Chris

True. But seeing as this thread is (loosely!) about the God of the Bible, the Bible is clear that God remains active in his creation. I think I quoted a bit earlier about him bringing (or witholding) rain.

Looking at it another way, if God is the absolute authority, and the laws of physics exist only because of his decision, and he has the power to do whatever he wants whenever he wants, then you could say that the laws of physics only remain constant because he continually wills that they should.

If that's the case, even if God doesn't start the day thinking 'right, I'm going to make it rain on Manchester again today,' then the fact that he reaffirms the laws of physics, allowing meteorological processes to do their thing and rain on Manchester (again), means that he is still involved.

We could take it a step further. God continues to uphold the laws of physics. Therefore it's going to rain on Manchester. But God is also omniscient (all-knowing) so he knows it's going to rain on Manchester, and he is also omnipotent (all-powerful) so he is quite capable of intervening to divert the rain if he chooses. After all, he made the rules, he is outside the universe that is governed by the rules, he is not subject to the rules. Whether as a sign to some church congregation or in answer to someone's prayer, or some other reason only he knows, he is capable of making the rain lay off Manchester even if it's pouring down in Stockport. This is what Christians call a miracle (actually it's what anyone calls a sunny day in Manchester).

A miracle could therefore be described as an intervention in the universe by God, in which he temporarily suspends the laws of physics.