Miracles and Reason: Towards a New Understanding of Miracles Through the Perspective of Contemporary Science

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Throughout the public opinion, mainstream media, scientific circles and even some theological circles (Rudolph Bultmann being probably the most famous among 20th century theologians), miracles are seen as breaking the laws of nature and are, thus, impossible. Other theologians, like the proponents of the evolutionary creation theory (Denis Lamoureux, for example) while believing that miracles are still possible, draw a solid line of separation between God’s miraculous acts in creation and his actions according to the laws of nature. This paper, then, through an appeal to the discoveries of modern and contemporary science and through shifting the point of view from humans to God, suggests that God’s miracles respect the laws of nature, just that some of these laws are not yet known to humans. The second part of the paper will apply this principle to two miracles from the Bible, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament, showing that they can be comprehensible and reasonable even for the scientific mind of our times.