Objection 2: No miracles: Science has disproved the supernatural
If this was a rally or a protest march against the claims of Christianity, each of these four Objections would be carried by vociferous protestors as banners or placards
For some, the most important doubt over Christianity might be the reliability of the source material, the New Testament. For others it might be miracles, and for others the hypocrisy of ‘the church’, or a sense of their own inability to live ‘the Christian life’.
As an agnostic, all four played a part in constructing my objections to Christianity, however, once I had accepted the New Testament’s historicity and the New Testament writings as a genuine attempt to record what was seen and heard by eye-witnesses, I was confronted with the problem of miracles. I hadn’t witnessed a miraculous healing, nor had I heard of anyone who had. England seemed to be bereft of miracles. I had attended church through childhood and prayers were politely made for the sick of the parish but there was no expectation of miraculous intervention.
England seemed to be bereft of miracles
The New Testament gospels, Acts, and letters to churches present a very different sense of what is ‘normal’. Angels announce Jesus’ birth and appear in a jailbreak, and at the resurrection. Miraculous healings and deliverance of evil spirits are part and parcel of Jesus’ ministry, and this power is passed on to his disciples. Normality, as far as the New Testament is concerned matches the Lord’s Prayer: ‘May Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven’. By heaven we might think more in terms of a ‘spiritual realm’. Heaven and Earth, as far as Jesus was concerned were not as disconnected as we, especially in the West since the Enlightenment, have come to believe.
My quest to get to the truth of the matter started in an unusual setting – I was 16 and had just bought a pint in a local pub and as I walked back to where my friends were sitting (yes, we were underage), I bumped into a chair leg and spilt my dink and swore, ‘Christ!’ Once I sat down with what was left of my beer, the friend next to me said ‘Why did you say that?’
I had run into the first of many true Christian believers that I would meet. This small incident kick-started my search for the truth, and led on to a series of further conversations, reading various books, listening to sermons at the church she attended and so on.
I had two fundamental questions. Can we trust the New Testament as a genuine record of events? And what about miracles?
One of the first books I read was called Run Baby Run written by Nicky Cruz. Nicky Cruz had been a gang leader in 1950s New York who, after meeting David Wilkerson, a Pentecostal preacher, eventually walked away from the gang and placed his faith in Christ. David Wilkerson recorded his version of events in The Cross and the Switchblade. In both accounts there were examples of the miraculous, drug habits broken, healing miracles, and so on – it was as if the pages of the New Testament had come alive in New York.
everything can be explained ‘naturally’ through the random movements of atoms and molecules and the unpredictable distribution of energy i.e. no need, for the supernatural or the miraculous.
At 16 I was fascinated by Chemistry and Science in general. I was to go on to study Chemistry at University and have a career as a Chemistry teacher. I knew my way around Scientific theories and how the rise of Science from the 17th Century had convinced many that everything can be explained ‘naturally’ through the random movements of atoms and molecules and the unpredictable distribution of energy i.e. there was no room, no need, for the supernatural or the miraculous. Atheistic chemical determinism was twinned with philosophical movements such as the Marxism and existentialism championed by Jean-Paul Satre. The gulf between Satre and biblical prophets and teachers, and Jesus himself, is evident from a quote of Satre: ‘Life has no meaning, the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal’.
But the Scientific method is predicated upon accurate observations and measurement – verified eye-witness material.
It was the miraculous healing of David Wilkerson’s father that challenged me to reconsider.
‘During all my childhood my father had been a very sick man…one day I heard an ambulance tear past…I could hear my father’s screams (from the house)…’The doctor says he will live two more hours’…I ran down to the basement…and there I prayed…my voice carried up the heating pipes…my father heard me…’Strength is flowing into me’. I had witnessed a miracle.’
The miracles that David Wilkerson witnessed throughout his ministry all stemmed from this experience.
Since abandoning my agnosticism I have witnessed several healing miracles.
Whilst working at Pfizers Ltd. as a lab technician, my colleague, Alan’s (not his real name) fiancée became dangerously ill with anorexia nervosa. The doctors could find no solution and the lab leader permitted Alan to use as much time as he wanted to skip his work and spend time in Pfizer’s extensive pharmaceutical library to find any alternative source of healing. During one of our regular Friday lunches as a lab group, I felt an urge to offer to pray for my Alan’s fiancée, but I was too nervous to mention it in front of the others, so I prayed and asked for a sign. Firstly, from that point on during lunch, that no one would speak to me, and, secondly, when we got returned to the lab, my colleague and I would be alone in the lab. Both of these were extremely unlikely but they happened. Nervously, heart pounding, I said to Alan ‘I believe God loves your fiancée and wants to heal her. Would you give me your permission to pray for her?’ He said yes and we got on with our work, eventually leaving for the weekend. On the Saturday morning, I was with a group of Christians, and we prayed for Alan’s fiancée. At work on Monday, Alan arrived full of the news that his fiancée had got out of bed and had started eating. I asked him what time this had occurred. It was the same time that we had prayed on the Saturday morning.
