Do You Believe in Miracles?(And Can You Do So Reasonably?) | Prof. W. Matthews Grant

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2023

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This lecture was given on October 20, 2022, at the University of North Texas. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: W. Matthews Grant is Professor and Chair in the Department of Philosophy at University of St. Thomas (MN), and Associate Editor of the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly. His articles have focused on Aquinas and the Philosophy of God, particularly issues having to do with the divine nature and God’s relationship to human freedom. His new book Free Will and God’s Universal Causality: The Dual Sources Account, draws resources from Aquinas and the scholastic tradition to explain how libertarian creaturely freedom can be reconciled with robust accounts of God’s providence, grace, and predestination.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Thomistic Institute podcast. Every talk on this podcast was originally delivered at an in-person event for university students, perhaps for one of our Tamistic Institute chapters on a university campus or at a Tamistic Institute retreat or conference. These lectures and events are happening around the country and around the globe
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0:30.5	We'll keep you posted about what's happening next. And finally, please subscribe to this podcast
0:35.6	and don't forget to like and share these recordings with your friends because it matters what you think. So do you believe in miracles can such believe be reasonable?
0:57.1	I don't know if anybody recognizes that fellow there.
0:59.4	That was interesting.
1:01.6	Richard Dawkins.
1:04.7	If you know him, he's a writer, a biologist that does a lot of popular writing
1:12.2	in science and devils, I would say, in philosophy and theology,
1:17.9	and is a very earnest evangelist for the cause of atheism.
1:23.7	And so here's the sort of thing that he would say about you if you do believe in miracles, I think that it's reasonable to do so.
1:32.8	It's the Virgin birth, the resurrection, the raising of Lazarus, the manifestations of Mary and the saints around the Catholic world, even the Old Testament miracles all are freely used for
1:46.3	religious propaganda and very effective they are with an audience of unsophisticates
1:52.0	and children unsophisticates and children are the sort of people who might go
1:57.7	in for belief in miracles he says another place any belief in miracles. He says, another place,
2:02.6	any belief in miracles is flat contradictory,
2:06.6	not just to the facts of science,
2:08.6	but the spirit of science.
2:14.6	Maybe you would expect that for an evangelist for atheism.
2:18.3	But interestingly enough, you get similar kinds of statements coming from all places, all quarters, from certain theologians,
2:28.3	20th century theologians. Here's John McQuarrie. He says, the traditional conception of miracle is irreconcilable with our modern understanding of those science and history.
2:41.0	Okay.
	...

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