The Problem of the Generation of Children as a Miraculous Act of God Contrary to the Enlightenment's Denial of Miracles.

The person is defined philosophically as -  An act of being which is incommunicable. The person exists and is, therefore, an act of being. For being is to exist. Furthermore, the person is incommunicable, for a person owns everything which it has. For example, Peter owns his arms, legs, eye, heart, thoughts, willing and actions. Each of these parts can be communicated to another. Such as an idea. Peter can have an idea, which is known to him and is, therefore, Peter's idea. Peter can then also express the idea to another and thereby communicates the idea to another. Likewise, Peter can give every other part of himself to another. For example, Peter can give all of his actions to another as to an employer.

However, there is something Peter cannot communicate, or give to another. That which cannot be communicated to another is Peter's person. Peter is the name we give to the person, which is that which cannot be given to another. When Peter gives, it is Peter, and not another person that gives. Peter then cannot give something of himself that is Peter, for there is not a person, prior to the person of Peter, by which Peter can be given to another. Peter, then is the name given to the personhood of the rational substance, which is fundamentally incommunicable.

Also, anything the person owns cannot become and thereby communicate the essence of the person to any of the attributes of the person. Peter's hand cannot become the person of Peter, nor can any part of Peter become the person of Peter. For parts of Peter are parts which participate in the Person of Peter as the owner of all of the parts. The parts are then always ontologically subject and subordinated to the ontological reality of the person, that is Peter. The being of the person is then ontologically prior to and of a distinct nature to the being of all of the parts which are subject to the person. Peter as a person has the being of the person, which is ontologically prior to the being of Peter's hand, arm, leg, and his soul.

If we posit Peter was generated as the son of James and Sally, they act as Peter's parents to cause Peter's body through conception, and generation. However, because the person of Peter is not Peter's body, but rather, a being that owns Peter's body, the person of Peter is not caused by Peter's parents. For the parents are only physical causes of Peter's body and cannot be ontological causes of the existence of Peter's body, or soul, or Peter's person. All the being of Peter is caused by being itself, which is God, who is the universal cause of all creatures being.

But the being of Peter's person is a being that is caused by God as through an act of divine power to change the person of Peter as a potential person into an actual person as through a divine act of eduction. But for the divine power to act to cause Peter's person, God must act as the principal cause to raise the potency of matter to the act of being of the person. But as the act to be of the person is a special being, distinct from the being of Peter's body and soul, the being of the person is a very special being which -

1) owns the being and all physical attributes of Peter.

2) is a being that is unique and cannot be repeated, for the person is incommunicable.

As the being of the person is unique, the divine act to cause the being of the person, must also be co-natural to the uniqueness of the act of the person. Such as divine act may well be a miracle, whereby God as the principal agent acts with secondary causes, such as Peter's being of his body and soul, and the physical causes of Peters body to cause the being of Peter's person. For a miracle is a divine act whereby the obediential potency of the secondary cause is used by the principal cause to raise the secondary cause to act beyond its natural power. As Peter's being of his soul and body all have natural acts which cannot cause the being of the person, the divine act to actualise the obediential potency within Peter's body and soul uses Peter's body and soul as secondary causes to enact the being of the person of Peter.

In short, because the being of the person cannot be caused by Peter's body, or soul, or the being of Peter, the divine act within Peter to cause the being of Peter's person is an act beyond the nature of Peter's attributes. Such a divine act is equivalent to a miracle to cause the existence of the personhood of every child ever born as a divine act to actualise and obediential potency within the human generation process.

Now if we contrast the above argument of the person as caused by a miraculous power of God, to the enlightenment philosophy of David Hume, we note Hume denied the existence of miracles, whilst at the same time having the existence of his own person as caused through a divine miracle. Consequently, whenever a philosopher denies the existence of miracles he must also deny the proper account of the existence of the human person as a product of a divine, miraculous act. As the enlightenment, in general, denies the existence of miracles, the enlightenment has no proper account for the existence of human persons and is thereby an inhuman philosophy.