Help with a philosophical sentence please!

[Rachael Barham]

Hi everyone!

I need to translate this :

In this article, I respond to John Smith's criticisms of my arguments concerning the evidential weight events best explained as miracles provide for theism.

So far I have this:

Dans cet article, je réponds aux critiques de John Smith de mes arguments à propos de la force probante fournie au théisme par les évènements qui s’expliquent mieux comme des miracles.

It's mostly the unwieldy nature of the French that I don't like (although the English is also a little unwieldy!). ;-) I don't like the two 'de' in italics - though maybe that's OK? - and I'm also wondering if there are ways I'm not seeing to make it neater and easier to follow.

Any thoughts very welcome! Thank you!!

[Vedas]

 Hello,

Let's have a try:

Dans cet article  je réagis aux critiques que John Smith porte sur ma thèse selon laquelle le théisme s'est nourri  du poids et de la véracité des évenements perçus avantageusement comme des miracles.

otherwise in your sentence  the first "d" is ok maybe you could expand the second one with ".... John Smith portant sur mes arguments de la force...."

[Rachael Barham]

Thanks Vedas. That's helpful. I like the "que JS porte sur ma these" part especially. 

What kind of meaning does 'avantageusement' carry here?

And is using "je réponds" an OK alternative, do you think?

[Vedas]

avantageusement is in a way expressing "best"

"je réponds" is fine

[Rachael Barham]

Great. Thanks! 

[Rachael Barham]

Does 'portant' not need to agree with 'critiques' then?

[Rachael Barham]

I think I can answer my own question after doing just a little bit of research! ;-) "No!"

[Vedas]

the subject is John Smith !

[Rachael Barham]

Yes, but IF portant needed to agree (which, from the examples I see here, it's clear it does not: http://www.linguee.fr/francais-anglais/traduction/portant+sur.html ) then it would be agreeing with critiques in my version of the sentence:

"Dans cet article je réponds aux critiques de John Smith portant sur mes arguments de la force probante..." etc.

[Vedas]

ok right I didn't get it first, yes present participles are invariable 

[Neil Coffey]

The difficulty with present participles is that they can be used as what are essentially 'ordinary' adjectives, in which case they agree as normal. But they can also be used as what we might call 'gerundives', i.e. essentially as verbs, in which case they don't agree. So you get examples such as:

Une étoile brillante/plus brillante que d'autres. ("normal" adjective; you could make it comparative/superlative, add other adjectives)

Une étoile brillant toute la nuit dans le ciel. ("verbal" use; you could effectively substitute "qui brille/brillait")

[Robert]

I am naive with French, but it seems to me the 3 nouns in this clause come together too fast:
je réagis aux critiques que John Smith porte sur ma thèse

If I want to pace them out a bit, would this work? (To give the reader a little more time to digest the thought)
je réagis aux critiques par John Smith, celles qu'il porte sur ma thèse

[Robert]

One of these is better than the above, maybe?

je réagis aux critiques par John Smith, lesquelles arguments qu'il porte sur ma thèse
je réagis aux critiques par John Smith, lesquelles arguments il porte sur ma thèse