God more and draw closer to him Thank you
I am a Systems Administrator and I use the analogy of an MMORPG like Evercraft or World of Warcraft as an illustration. Magical abilities are within the rules of the system. They may be hidden and difficult to access, but they are there. Miracles are more like configuration changes made by the programmer. It would be nonsensical to ask how within the rules of the game can these new features appear, like Pandaria appearing in World of Warcraft. Instead, a miracle is a change to the system itself. The world is "patched" as it were.
I like that explanation. "configuration changes"
Could this then apply to other faiths for example there are many examples of miracles in Hindu scripture . Miracles associated with the gods, eg Lord Shiva bringing his beheaded son back to life with an elephant's head, called Lord Ganesh .
(1:35) "Those things must properly be called miraculous which are done by divine power apart from the order generally followed by things". --St. Thomas Aquinas.
A kid in my class at catholic school had a younger sister who’s mother was saved by saint cardinal Newman while she was in the womb. It strengthens my faith daily
My wife became ill about 20 years ago and then died. My middle son died 7 years ago. So why did Saint Newman cure your friends mother but not my wife and son. Both of whom were very devout. My wife worked in a special care nursery with the fragile newborn at a Catholic hospital. What did your friends mother do? that made her more worthy?
Your wife and son were no less deserving of intervention if Newman had had any power to do so. Prayer has the power to make the one praying feel as though they are accomplishing something useful. Sadly, it doesn’t help the one in need.
I love every single one of your videos with a vigorous passion, sorry I keep forgetting to like every video ❤️🔥
Aquinas says that "miracles are works done by God outside the order usually observed in things." (SCG, bk. 3, c. 101)
There are 3 degrees of miracles.
In the highest degree, is when God achieves something that nature can never achieve.
In the second degree, is when God does something that nature can do, but in a different order.
In the thrid degree, God enacts an operation of nature, however, without the operation of the natural principles.
Please do a video on Eucharistic miracles.
Yes! I would like to see a video on that. I like Eucharistic miracles.
Also it's important to differentiate the quod modum et quod substantiam supernatural happenings, sometimes you see things that are natural but supernatural connected, and others you see supernatural things by itself
What I needed yesterday
Great video! I believe in the miracles (the Eucharistic Miracles in particular were the catalyst for my conversion), but I would like to see a discussion on the topic of free will and miracles. After all, the common belief is that God does not interfere with the consequences of sin in the world because he puts our free will and our choice to sin above interference with our self-destructiveness. Why, then, would God sometimes interfere, in the case of miracles? This is a pondering I've had for quite a while and I think it would make a great starting point for an important discussion.
Wonderful video!
Cheers, thanks for watching! May the Lord bless you!
Nice!
Hi Fr.! 🤍🌠
I agree. I'm into religious miracles. I'm mainly into Marian apparitions, weeping statues, Eucharistic Minister and after life visitations. But all because we don't know what something is and that it doesn't have a scientific explanation doesn't necessarily mean that it is Divine or supernatural. For how do we know that some bizarre phenomenon will be explained as science advances in the future? Something that was considered a miracle back in ancient and medieval times can now be explained today by science. So, how do we know? This all goes into the "God of the Gaps" idea. However, I don't discredit anything or deny miracles, God and the supernatural. For I am a believer, and who knows. Anything is possible 🙏
My videos may help you. I’m publishing a weekly CZcams video on episodes from the life of Don Bosco, entitled ST JOHN BOSCO by JOE ZAMMIT. In this series I’m narrating events and miracles from the splendid life of Don Bosco. St John Bosco used to perform a miracle almost every day, through the intercession of Mary Help of Christians. From the lives of saints we can learn how to love God more and draw closer to him Thank you
Please make a video on aeviternity!
God help me from my doubts due to life's pain real and imaginary that wears my soul.
Why would anyone need to pray to God to be healed of their illness?. Why would God require sick people to say a few words in order to be healed?. If they deserved to be healed after praying they deserved it before praying too. Even more, if they deserved to be healed they didn't deserve to be sick in the first place. Why then would God allow them to be sick in the first place?.
