Problems with this section (Agnosticism)

by Frank Paris , Thursday, November 12, 2009, 20:32 (5489 days ago) @ BBella

"Is it possible there are natural laws that are not yet evident or are not yet fully realized by humanity that God can and/may use at times to perform what appears to mankind as miracles?"-I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, but this sounds like another "God of the gaps" thing: God is free to work miracles as long as science doesn't understand the underlying laws, but from then on he can't counteract those laws that are now known. Sounds like an effete and shifty image of God.-Of course there are laws of nature that modern science does not have an inkling of yet. There are so many things we don't understand yet associated with "dark matter," for example, and probably laws behind phenomena that we haven't even observed yet. It's just too risky to assume that God can bend those unknown laws to his will. Every time that's been invoked in the past, it isn't long before we come to understand the laws and then the "believer" finds himself in the embarrassing position of having to back down from his claims that God has been working miracles.-It's just safer to believe that we live in an entirely natural world devoid of supernatural events, and not depend on miracles to support our theology. Every time theology has done this in the past it ends of getting slapped down by the cold, hard facts once they're understood better. It's for this reason that long ago I decided that my theology could have nothing to do with miracles against natural laws, and I was very gratified when I discovered that process theology has been teaching that very thing for almost a hundred years now (since Whitehead developed his philosophy in the 1920's).-In spite of that long-winded reply, I'm still trying to fathom what you're really asking. Are you asking whether there could be observable phenomena in the world that normally "run by themselves" but that God can occasionally "push around"? Would these be "laws" that God can "break"? They would have to be laws that govern phenomena that we haven't yet observed, or that really aren't "laws." I guess I need you to be more precise what you're asking. Give me some examples.