Greg Detre
Monday, 05 February, 2001
Miracles can either be defined as suspensions of the natural order or as divine intervention. Since we can never claim to know all that is possible in nature, we can never be entirely sure whether or not something is natural or whether it is extra-natural and requires us to posit a divine suspension of the natural order of things.
McKinnon (1967) argues that the definition of �miracle� as an event that breaks natural laws is incoherent. The laws of nature are merely science�s constructed way of organising and seeing regularity in occurrences, and are always subject to revision as new and unexpected events occur. Therefore, should an event occur outside the laws of nature as currently understood, our laws of nature must expand to accommodate it � �to claim that an occurrence is a violation of a natural law is to claim that the event in question is a suspension of the actual course of events and this is, of course, impossible�.