Natural Laws & The Miraculous.

If God created reality, can he intervene in his creation? Is God responsible for everything that happens in the universe? Are miracles possible? And are the natural laws of the universe absolute? These are the main questions I will attempt to address in this piece. Firstly, I would like to clarify that I am not claiming to be certain of my view on these topics. They are highly abstract, philosophical and perhaps metaphysical subjects which are open to interpretation and opinion. In saying that, I will try to present a logical argument for my stance on such things.

I think it would be useful to begin with whether the natural laws of the universe are absolute, fixed and/or certain. I believe the short answer is no, but please allow me to explain. The great philosopher Alan Watts once referred to the natural laws of the universe as “observed regularities”. I think this is true, and a very elegant way of expressing that fact that all natural laws, like the law of gravity for example, is a way in which the universe behaves. The thing is, even a law that has been observed to occur one hundred percent of the time, has been observed for limited amount of time, and that is for as long as humans have been around and able to observe it. Before humans existed, and universe existed in unobserved sense, there is no way of knowing for sure that these laws operated in the way that we see them operate today. I am not belittling the utility of understanding these laws, as a great deal of scientific and technological advancements were only possible through our current understanding of them. But fundamentally, we cannot be completely certain that this is how the universe always has, always does and/or always will behave.

This allows for the possibility of unexpected events or changes to occur within reality, such as what some may refer to as miracles. Another question the arises here is whether reality (or the universe) is an open or isolated system, in relationship to God. This is far more speculative than the paragraph above, but nonetheless, I want to continue to elaborate on the thought. Let’s imagine that God does exist, and that he was and is responsible for the creation of existence. I like to think that God had some limitations when creating reality, because if he had unlimited power, I believe a loving God would have made reality free from suffering and evil. So, let’s assume that he did choose to create reality, but reality came with some preconditions beyond his control, such as the possibility of suffering and evil to enter the world. It is important to note that God did not create suffering and evil but chose to create a reality where we can experience the joys of life, with the possibility of suffering and evil entering into it.

There are many arguments that blame God for everything that happens in the world, particularly when things go wrong. But my point it is, that a loving God did not create the bad, but chose to create reality, possibly knowing that the bad is a possible outcome. In other words, God cannot be blamed for the bad. If a sober, mentally sound driver, takes a drive on the freeway, doing everything correctly, and gets into a car accident, can we blame their initial decision to drive the car? The answer is no. They did everything right, to the best of their ability, while knowing that a car accident is always a possible outcome. It is the same thing with God’s creation. He created everything with good intentions, while knowing that a bad outcome is a possibility. One may say that it would have been more responsible for him not to create anything if a bad outcome was possible, but then I would ask, would it be more responsible for us to never drive a car? The answer is still no.

My final point relates to whether the universe (or maybe even existence itself) is an open or isolated system. An open system being a system that can be affected by outside influences or forces, and an isolated system being one that cannot. While there are aspects of existence that appear rather fixed and/or deterministic, I think we it’s logical to conclude that is an open system. We have not observed the entire past, and we can’t observe the entire future, and therefor cannot be certain whether there are exceptions to the laws of nature. I like to think that God intervenes in his creation, we he can intervene with it. This implies that I am referring to a God who does not contain complete power, one hundred percent of the time. But it does allow room for God to be completely good, one hundred percent of the time. We don’t understand how, when or why he intervenes in his creation, but there a plenty of claims to suggest he has at times. I am referring to the miraculous here, where the laws of nature are essentially broken. The most discussed of these claims may very well be the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, I am not going to try to convince anyone that a man rose from the dead, but I hope this piece allows you to see the miraculous as a possibility, as I have come to believe it as a possibility myself.