Hume Against Miracles

Hume Against Miracles

1. 'A wise man proportions his belief according to the evidence'

   • Hume, Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding

2. Empiricist and Sceptic

   • Our knowledge of the world comes from obvservations based on our senses
     • Argued however that we cannot reason accurately beyond what we see and hear
       • We are forced to make assumptions

3. Theoretical Case Against Miracles

   • Appears to suggest that miracles are impossible
     • Laws of Nature that we experience are uniform and constant
       • We assume that these laws will not change and have always been constant
         • Notes that we establish cause and effect relationships based on our experience of the world
           • Ideas on induction
           • Makes predictions about what will happen in similar cases in future
           • Each experience we have of normal events seems to make miracles less likely
   • Faced with this, Hume suggests that the only evidence available to us is the testimonies and accounts of others
     • We ought only to believe a miracle story if it would be more incredible that all witnesses were mistaken of the event
       • Does not believe in chance or in supernatural intervention
         • Appeals for us to go with the evidence and consider which state of affairs is more probable
           • A miracle or a more ordinary explanation

4. Practical Argument Against Miracles

   • Gave four practical arguments against miracles; regardless of whether they can be theoretically possible
     • 1.
       • Miracles do not generally have many sane/educated witnesses
     • 2.
       • Psychological; natural interest in the unusual; exploited by religious people
     • 3.
       • 'Ignorant and Barbarous nations that miracles are recorded in
     • 4.
       • Almost all religions have miracle stories; they can't all be right

5. Responses to Hume

   • Appeal to the laws of nature is inconsistent with his own writings
     • He suggests our idea of scientific laws may be psychological habit based on what we repeatedly see
     • Observed that there was no good reason to expect the sun to rise in the morning, yet it does
     • Practical argument can be seen as sweeping generalisations
       • Unclear how many witnesses are sufficient
         • Fails to define 'ignorant and barbarous nations'
           • However, some miracles are claimed in modern western societies
   • Swinburne
     • Noted that testimonies may not be the only evidence available
     • Physical traces of events would count as empirical evidence