"Spinoza begins his discussion "Of Miracles" with a typically Maimonidean* observation. Although the intelligent individual sees the presence of God in the fixed order of Nature, the multitude see God's presence in its supposed disruption or violation, especially when those imagined aberrations are to their benefit, and they call such allegedly supernatural phenomena "miracles."
Maimonides had scoffed at the masses who believe that babies are supernaturally conceived by the work of a gigantic fiery angel who enters the mother's womb, while in fact the true "angels" responsible for birth are the natural biological forces.
Next Spinoza proposes a fascinating historical explanation for the origin of the belief in supernatural miracles. According to his conjecture, the belief in supernatural miracles was originally a polemical response to idolatry. The ancient Israelites saw that the pagans worshipped visible gods, such as the sun, the moon, the earth, or the air, and in order to prove that such gods were not truly powerful but dominated by the invisible God, they told stories about divine miracles interfering with their actions. In addition, notes Spinoza, these stories of supernatural miracles reinforced the fantasy of anthropocentrism.
Spinoza now announces that he intends to show four things: (I) nothing happens contrary to Nature, and the word "miracle" must be defined accordingly; (II) God is known not through miracles, but through the fixed order of Nature; (III) the will of God is nothing but the order of Nature; and (IV) biblical miracles should be interpreted in accordance with a particular method.
