Miracles Are Not Violations of the Laws of Nature Because the Laws Do Not Entail Regularity

European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7 (4):37 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Some have tried to make miracles compatible with the laws of nature by re-defining them as something other than interventions. By contrast, this article argues that although miracles are divine interventions, they are not violations of the laws of nature. Miracles are also not exceptions to the laws, nor do the laws not apply to them. The laws never have exceptions; they never are violated or suspended, are probably necessary and unchangeable, and apply also to divine interventions. We need to reconsider not miracles but laws. The main claim of this article is that laws of nature do not entail regularities, and therefore that miracles do not violate the laws. We need a new theory of the laws of nature: the tendency theory.

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Miracles and Violations of Laws of Nature.Daniel Saudek - 2017 - European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 9 (1):109--123.
Against Miracles as Law-Violations: A Neo-Aristotelian Approach.Archer Joel - 2015 - European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7 (4):83--98.
Lockean Essentialism and the Possibility of Miracles.Nathan Rockwood - 2018 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 56 (2):293-310.
Newtonian Science, Miracles, and the Laws of Nature.Peter Harrison - 1995 - Journal of the History of Ideas 56 (4):531 - 553.
On Supernatural Miracles and Laws of Nature.Joseph Berkovitz - 2012 - Toronto Journal of Theology 28 (1):145-152.
Reconceiving Miracles.James E. Gilman - 1989 - Religious Studies 25 (4):477 - 487.
Miracles and the laws of nature.Robert A. Larmer - 1985 - Dialogue 24 (2):227 - 235.
Miracles.Paul Fitzgerald - 1985 - Philosophical Forum 17 (1):48 - 64.
Normative and natural laws.Stephen Mumford - 2000 - Philosophy 75 (2):265-282.
Can Kantian Laws Be Broken? Kant on Miracles.Andrew Chignell - 2014 - Res Philosophica 91 (1):103-121.
Miracles and laws of nature.Tim Mawson - 2001 - Religious Studies 37 (1):33-58.
Miracles and laws of nature.E. J. Lowe - 1987 - Religious Studies 23 (2):263-78.
David Hume and the Mysterious Shroud of Turin.Edward L. Schoen - 1991 - Religious Studies 27 (2):209 - 222.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-03-10

Downloads
3,056 (#2,261)

6 months
740 (#1,606)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Daniel von Wachter
International Academy of Philosophy In The Principality of Liechtenstein

Citations of this work

Do the Laws of Nature Entail Causal Closure? Response to Michael Esfeld.Daniel Von Wachter - 2019 - Organon F: Medzinárodný Časopis Pre Analytickú Filozofiu 26 (1):175-184.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references