Miracles - Quotes

Question 1

Miracles as remarkable coincidences (Holland)

Answer 1

‘a remarkable and beneficial coincidence that is interpreted in a religious fashion’

Question 2

Hume pt.1

Answer 2

‘a wise man proportions his belief to the evidence’

‘he considers which side is supported by the greater number of experiments’

‘we must balance the opposite experiments’

‘always reject the greater miracle’

• Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Question 3

Hume pt. 2

Answer 3

‘Ignorant and barbarous nations’

Hume, Enquiry

Question 4

Hume’s argument - support

Answer 4

‘There are things so extraordinary that nothing can balance their improbability’
- Laplace, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities

‘The intrinsic improbability of a genuine miracle… is very great’
- Mackie, The Miracle of Theism

Question 5

Hume’s argument - against

Answer 5

(referring to Napoleon) ‘this case is much more open to sceptical doubts even than some miraculous histories’
- Whately, Historical Doubts Relative to Napoleon Buonaparte

‘And how do we know the Uniformity of Nature?… we do not know it by experience’
- C.S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study