Hume on miracles

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A2 Religious studies Mind Map on Hume on miracles, created by Jordan Muggleton on 28/08/2017.
Jordan Muggleton
Mind Map by Jordan Muggleton, updated more than 1 year ago
Jordan Muggleton
Created by Jordan Muggleton over 7 years ago
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Hume on miracles
  1. Miracles are the violation of law by a supernatural being
    1. “The transgression of a natural law by a particular volition of the deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent”
      1. This makes miracles easy to identify.
        1. Restricts God’s actions to the laws of nature, and it does not focus on God’s interaction with the world.
      2. They are the least likely of events (maximally improbable
        1. "A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature, and as firm and unalterable proof has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience that can possibly be imagined"
        2. "A wise man...proportions his belief to his evidence"
          1. Christianity is based upon miracles, so it is necessary to believe in them to believe.
            1. Miracles in the Bible are symbolic - Wiles
            2. “mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity (accuracy)”
              1. All religious belief is contrary to existing (apriori) knowledge
                1. There is insufficient testimony
                  1. "No testimony is sufficient enough to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that it's falsehood proves more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to establish"
                    1. Those who testify miracles may be deceived, deluded or lying, cannot trust.
                      1. Miracles are improbable events, so they need witnesses of higher credulity than probable events
                        1. In order to confirm a miracle, there must be a significant number of witnesses with sound education.
                          1. there has never been “in all history, a miracle attested by a sufficient number of men of such unquestioned good-sense, education and learning to secure us from all delusion”
                            1. Did not specify how many witnesses and of what level of education
                      2. The most impressive testimony will at most counterbalance the unlikelihood of the event, not confirm that it actually happened.
                      3. “The passion of surprise and wonder arising from miracles…gives people a tendency to believe in those events”
                        1. Humans are naturally drawn to the miraculous and love being ‘dazzled’ by the mysterious, so can form unreasonable beliefs on experiences which cannot be trusted
                          1. "A religionist may be an enthusiast and sees what he sees has no reality: he may know his narratives to be false, yet persevere in it, for the sake of promoting so holy a cause"
                            1. Is it sufficient to deny all miracles of any credibility due to this?
                              1. Scepticism has been wrong – e.g. European scientists initially denied the existence of the duck-billed platypus despite the evidence.
                          2. Miracles are "observed chiefly among ignorant and barbarous nations"
                            1. Stories of miracles from ‘primitive and barbarous’ nations that do not understand what is really (scientifically) happening.
                              1. E.g. miracle of the dancing sun at Fatima, Portugal, may have been a result of staring at the sun too long, causing retinal distortion.
                                1. Rome produced Tacticus, a man who recorded miracles, described by Hume as “the greatest and most penetrating genius of perhaps all antiquity”
                                2. Miracles are contrary facts
                                  1. Claims of miracles come from many different sources
                                    1. Many religious beliefs are based on miracles
                                      1. People of different faiths all claim that their religious experience is evidence that their belief system is true
                                        1. Each claim counters those made by other religions
                                          1. Not all miracles can be right as they cancel each other out, so they must all be wrong.
                                            1. Are miracles the basis of religions? James would argue not, that deeper feelings and personal views are central, theology is secondary.
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