Evidence For Modern Miracles

A common objection to Christianity, as well as supernatural belief systems in general, is that miracles supposedly don't occur in today's world. We've written many posts on the subject over the years. I want to provide links to some representative examples of those posts, as well as a couple of links to other sites.

Steve Hays has addressed some of the dangers involved in underestimating the evidence for miracles in the modern world. He's also addressed objections based on Reformed cessationism. He's written about the argument that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence here and here. On prior probability and Bayes' Theorem, see here, here, and here.

Here's a post in which I address some common objections to the reliability of human memory and eyewitness testimony. And here's a post on the plausibility of appealing to hallucinations to dismiss what witnesses have reported.

This one discusses the significance of non-Christian miracle accounts within a Christian worldview. It includes links to discussions of some miracle claims in recent centuries, such as those associated with Marian apparitions. Here's a post that gives an example of a failed skeptical attempt to explain a significant modern paranormal case (the mediumship of Leonora Piper). I also wrote a series on the Enfield Poltergeist. And here's a post in which I address the notion that Christians dismiss all miracles among non-Christians as demonic.

Here's one Steve wrote about some of the principles involved in evaluating paranormal phenomena and some of the evidence involved in a variety of cases. And here's one that quotes Michael Sudduth on a related topic. Sudduth posted more in the comments section of the thread, including a list of recommended resources. In the thread here, I quote some of Stephen Braude's comments about skeptics of the paranormal, and I discuss some of the principles involved in judging paranormal claims. The thread here is about UFOs and related phenomena. Here's one I did on evidence for modern miracles in general. I've also addressed near-death experiences in many posts. The page I just linked also has material on other paranormal phenomena, like apparitions of the dead.

An important recent resource is Craig Keener's two-volume work on miracles. It's primarily about Christian miracles in the modern world, but also addresses non-Christian miracles and ancient and medieval Christian miracles to some extent. Here's a series of posts I wrote in response to his book.

I wrote a post addressing the possibility that miracles are manifestations of human psi or a natural human capability we don't yet understand. See, also, here.

Here's something I wrote about the value of keeping a record of God's providence in your life.

And here's a book review that addresses non-Christian miracle claims and how they compare to Christian miracle accounts.

I later wrote a post about video evidence for miracles.