Miracles and Anti-supernaturalism

[Ryantology]

Jesus forgives those who repent and are committed to not sinning again. Salvation is a process. You have to continue in a state of grace.

It is virtually impossible to not sin, as God's law has made sins out of behaviors which are natural and normal (and entirely arbitrary in many cases). Making such a commitment is dishonest because fulfilling it is beyond anybody's ability.

I started this thread. I get to define miracles.

Wait, what? Starting a thread doesn't give you the right to change the definition of words.

I am defining miracles as special acts of God in the world and time.

Describe what makes an act 'special' in this context.

Since miracles are special acts of God, they can only exist where there is a God who can perform such acts.

So far, so good.

If one does not believe in God, then they cannot say miracles, as I define them, are impossible.

The validity of your definition relies upon the existence of your god. If we do not believe in your god, your definition is meaningless to us.

metaphysical - of or relating to the transcendent or to a reality beyond what is perceptible to the senses. It deals with some important questions, such as:
What is the meaning of Life?
What is my purpose?
What is God?
What is reality?
Why am I here?
Why does anything exist instead of nothing?
How did I get here?
Who and what am I?
What will happen when I die?

Metaphysics does not require us to answer any of these questions in the ways you do.

I hear a circular argument: If miracles are impossible, the report of any miraculous event must be false, and therefore, miracles are impossible.

That is a strawman argument, because the 'therefore' part of that argument is meaningless and redundant, and none of us use it. No valid argument about the possibility of something starts with an assumption of its possibility. It is on that point, by the way, where your argument fails: you assume the existence of God from the start.

The correct form of our position would be "If an event cannot be demonstrated to have happened in spite of all possible physical laws, it cannot be confirmed as supernatural (natural events are given precedence in this argument because no event has ever satisfied the criteria necessary to confirm an event as certainly not natural; the reverse is not true). Miracles must be supernatural in origin, so if an event is not supernatural, it cannot be a miracle." We could expand this further to "If God cannot be demonstrated to exist, then no event can be confirmed as a miracle."

The only circular argument being posited is yours, which requires non-believers to accept the existence of your god. As you cannot demonstrate that your God is real, everything which follows your initial assumption of his existence is invalid.