Sunday, March 27, 2011

The God of the Enlightenment and Miracles:

Check out this very insightful article by Dr. Joseph Waligore. A taste:

Most Enlightenment thinkers defined a miracle as God changing the usual order of the laws of nature. The vast majority of Enlightenment thinkers believed God had made the natural laws and could suspend them whenever he wished. For example, In his “Essay on Miracles,” the English deist John Trenchard said a miracle was when God altered the usual order of the universe: “A Miracle or actio mirabilis, is an action to be wondered at; as when God Almighty interposes, and by his omnipotent power alters the order he at first placed the universe in, or enables or empowers other beings to do so.”[v] Sometimes the Enlightenment thinkers used the words “particular providence” interchangeably with the word miracle. A particular providence happened when God or an angel cared for someone outside the general course of nature (which was seen as God’s general providence).[vi]

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The first question Pandeism poses is:

Is the Creator in which you believe powerful enough to set forth the Universe as we experience it -- in every particular -- while needing do nothing more than set forth the energy of this Universe and the governing dynamics which control the behavior of that energy?

If yes, then the answer confesses that all scripture, revelation, prophecy, and such, is accountable with a theological model which requires no assumptions about the interference of the Creator beyond the moment of Creation, the "Big Bang" as it were....

But if no, then the answer confesses a Creator inferior in power to the Creator set forth by Pandeism, and renders Pandeism the superior explanatory model after all.