Miracles

Definitions of Miracels:

1. It should break the laws of nature
2. It must have purpose of significance
3. It should be open to all religious or spirtual interpretation

Scholar definitions:

• Aquinas - There are three types of Miracle

1. Events done by God that nature could never do
2. Events done by God that nature could do, but not in that order
3. Events done by God that nature can do, but only God does not use the laws of nature

"Those things.. which are done by divine power apart from the order generally followed in things"

• Hume - "A transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the deity"
• Swinburne - "A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature"

David Hume and Miracles:

• Hume was extreamly sceptical of miracle and in his 'Enquiry concerning human understanding' he gave the following criticisms:

1. We have to be able to trust the wittnesses, unquestioned good sense, education and learning
2. People believe in miracles because they want to
3. Ignorant and superstitious people beleieve miracles. They derive from a lack of understanding of the world
4. There are many accounts of miracles in different religions, they cant all be right; they cancel eachother out
5. 'No testimony is sufficient to etsablish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endevours to establish'

(Explantion of '5.': We should…