Influence of Miracle Claims
Miracle eyewitness reports are of paramount importance to both the history of religions and contemporary experiences of religiosity. However, defining a bona fide “miracle” often proves difficult when variant criteria and metaphysical assumptions are considered. Regardless of whether researchers believe miracles must necessarily circumvent natural physical laws or can occur through those same natural processes, it is evident that miracles inexorably involve the deliberate intervention of deity that causes an anomalous and religiously noteworthy event, which ultimately surpasses the ability of mere natural causal relationships in a given circumstance (Larmer 2014). The three Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are predicated on such miracles. As is believed among the faithful, God miraculously founded the Israelites (Gen. 21:1–6), and then miraculously liberated them from bondage (Exod. 14:15–31). For Christians, God miraculously dispatched...
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Slade, D.M. (2019). Miracle Eyewitness Reports. In: Leeming, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_200227-1
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