From: Dick Fischer (dickfischer@earthlink.net)
Date: Wed Sep 24 2003 - 12:27:11 EDT
Ted wrote:
>Let me take another direction to get to the same issue (I think). Suppose,
>Keith, that you and I were with the women who went to annoint Jesus' body
>that Sunday morning. Or, that we were with the men in the "upper room" when
>Jesus appeared and showed himself to Thomas. To the best of my knowledge,
>Keith, you believe as I do, that these stories are substantively true--the
>women went to the right place and Jesus was gone, the men did come to their
>senses and recognized Jesus actually standing in their midst.
>
>If we'd been there and experienced these things with them, would we with
>our present understanding of "science" conclude that we had seen a miracle?
I think we can draw a line of distinction between intelligent design and
miracles in the Bible. Five features stand out that appear to be common in
Bible miracles, there may be more.
1. They were announced.
2. They were done in front of witnesses.
3. Each was performed openly.
4. Each was performed for a specific purpose.
5. They had a 100% success rate.
By contrast, nothing is said in Scripture about life processes being
subject to sporadic, miraculous interventions. There are no eye
witnesses. ID mandates countless divine interventions done in
secret. Humans (to name just one species) suffer from over 3,000 genetic
disorders resulting from genetic imperfections. If God was dabbling
directly in DNA, why all the mistakes?
So I don't think Bible miracles offer justification for positing that God
just does miracles all over the place, and that we have license to offer up
miracles as explanations whenever we can't figure out a path of natural
causation. There appear to be rules for Bible miracles. Although, being
God, He can do whatever He wants.
Dick Fischer - Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org
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