Miracles and Christian History

Dateline: April 19, 2000

Introduction/Abstract

Most religions do not appear to require a belief in reliable, verifiable historical events for their validity. Their mythical tales are supposed to be read in a more metaphorical sense - conveying eternal truths about the nature of the universe and humanity with fanciful stories.

Some religions, however, do require a belief in verifiable historical events for their validity, with Christianity being chief among them. This has significant consequences for the type of world in which Christians believe they live. The principle consequence which we will examine here is that there must be a real world out there with regular, discoverable, and dependable rules about the way the world works.

Unfortunately, accepting the existence of such rules creates serious problems for reports of miracles. If we are to have history, we must rely upon the premise of consistent natural laws - but reports of miracles are, fundamentally, reports of natural laws not being consistent. And thus we have a contradiction. If miracle stories can be believed, then we cannot claim that we really know anything at all - not even that the miracle stories are to be believed.

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