On the Less Miraculous Explanation From God

This paper examines the relation between divine intervention and the concept of the miracle. Miracles are ordinarily understood as events whose extraordinary character derives from divine intervention; however, this assumption raises a conceptual difficulty. If intervention contributes to the realization of an outcome, then the occurrence of that outcome becomes attributable, at least in part, to intentional agency rather than to the ordinary course of events. By contrast, an event possessing an exceedingly low probability of occurrence without intervention remains entirely dependent upon ordinary continuation despite its improbability. The paper argues that intervention may therefore reduce, rather than increase, the feature through which miracles are commonly regarded as extraordinary. Through an analysis of intervention, probability, and the attribution of miraculous significance, it is suggested that the traditional association of miracles with divine intervention may conceal a conceptual inversion, wherein the event regarded as miraculous becomes, under certain conditions, less remarkable than the corresponding event occurring without intervention whatsoever.