To those who believe no words a needed,to those that don't believe no words are in off
Our expert on GOD and novice to personal human evil!
does this apply to Miracles that other faiths claim to have happened?
Did Aquinas say anything about how to pray for a miracle?
Counerexample The miracle is right in front of you. It is a miracle that grown up adults can actually believe any of this nonsense. THAT´S a miracle.
Of course! Jesus performed lots of different Miracles and His Apostles did too and Miracles happen every minute of our lives. Not everyone is aware of them, because they may not happen when expected, but later.
What about this: you pray for nine days and God eventually changes his mind because of your righteousness, and the result after nine days prayer we call as a miracle, however, if you tell me that was Gods plan from the very beginning, then there is no miracle in that case, since everything is in his hand and was planed from the beginning.
How would you reject that argument?
@@abcdefg12345277 thank you, but what i cannot understand is this: 1. God has decided everything from the beginning, in that case it is the man that is being surprised by the event, so it is not a miracle, and 2. If, say through a prayer, the desirable outcome happened, then God changed his mind that is through the prayer, etc. So, by keeping in mind the two options, you see that the definition of what a miracle is, is very blurry, in other words, why do we have to pray if everything has been decided already, unless it was not to change some of Gods predestined events?
@@d.o.7784 We don't really have to pray on the sense than it is necessary, for God already knows what you want before you do. If He wanted, He could do the miracle even with no prayer.
In pratice, that is not what He wants. Just like He could had miraculously writed the Summa with no Aquinas help or had healed people with no St. Padre Pio help but He did use these saints, God wants us to pray before making the miracles. Why? I don't know exacly, i suppose than that way He get certains goods He wanted creation to have. He also did not need to create and here we are 😂
Think of all the persons whose faith is strenghted by a miracle they prayed for or the unbelievers who convert because of trying to pray and getting the miracle, the saints who started their religious life thanks to promises tied to a miracle etc. It seems easy to get that God has His reasons to have secundary causes on the effects He do, even if we can't really grasp the reasons.
One can say that this does not look very efficient, but when you are omnipotent maybe you don't need to worry about that 😂
God does not change His mind. I’d suggest looking into the theology of prayer- particularity petitionary prayer.
Scripture covers this. There is no need to ponder this. Remember the first miracle? Plus, did miracles occur while Jesus was educating mankind?
When speaking of antecedent probability amplitude. . Why is the elephant in the room being ignored? . . God, by it's very nature is atemporal. . Rendering the notion of probability moot
Not gonna lie, those traditional garments are aesthetic
This video could be five seconds long.
“Is it reasonable to believe in miracles?”
“Yes.”
You could also say, I can see that's a miracle.or you're breathing and so am I. Life is a miracle.on a natural level I see many miraculous things.
Amen
Most people need explanations.
All you have to have is a critical-thinking mind and be skeptical of claims. That is all. But it is ok to believe or acknowledge the miraculous.
Miracles happen! But, since you bring up the ignorance of how nature works, I must object to Father Michael McGiveny's process. It took a 150 years after his death for a claim of a miracle from an Irish-American family from his home state. Their claim sounds specious to me. Father McGiveny's nomination seems to be a political move since he founded the Knights of Columbus.
The Meat. Miracles happen. It is a miracle that the Catholic church still has customers while the customers know outright that the priests commit child rape and are pedophiles and that the bishops cover it up and just move the priest to another parish.
@@teenherofilms The priesthood is the profession statistically least likely to do abuse or crime of any kind. And statistically the most likely to do good of any kind. Miraculous indeed.
“Anyone can travel to…”
COVID-19: *think again padre*
Its not covid, its crazy governments.
@@zenuno6936 Yep, they need to repent of that disgusting evil. The church needs to grow some balls too and speak up about it.
Try praying that a severed body part will reattach without human intervention; a least buying a lottery ticket gives one an extremely remote chance of winning. No amount of praying gives any chance of the either of the aforementioned happening. Prayer does have this benefit, it gives the praying person something to do before disappointment arrives.
