Do Catholics Have To Believe In Miracles?

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The problem of evil truly becomes problematic when God intervenes, picks a winner based upon apparently unknowable rules, and they get to live, but others in similar situations don’t. I could more easily buy the idea that God doesn’t intervene in such a way, and the rain truly does fall on the just and unjust.
 
I don’t think any religion can be justified purely on rational grounds without also having faith. In the case of what you call Gd “picking winners and losers,” that’s where faith must be put to the test. One has faith that Gd is in control, knows what He is doing, and is doing it for His own reason as well as for our benefit in the long term. If we knew why Gd is behaving the way He does, we would be more than the image and likeness of Gd; we would be Gd ourselves. Gd does, however, give us a rational mind to try to figure out the whys and wherefores; hence we philosophize and theologize to put some kind of rational stamp on the acts of Gd. Ultimately, however, we cannot and perhaps must not know Gd’s reasons this side of heaven.
 
So God gave us rational minds do we could abandon rationality when questioning why He would intervene in some cases but not others?
 
I’m just curious: if this movie bothered you that much, what do you make of the large AWARE NDE study, where qualified doctors monitored cardiac arrest patients who flatlined and established that 9% of them reported vivid visions after death? Evidence of consciousness without brain activity should be earth-shaking to atheists.
 
Not so we abandon rationality; rather, so that we use our reason. At the same time, though, we must recognize that our reason can only go so far in attempting to explain Gd’s nature and His behavior. We must learn to live with a certain degree of uncertainty regarding why Gd acts the way He does; but nonetheless trust that Gd is not behaving in a capricious manner. The latter is called faith.
 
Because I suspect we are not adequately mapping brain activity. I also have problems with such studies in general. Theyve managed to partially revive pig brains hours after death so I suspect we don’t entirely understand brain activity in anoxic conditions
 
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What if I can to the conclusion that God wasn’t responsible for these miracles at all?
 
ok so no evidence/proof is enough. Just like the atheists I know in real life.
 
In my view, that’s fine. It may be that Gd did not directly intervene. Your faith or non-faith in Gd does not necessarily hinge on miracles.
 
meltzerboy2 said:
In my view, that’s fine. It may be that Gd did not directly intervene. Your faith or non-faith in Gd does not necessarily hinge on miracles.
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I think that’s where I was heading with this. Hard to explain where I am at, but the film bothered me greatly, as do other claims of miraculous survival.
 
niceatheist said:
I think God picking winners and losers based on rules so complex that we are just supposed to accept them on faith flies in the face of any attempt to justify Christianity on rational grounds.
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And I think you have no “rational grounds” for thinking so.

So, who wins? 🙂

That’s why I ask you to confirm that you see an injustice here (or to point to a different wrong), and to give a supporting argument.

Now justice is “the perpetual and constant will to render to each one his right”, “the proper act of justice is nothing else than to render to each one his own” (St. Thomas Aquinas “Summa Theologica”, Second Part of the Second Part, question 58 - https://dhspriory.org/thomas/summa/SS/SS058.html).

So, you would have to prove that people have “a right to miraculous help”. I don’t think that is possible, but feel free to try. 🙂

For that matter, it looks like you want to start from an unstated assumption that all men are to be equal. But, of course, that assumption hasn’t been granted.
 
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I loathe those stories that end with “and she was so thankful God made her alarm clock stop working that day so she was late for work in World Trade Center Tower 1”.

Yes, God knows when we will die, but, he does not tinker with alarm clocks and traffic lights.
 
The faulty understanding of miracles as God “picking winners and losers” ultimately comes from the faulty understanding of death itself. Atheists wrongly understand death as the end and therefore the worst thing that can happen to anyone. Scripture tells us
The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace. For if to others, indeed, they seem punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.
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But if death really is just the prelude to greater things for any individual, then why would any mother pray to God to let her child live, should the child suffer such grievous and likely fatal injuries? Does that mean the mother in question has shaky faith?
 
ZMystiCat said:
How could you know that it’s arbitrary and capricious?
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I would not agree with arbitrary or capricious, but I read that some miracles had natural causes which were overlooked by those believing in supernatural causes. Those miracles may have been incredible life changing events, but they had natural causes.
 
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