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Year 13 - Miracles

Total questions: 20

Worksheet time: 22mins

Name
Class
Date
1.

Which word describes a theory of truth which corresponds to the state of affairs in reality?

a)

realism

b)

anti-realism

c)

subjective

d)

deductive

2.

Which word describes a theory of truth which coheres with what is accepted in the community?

a)

realism

b)

anti-realism

c)

objective

d)

inductive

3.

Which philosopher argued that a miracles is a "transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity or by the interposition of some invisible agent"?

a)

David Hume

b)

Maurice Wiles

c)

Paul Tillich

d)

RF Holland

4.

Which philosophers follow a realist definition of miracles - that they describe events whose truth depends on whether they happened in reality? Select all that apply.

a)

David Hume

b)

Richard Swinburne

c)

Nigel Warburton

d)

RF Holland

e)

Paul Tillich

5.

Which philosophers follow an anti-realist definition of miracles - that they describe events whose truth depends on whether people see them as miraculous.

a)

David Hume

b)

Richard Swinburne

c)

Nigel Warburton

d)

RF Holland

e)

Paul Tillich

6.

What did Hume mean when he rejected miracles, saying "No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavours to establish"?

a)

It must be more likely that the miracle occurred than that the story is made up.

b)

All miracle stories are unlikely.

c)

I think, therefore I am

d)

Miracle stories have not been witnessed by enough people.

7.

Who would describe miracles as astonishing events that point to the mystery of being?

a)

David Hume

b)

Richard Swinburne

c)

Maurice Wiles

d)

Paul Tillich

8.

Who would describe miracles as extraordinary occurrences seen in a religious way?

a)

David Hume

b)

Richard Swinburne

c)

Maurice Wiles

d)

RF Holland

9.

Which of the following is not one of Hume's challenges to miracles?

a)

There have never been enough trust-worthy, educated men claiming a miracle to make the accounts believable.

b)

People want to become a part of the wonder that miracle stories evoke.

c)

All religions use miracles to support their claims.  In destroying the miracle claims of other religions, they destroy their own claims.

d)

Miracles cannot just be breaches in a natural law.  They must hold some deeper significance.

10.

What did Hume mean when he said miracles “are observed chiefly to abound among ignorant and barbarous nations.”

a)

Miracles only happen where people are too uneducated to realise they are not really miracles.

b)

All religions use miracles to support their claims.  In destroying the miracle claims of other religions, they destroy their own claims.

c)

People want to become a part of the wonder that miracle stories evoke.

d)

He doesn't intend to go on holiday to Galilee because the people there are of questionable intelligence.

11.

Swinburne challenged Hume's arguments, saying that natural laws AND miracles are both based on... Select all that apply!

a)

Our apparent memories

b)

The testimony of others

c)

The physical traces left by the events in question

d)

The way we interpret the event

12.

Which two philosophers influenced RF Holland?

a)

D Z Phillips (anti-realism)

b)

Wittgenstein (language games)

c)

David Hume (empiricist)

d)

Peter Vardy (all-round legend)

13.

Who defined a miracle as "A coincidence can be taken religiously as a sign and called a miracle"?

a)

RF Holland

b)

David Hume

c)

Richard Swinburne

d)

Nigel Warburton

14.

Who used the example of a train driver who faints and falls on the brake lever, inadvertently stopping the train yards from a boy trapped on the tracks to argue that a miracle is dependent on personal interpretation, which is entirely subjective, and which will vary from person to person.

a)

RF Holland

b)

David Hume

c)

Richard Swinburne

d)

Paul Tillich

15.

Vardy and Arliss' example from ‘Life’ magazine, which reported the amazing night when all fifteen members of a Church choir in Nebraska were saved from an unforeseen and devastating explosion of the building shows what?

All fifteen members of a Church choir came at least ten minutes too late for their weekly choir practice which was supposed to start at 7.20pm.  They were astonishingly fortunate because at 7.25pm the building was destroyed by an explosion.

a)

Despite a natural explanation for everyone being late, it is still seen as miraculous (anti-realism)!

b)

God has intervened to make everyone late (realism).

16.

Who said that a miracle is "first of all an event which is astonishing, unusual, shaking, without contradicting the rational structure of reality. In the second place, it is an event which points to the mystery of being"

a)

David Hume

b)

Richard Swinburne

c)

Paul Tillich

d)

RF Holland

17.

Whose view was Keith Ward describing when he said he "stresses the subjective element of the apprehension of a miracle, rather than the objective nature of the event itself. That something astonishes me, that it discloses to me the ultimate mystery of my being, and that it is received by me in a commitment of faith – these are all in the end remarks about me and my reactions."?

a)

David Hume

b)

Richard Swinburne

c)

Paul Tillich

d)

RF Holland

18.

Who challenged Tillich, saying that we can have an encounter with a real presence, however we cannot have an encounter with a symbol?

a)

David Hume

b)

Richard Swinburne

c)

HD Mcdonald

d)

RF Holland

19.

Who argued that if God intervened as Hume suggests, then God would seem to act immorally. "[Miracles would be] religiously unsatisfactory in view of their apparently occasional and highly selective character."

a)

Maurice Wiles

b)

Richard Swinburne

c)

Paul Tillich

d)

RF Holland

20.

Why did Wiles say that it was important to remember "The healing ministry of Jesus is firmly set within the context of a conflict with evil"?

a)

Jesus, when tempted in the desert, refused to perform miracles to persuade people to believe in him as the Messiah.

b)

Miracles prove God's struggle against evil.

c)

Miracles depend on how someone sees the event in question.

d)

Miracles only happen if it is to heal someone of an illness or affliction.