The fast answer is that I don´t believe in miracles for the same reason you don´t go out hunting unicorns.
Unicorns are about the what, miracles are about the how.
For example, recovering vision (the what) may or may not be a miracle, depending on the agency (divine power or human surgery; the how).
@@elederiruzkin8835 Well there is no evidence for divine power
@@teenherofilms Is it a lack on the part of the object of evidence (divine power) or on the part of the subject asking for evidence? A book may be quite impenetrable for the illiterate...
@@elederiruzkin8835 That´s just the point. There is no evidence for any divine power. I like the following example: there was a debate between atheist Richard Dawkins and the archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell. The moderator asked Pell "why would God choose to reveal himself to a small group of Jews in a tiny part of the world thousands of years ago and absolutely nothing since?"
@@teenherofilms Sorry for the lengthy response and thank you in advance for your patience.
The evidence for fire is flames and smoke and heat. The evidence for divine power acting in the natural realm (of human affairs) is called "theophany", literally "manifestation of God"? What are then the particular features that characterise certain manifestation as divine?
Richard Dawkins was once asked: "What would persuade you to believe in God?"
After some lucubration, he answered: "Well, I am starting to think nothing would, which in a way goes against the grain because I’ve always paid lip service to the view that a scientist should change his mind when evidence is forthcoming. The trouble is I can’t think what that evidence would look like."
(See “Richard Dawkins in conversation with Peter Boghossian,” relevant section 12:30-15:27, czcams.com/video/RoQurwEZmmQ/video.html.)
For Dawkins the trouble would be not so much the difficulty to present evidence for divine power, if that would be the case, as the difficulty to recognise such evidence as evidence for it in that case. An so we have reach to the level of meta-evidence. In other words, what makes an evidence for X an evidence for X?
So, again, the burden is not just on the side of the object (the evidence) but also on the side of the subject (who has to positively and reasonably settle what qualifies for him as evidence).
Now, what if God can use virtually _whatever_ , either supernatural or natural, even evil!, as an evidence of Himself? Then, on what basis are we going to accept something in particular as a positive evidence of divine power and not of something else? More so if we consider that not everything supernatural is necessarily divine, in principle. That's another difficulty.
Fortunately enough, there are several Biblical passages (e. g., Matthew 16, John 10, 1 Samuel 3, etc.) and commentaries on them that deal with this question for everyone interested in doing his/her own research and meditation. Googling "how do I recognise God?" may be a source for inspiration.
Now, as for the question to Pell: "Why would God choose to reveal himself to a small group of Jews in a tiny part of the world thousands of years ago and absolutely nothing since?"
What if God has never ceased to reveal Himself for "those who have eyes to see and ears to hear"? The question would then be, "why am I not one of them?"
Just for the sake of argument, consider that even when God manifested Himself in the flesh to a small group of Jews in a tiny part of the world thousands of years ago, not everybody was able (or willing?) to recognise Him, in spite of being in His very presence or living with Him. And those who did recognise Him, did it by the grace of God: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16:17 ESV).
God reveals Himself to the same extent that one wants to know Him: from the most impersonal natural-theological/philosophical knowledge to the most personal intimacy of divine love (charity) He is said to essentially be. You choose.
I imagine one issue is that St Paul in the Epistles spoke of a Jesus who lived and died in a celestial arena. Ie, there was no human resurrection. The reclamation was the redacted in the latter Gospels as occurring in a historical setting. Thus, if St Paul doesn’t acknowledge any miracles why image they occur at all. They don’t. You don’t even understand your own scriptures.
Oh my wife Rosemary because ill around 20 years ago. Despite the best medical care she died. A few years ago my sweet middle son died. My dearest friend is very ill at present and she expects to die within weeks.
Are you really suggesting a loving god picks and chooses who must live or die for the own aggrandisement.
I feel sad that you have such a wicked God.
God never causes miracles.