Coherence Theory of Truth and Miracles

A theory is about explaining and must be backed up by evidence. Theories have to build on and connect with other theories. All theories are tested by working out what we must expect if the theory is true.   The power to predict then functions as a test.

The Correspondence Theory of truth is that something is true if it fits the facts. If I have a car, it's true that I have a car. The truth corresponds to the facts.
 
Commonsense favours the theory.
 
The Coherence Theory of Truth is based on the fact that our knowledge is not just about working out facts. Sometimes we believe things for reasons and the theory says that if the belief fits our beliefs and experience we can take it to be true.
 
The Coherence Theory implies that once the system is set up and coheres you should not change your mind. The Catholic believer whose system coheres should not consider another system however coherent. The theory is bigoted and obscurantist and unconcerned about what evidence says. It makes religious conversion a kind of sin!
 
It does not really help when you want to prove that some action is immoral or that a religion is true. For example, if you have a vision of Jesus Christ, the critic could suggest, "I'd say the vision never took place. Satan or a trickster spirit manipulated your memory so that you thought it happened." There is no answer to an objection like that.
 
It is important to see that though the theory is not as useful as you would think, the alternative is useless. The alternative would be to deny it.
 
The coherence theory of truth can be brought in when the correspondence theory fails us. We can use the two theories as complementary. We must never set up a system where we have worked things out using the correspondence theory and then have things that contradict it that are worked out from the coherence theory.
 
Religion cannot agree with that approach. Why? Because, for religion God comes first. The correspondence theory fails to help us prove to our satisfaction that he exists so that we can put him first. The coherence theory is then used to fill the gap. It is argued that God is a coherent idea so we can accept it as truth that he exists. This is really using God to fill a gap in our knowledge. That is what he is degradingly used for. We cannot worship something made up to fit a gap.
 
Everybody has different reasons even for doing the same thing. Thus the theory leads only to chaos for as long as a person invents a coherent theory that will do and we should all agree that we may disagree.
 
The coherence theory is supported by the notion of pragmatism, if a belief works then it's true or probably true. For example, if we are told that God will heal us of our anger if we ask him to, and we find this happens then what we are told is true.
 
The personal theory of truth goes that if something is true for me then it is true. It's nonsense because what if it's true for me that I should suicide-bomb a full cinema? And things are not true for you. You have to discover them to be true and they will be true if you want them to be or not.
 
It is thought that if there is no rational answer to the problem of how an all-good God can let evil happen, we will find life manageable by trusting him even though the intellectual difficulty is not resolved.  
 
This disgusting assertion shows no concern for many depressed people.
 
In depression, there is a sense of hopelessness. The only thing the person may have left is the intellectual knowledge that it can improve even a bit.
 
And why should God get the special treatment? Why can't a wife who needs to believe that her evil abusive husband loves her not tell herself, "I don't know why he hurts me. That is my intellectual difficulty. So I just trust that he believes he does it out of love." If you try to tell yourself that about God, then you have had good practice at lying to yourself like she is.
 
The coherence theory of truth does not help those who want to believe in God or miracles. It is in opposition to such.