Essay on Hume’s Reasons for Rejecting Miracles - 815 Words

Hume’s Reasons for Rejecting Miracles One of the main philosophers in the debate about miracles is David Hume. I will start this essay with a basic summary of Hume’s argument. Hume’s argument is not that miracles cannot happen, but that, given the amount of evidence that has established and confirmed a law of nature, there can never be sufficient evidence to prove that a law of nature has been violated. He believes that miracles have no rational background. Hume was an empiricist, in other words, he believed that all knowledge is based on evidence that we gain through our senses. He argues that if a miracle goes against a law of nature, then it represents a single piece of evidence that†¦show more content†¦Hume argues that a miracle is a breach of a law of nature. As I said earlier, he believes that the belief in miracles is not rational. He maintains that if you were a rational human being, you would not believe in miracles. Hume states that we have a uniform past evidence for laws of nature. For example, when people walk on water, they sink and when someone dies, they do not rise from the dead. However, Hume only deals with reports of miracles and doesn’t look at them from first hand experience. Hume furthers his argument by saying that the reports of witnesses are unreliable and untrustworthy. He makes the point that people who are claiming a miracle has happened should have a reputation to lose and absolutely nothing to gain. Hume advances on this argument to say that reports of miracles generally come from ignorant and barbarous people. He states that humans love the fantastic. People love the idea of something unlikely happening since wonder and excitement are enjoyable emotions. This argument seems to be weak since he only deals with word of mouth miracles whereas today there is much more scientific research into miracles. For example, the miracles at Lourdes. There have been 68 carefully checked claims that Natural Law has been broken and the church has declared them miracles. Physical things have happened when all theShow MoreRelatedEssay on Of Conspiracy Theories by Brian Keeley1095 Words   |  5 Pagesdifficulties of UCTs. He explains why UCTs are as popular as they are in modern society, and why people should nevertheless disregard and approach them with caution. What Keeley refers to as â€Å"virtues† are the reason for the popularity of UCTs. He gives the virtue of explanatory reach as the first and main reason for UCTs popularity, which is the account of all knowledge including errant data. This is in stark contrast to the received theory, which is imperfect by nature. This quality of UCTs is particularlyRead MoreDavid Hume Effect1830 Wor ds   |  8 Pagesmatters of fact are a posteriori, meaning that they can be proven true only through experience. He offers the example that â€Å"the sun will rise tomorrow† because there’s no way for us to be certain that this will happen, there is no logical appeal to reason that can definitively prove that just because the sun has always risen in the mornings, that it will in the unobserved future. Hume also uses the famous example of two billiard balls to explain that cause and effect is merely learned. Because of ourRead More Al-Ghazà ¢là ®, Causality, and Knowledge Essay3905 Words   |  16 Pagesnotion of causality to the philosophers: namely that given the existence of a cause, the existence of its effect is necessary. (3) Al-Ghazà ¢là ® holds that, on such a notion of causality, only God is a cause. This is because, given the existence of miracles, and accepting the proposition that God can do anything, no cause other than God can necessitate its effect. It is always possible that God might will the expected effect not to proceed, or will an entirely different effect to proceed. Al-Ghazà ¢là ®Read MoreSources of Ethics20199 Words   |  81 Pagesenvironment serve humanity as one of their functions, this does not imply that human use is the sole reason for their creation. The legal and ethical reasons for protecting the environment can be summarized as follows: †¢ First, the environment is Gods creation and to protect it is to preserve its values as a sign of the Creator. To assume that the environments benefits to human beings are the sole reason for its protection may lead to environmental misuse or destruction. †¢ Second, the component