Evaluation

• Violation- goes against
• Volition- By the will of
• Hume's main inductive arguments against miracles

  1. Witness testimony has to become more reliable in direct proportion to the improbability of what the witness claims to be observed
  2. The most improbable event would be a violation of natural laws
  3. So by definition, the reported event is maximally improbable
  4. So that the probability that the witness is lying or mistaken is always greater than the probability that a miracle has occurred
• Witness testimony must follow logic
• Hume argues that there is no logical observation of violations of the laws of nature
• Magnification

  • A believer may know the miracle is false, however they believe the cause is holy, so they persevere
  • The more the hearer believes it, the more they magnify it
• Magnification

  • Just because its been spoken about does not mean it is not true
  • Miracles can be used to evangelise
• Laws of nature are "firm and unalterable experience"- Hume
• Flaw of improbable event

  • Scientific laws are descriptive, not prescriptive
  • Laws of nature cannot dictate
  • Our understanding of nature may be limited (Flew)
• "No human testimony can have such force as to prove a miracle"- Hume
• Psychology

  • None of the miracle accounts available to us would convince us that the witnesses were not deluded, mistaken or lying
  • Feelings of awe or surprise make people less sensible
• Hume blamed a belief in miracles on "ignorant and barbarous ancestors"
• Hume felt that miracles came from uncivilised cultures
• Emperor Vespasian

  • Worshipped the God Serapis
  • Healed a blind man and a broken hand
• Tacitus

  • Reported on miracles of Emperor Vespasian
  • "the greatest and most penetrating genius... free from any tendency of credulity"- Hume about Tacitus (highly hypocritical)