Miracles and Agents

Abstract

Suppose Jones sees a mountain in the distance and says to the mountain, ‘Mountain, cast yourself into the sea!’, whereupon the mountain is observed to rise up from its surroundings and fall into the water. If such a phenomenon occurred, why should we say that Jones moved the mountain, rather than that Jones addressed the mountain in a certain way and that by a strange coincidence the mountain happened to move an instant later and fall into the water?

Miracles as Evidence Against the Existence of God

“…His reason is that "theassignment of agency implies predictability", the subsumption of the act under scientific law, yet this is impossible in the case of a miracle. 11 We assign agency when we have noted that similar actions by other agents in similar circumstances have been followed by similar subsequent events;'z in the case of a miracle, however, we have a unique event to be assigned to a unique agent. Thus, once again, thequestion is raised as to how a miracle could possibly be connected with God.…”