Hume on Miracles

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“Hume’s challenges to miracles hold no weight” David Hume defines a miracle as “a transgression of a law of nature by a particular violation of the Deity”. He argues that the probability of miracles actually happening is so low that it is irrational and illogical to believe that they occur. He states that when investigating any story of a miracle, evidence can be collected such as from witnesses. Laws of nature appear to be fixed and unvarying, such as the law of gravity is the same throughout the universe as far as we know. However, miracles appear to violate the laws of nature. Hume therefore concludes that it is more likely that the report of a miracle happening is incorrect than the laws of nature being violated. If we take the example of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, according to the Bible people witnessed this event and our experience of nature is that people who are dead do not come back to life. Many people have near-death experiences but once a person has been in a grave for a day, they do not come back to life. This leads to a conflict between law of nature and miracle stories. Hume would question which is more likely – that the law of nature has been violated or that the eyewitness accounts are mistaken? Hume stated that miracles do not happen because there is so much testable evidence in the favour of laws of science. However, Peter Vardy in ‘Puzzle of God’ highlights that there are more miracles reported today and some are scientifically verified e.g. Lourdes. Brian Davies explains that just because something does not outweigh previous evidence does not mean it cannot occur, e.g. possibility of walking on the moon. C.D Broad challenges Hume’s ‘assumption’ that the laws of nature are fixed when they might be misunderstood.
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