Do miracles interfere with human free will?

[felipefelix]

Hi everyone. This is a very sincere question so, please don’t judge me. Is it correct to affirm that diseases like Corona Virus, which has potential origin in the influence of mankind on nature, are actually consequences from the free will that God gave us, as a reflection of our own choices? While I ask that, some of the things I consider are 1) there is a tendency on “blame the devil” for the worst in the world, as a sort of justification for human being atrocities; and 2) I wonder why “miracles” exist. Is it crazy to think that a miracle might interfere in human freedom, in a way God is choosing to do a miracle “here, and not there”? Is there a biblical passage to justify those things? Thanks.

 

[Stidlet]

1. I wonder why “miracles” exist

Often it is the case that miracles require us to accept God and he will then help us when he deems it’s good. This type of miracle wouldn’t interfere with our will since we accept it with our will. Other miracles include prayer for others, such as when Moses interceded for the Israelites and saved them from total destruction. God never causes you to accept him, nor causes you to reject him. He always influences you in many ways, but that does not imply a contradiction with Free will.

1. there is a tendency on “blame the devil” for the worst in the world, as a sort of justification for human being atrocities

Where there is evil, the Devil has some responsibility, that doesn’t shirk the responsibility of the men who committed them at all. For to do good and reject evil is to reject the devil, and these atrocities wouldn’t happen.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Viruses are life that was created by God. They harm us because of the fall.

Miracles never interfere with free will, because God never interferes with free will.

 

[JerryZ]

Miracles are a direct intervention of GOD in our lives.
Now Catholics understand that everything that happens in the Universe is under control from GOD. Either HE permits it to happen or HE wills it to happen.
So miracles fall on the 2nd category.
Human freedom is also something that GOD allows, we can freely choose within our limited radius of action what we do with our lives.
Also Miracles typically happen by request, they do not fall from the sky, someone, somewhere pleaded with GOD either directly or through intercession for a miracle. If it was granted it shows that: a) GOD is in control and b) those (miracles) should help us in strengthening our faith in HIM.
Peace!

 

[Kei]

“To whom much is given much is to be expected.”

 

[Dan_Defender]

Is it crazy to think that a miracle might interfere in human freedom

Judas betrayed Jesus after he himself performed miracles in his holy name. That proves that free will can never be taken away and we must persevere to the end.

 

[Latin]

Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Ludwig Ott;

There is a supernatural intervention of God in the faculties of the soul, which precedes the free act of the will, (De fide).
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Aquinas said, "God changes the will without forcing it . But he can change the will from the fact that he himself operates in the will as he does in nature,” De Veritatis 22:9. 31. ST I-II:112:3. 32. Gaudium et Spes 22; "being …
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CCC 308 The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator.
God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes:
"For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Far from diminishing the creature’s dignity, this truth enhances it.
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CCC 307 God thus enables men to be intelligent and free, causes in order to complete the work of creation, … Though often unconscious collaborators with God’s will, they can also enter deliberately into the divine plan by their actions…
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As God Himself operates in our wills, we don’t even have to know we are FREELY cooperating with His will.

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AS WE SEE ABOVE, THE CHURCH DOGMATICALLY TEACHES.

CCC 2022; The divine initiative (supernatural intervention of God in the faculties of the soul) in the work of grace precedes, prepares, and elicits the free response of man.

We will what God wills us to will, and we do what God wills as to do.

As God himself operates in our wills, we are freely cooperating with His graces, without even knowing it.

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The Father William Most Collection

St. Augustine on Grace and Predestination

I.(1) On human interaction with grace: Every good work, even good will, is the work of God.
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De gratia Christi 25, 26: “For not only has God given us our ability and helps it, but He even works [brings about] willing and acting in us; not that we do not will or that we do not act, but that without His help we neither will anything good nor do it”
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De gratia et libero arbitrio 16, 32: “It is certain that we will when we will; but He brings it about that we will good … . It is certain that we act when we act, but He brings it about that we act , providing most effective powers to the will.”

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God’s omnipotent providence exercises a complete and perfect control over all events that happen, or will happen, in the universe.
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God’s will is the cause of all things, every event that happen or will happen in the universe.
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Nothing that is outside of God’s creating, sustaining, and governing will.
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History is not just what He sees will be, but is what He causes to be , especially in every aspect of the redemptive process.
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St. Thomas (C. G., II, xxviii) if God’s purpose were made dependent on the foreseen free act of any creature, God would thereby sacrifice His own freedom, and would submit Himself to His creatures, thus abdicating His essential supremacy–a thing which is, of course, utterly inconceivable.
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God bless

 

[Latin]

Catholic Encyclopedia : Evil
“But we cannot say without denying the Divine omnipotence, that another equally perfect universe could not be created in which evil would have no place.”
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310 But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it?
With infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world in a state of journeying towards its ultimate perfection, 314 through the dramas of evil and sin. – God created the dramas of evil and sin.

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THE REASON GOD CREATED THE DRAMAS OF EVIL AND SIN

Life without suffering would produce spoiled brats, not joyful saints.

Our struggle and tribulation while journeying towards our ultimate perfection through the dramas of evil and sin is the cost which in-prints the virtue/ nobility into our souls – the cost of our road to nobility and perfection.

In this world man has to learn by experience and contrast, and to develop by the overcoming of obstacles (Lactantius, “De ira Dei”, xiii, xv in “P.L., VII, 115-24. St. Augustine “De ordine”, I, vii, n. 18 in “P.L.”, XXXII, 986).

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CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Free Will explains;

“God is the author of all causes and effects, but is not the author of sin, because an action ceases to be sin if God wills it to happen. Still God is the cause of sin.
God’s omnipotent providence exercises a complete and perfect control over all events that happen, or will happen, in the universe.”

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CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA Divine Providence explains;

“His wisdom He so orders all events within the universe that the end for which it was created may be realized.

He directs all, even evil and sin itself, to the final end for which the universe was created.

All events preordained by God in accordance with His all-embracing purpose.

Evil, therefore, ministers to God’s design” (St. Gregory the Great, op. cit., VI, xxxii in “P.L.”,
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CCC 324 Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit an evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil, by ways that we shall fully know only in eternal life.
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CCC 301 God does not abandon his creatures to themselves.
He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, utter dependence enables them to act and brings them to their final end .
Recognizing this with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence.
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God bless

 

[KMC]

As evidenced by the many many many people that deny every miracle, I don’t see how free will is impacted.

Even the idea of “a universe from nothing” will not deter the most ardent atheist to deny that God might be one of a number of possible causes.

No matter what, there is always room for a skeptic