Hume

• Hume is an empiricist, meaning he thinks our beliefs should be based on evidence and experience. Throughout our life, we gain an understanding the laws of nature through such experience. A miracle for Hume is ‘a violation of the law of nature’.
• Hume: When judging what to believe, we should proportion our beliefs to the evidence. So, the evidence we have for the miracle (testimony) must be weighed against the evidence for the law of nature (scientific experiments)
• Hume's view on miracles

  We cannot know if an event was due to a deity because any deity is 'hidden' and unobservable. Hume accepted the possibility of new and extraordinary events, but they are miraculous.
• Hume's view on miracles

  Hume followed the inductive approach - whereas effects can be verified, causes cannot. Everything therefore is about probability, not certainty.
• Hume's view on miracles

  Hume's argument is based on the consistency of human sense experience. Although unusual, it is not a miracle if an apparently healthy man dies suddenly. If a dead man actually came back to life, that would be a miracle as it runs counter to universal sense experience.
• Hume's view on miracles

  In thinking about the term 'miracle', Hume adopts a realist standpoint. He assumes that religious believers' claims are regarded as factual and literally true.
• Hume's view on miracles

  There are three aspects to Hume's definition of the term 'miracle' - it violates the laws of nature, it is willed by God, it may be performed by some other spiritual agent
• Hume's arguments against miracles

  Hume's main argument arises out of definition of miracle and is rooted in empiricism - The validity of witness evidence about anything is dependent on evidence - The more unlikely the claim, the more reliable the evidence needs to be. An event which violates the laws of nature is maximally improbable. Therefore, the likelihood that the witnesses are lying or mistaken is always greater than the likelihood a miracle has happened
• Hume's arguments against miracles - 4 supporting arguments

  There has never been one single miracle supported by witnesses

  People are taken in by claims of miracles because humans are credulous by nature

  Miracle stories are the products of primitive superstitions. They come from 'ignorant and barbarous people'

  Different religions all lay claim to miracles
• The significance of Hume's view in relation to religious belief (Weaknesses)

  An inductive argument, so it can neither definitively prove nor disprove the existence of miracles
• The significance of Hume's view in relation to religious belief (Weaknesses)

  It is possible to construct a theistic argument along the line of Hume's and conclude that miracles probably do happen
• The significance of Hume's view in relation to religious belief (Weaknesses)

  Hume's four supporting arguments aren't strong, and can all be challenged with supporting evidence
• The significance of Hume's view in relation to religious belief (Weaknesses)

  Hume's concluding statement that Christianity is founded on faith and not reason makes an important point: the pre-scientific nature of biblical as well as of early and medival writing needs to be taken into account
• In Hume's view it is a miracle that anyone can believe that miracles happen
• Hume

  Atheist, Realist: interventionist understanding of miracles
• Hume's view

  Christian belief in miracles is irrational since in his view they are maximally improbable