Nervously, heart pounding, I said to Alan ‘I believe God loves your fiancée and wants to heal her. Would you give me your permission to pray for her?’
Coincidence?
If I was to apply my scientific analysis to similar occurrences I would be forced to say that these coincidences seem to match the times when prayer was offered.
This leaves us with two, at least two, questions:
1. Is a philosophical reorientation required to incorporate ‘miracles’ into what we call ‘knowledge’
2. Miracles may happen but why doesn’t a loving God always miraculously heal the sick?
To answer question 1. requires minds like mine, so focussed on the material world of atoms and energy, to be prised open, open at leat tooth possible existence of a spiritual, or supernatural, realm. As an interim step, we can recognise that ‘knowledge’ is greater in its scope than the scientific method, which regularly establishes truth through observation and repeated measurements. For example – the statement ‘I love you’ or ‘I love a beautiful sunset’ is as factual as e=mc2 , it is simply another form of knowledge no less valid than the results of a scientific experiment, yet invisible and impossible to verify through experiment. Our ability to reason is not our sole attribute, nor is it our highest faculty. The contention of Scripture is that believers in Christ are ‘led by the Spirit’ and that our spirit ‘witnesses’ with the Holy Spirit. This is another way of saying that through faith in Christ, we are brought into a real relationship with God, not ‘religion’ in its usually perceived form of moral codes, rules, and commandments. The urgent prayers of the young David Wilkerson did not find their origin in his rational mind but in faith in God.
The questions about suffering are complex. If miracles demonstrate the love and power of almighty God, why are some prayers unanswered? Even if I had more pages, I know I would not be able to offer a neat and tidy answer. I do feel I can make an observation from experience. There have been times, like my Pfizers experience, when I have felt the presence of God before attempting to pray for someone who is sick or for some other form of divine intervention, as if the faith that is required is given first like a precious gift.
I have included here an article about miraculous healings that were verified by a PhD student in Wales https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/god-is-working-miracles-and-healing-people-in-wales-and-ive-got-the-phd-research-to-prove-it/5591.article
The New Testament refers to miracles as signs and wonders. A sign advertises something else, or points the way to it and a wonder is something that make us stop in our tracks however distracted we are by life. Miracles are said to be a sign that ‘the kingdom of God’ is nearer than we might think, and wonders force us to consider the possibility of a spiritual realm or heaven. It is as if God is saying ‘I am here’.
The miracles that Jesus performed did not guarantee that those who were present became radical disciples, in fact, they stirred up as much opposition as devotion. For example, when Jesus raised Lazarus, opinion was split:
Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
My conclusion
As an agnostic, I had to concede that miracles do occur today – and to my surprise - in England. Two of my principle objections to Christianity – the historical reliability of the New Testament and that science had disproved miracles – had been dealt with severe blows.
The healing incident at Pfizers occurred in the first year after I had become a raw recruit of Christ just prior to/my eighteenth birthday. I think this is important to mention, miracles are not reserved for super-saints or seasoned church ministers of Christianity. They do not occur through faith in oneself but faith in God and at His command.
Ten years after my conversion to Christ, I injured my left knee severely whilst training for the Mountain Leaders Certificate in Snowdonia, Wales. That put paid to/my dream of leading groups in the hills. I could only run for about 200m before pulling up in pain. The condition lasted for ten years. I had asked for prayer a few times but there was no miracle. I had various physiotherapy exercises and straps but nothing worked. One morning, during my normal breakfast routine of juggling tea and toast with reading a passage from the bible and praying, my prayers were interrupted. All I can say is that I heard a voice say ‘Run!’ It was like a command; it had authority, but wasn’t aggressive. It wasn’t unpleasant but neither was it rhetorical. It wasn’t an audible voice, but the ‘still small voice’ that scripture mentions. Jesus also taught that ‘My sheep know my voice’. It felt like that. I had to go to work but at the next available opportunity, I attempted to run for about half a mile. To my astonishment, there was no pain. Within a year I trained for a half-marathon and ran ten consecutive Bristol Half-Marathons from 1999 to 2009 and have continued to run since. That was a miraculous healing at God’s command, it reminded me of the incident when Jesus told the paralytic to pick up his mat and walk.
I heard a voice say ‘Run!’ It was like a command
As Head of Science at a local comprehensive school, I was often invited to talk to RE classes as an ‘exhibit’ - a scientist who believed in God. Inevitably I had to field questions about evolution, the Crusades, contradictions in the Bible and so on – all very valid intellectual questions – but it was stories of miracles that often changed the atmosphere in the room from one of dismissive scepticism to curiosity.
Next?
But what about hypocrisy within the church? Walking the walk not talking the talk? What about the reprehensible involvement of the church in the slave trade, or racism such as Apartheid? And the moral failure of Christian leaders, priests, and ministers?