Are Miracles Logically Impossible?

[GUNWOUNDS]

Are Miracles Logically Impossible?

 

 

 

    I was surprised by your defense of the value of eyewitnesses. It's not up to your regular level of scholarship. You should review David Hume's "On Miracles" (from an Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding).

In short, no amount of personal testimony is sufficient to establish a violation of natural law (or even the presence of natural law). Physicists don't believe the facts of physics because of personal testimony from other physicists; rather, they believe because they can do the experiment for themselves. Furthermore, if you don't believe, you can do the experiment and see for yourself. No lesser standard of proof is acceptable for scientific explanations of the world.

The miracles of the Bible are not a legalistic claim (did Judas really sell Jesus out?) but a natural claim (did Jesus violate the laws of buoyancy and walk on the water?). Personal testimony is sufficient for the law, mostly because it has to be (prosecutors prefer DNA when they can get it); but it is insufficient for any kind of description of physical reality. Only replicability can stand for that, and miracles, by definition, aren't replicable...

-MCP

 

 

 

Hi Mark,

Thank you for writing. You bring up a very interesting argument - one that has been quite resilient over the years. As you said, David Hume wrote _Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding_ in 1748 and Section X was entitled "Of Miracles". The chapter argues very deftly that if rational people have a choice to believe more than one explanation of an event, they should choose to believe that explanation which is most probable

In fact, Hume argues that miracles are by definition unbelievable. He writes, "A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature