Miracles, prayers, and the laws of the universe.

Atheists frequently raise this objection, but many theists too have a hard time reconciling miracles and prayers with God's prescience and wisdom. How do miracles and prayers make sense in a world where everything happens according to God's Will? If it is accepted that God created the universe and the laws governing it (so goes the argument) and if it is also accepted that miracles do happen from time to time, does that not mean that the laws were not perfect in the first place? Furthermore, why should anybody pray to God when a) God's plan is perfect, and b) His Will is going to prevail anyway?

Science enthusiasts seem to have the greatest difficulty with miracles. They tend to reject anything extraordinary or unfamiliar by declaring it 'unscientific' and therefore outside the realms of possibility. While it is true that science has had spectacular success in explaining many phenomena of the universe; it is rather easy to be so intoxicated by that success as to start believing that every phenomenon lies inside the domain of science and therefore anything that science cannot account for must ipso facto be a fantasy. Here, a rule of thumb that has served this writer well is this: the more somebody flaunts science the less he knows what he is talking about.

Reaction against centuries of poor conduct by people of faith has also produced, in large numbers, well-meaning rationalists who - very much like a pendulum swinging from one extreme to the other - have come to put their whole emphasis on works. According to them, you reap strictly what you sow and therefore prayers are meaningless. In this purely mechanical world view the only effective thing is action. This philosophy has the merit of seeing an important part of the picture; but by being blind to the complete picture it tends to overestimate man's power, which is to his detriment in more ways than one.

The same mindset is at work behind either of the difficulties. It is the insistence on reducing God to the status of a silent spectator, who in the initial creation of the universe has set everything in motion according to His perfect plan so that now the laws take care of themselves without His involvement. The problem with this picture is that it recognises God as the Creator but fails to see Him as the Living Sustainer. Far from being a detached reality, He is very much involved in the working of the universe. His permission is required at every moment of every event (not just the...