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Religious Experience and Miracles

Hume and Swinburne on miracles

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 5

Overview

Hume's general principle about testimony and miracles, hume's argument from the quality of witnesses and hume's argument from the love of wonder.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

In which work does Hume argue against belief in miracles?

Key term

Why does Hume think the evidence is always against a miracle?

Evaluation

State Hume's argument from the love of wonder.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    In which work does Hume argue against belief in miracles?

    Model answer

    An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, published in 1748, in the section on miracles.

  2. 2

    State Hume's general principle about testimony and miracles.

    Model answer

    That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle unless its falsehood would be more miraculous than the event it reports.

  3. 3

    Why does Hume think the evidence is always against a miracle?

    Model answer

    A law of nature rests on uniform experience, which is the strongest evidence there is, so testimony to an exception is always outweighed.

  4. 4

    State Hume's argument from the quality of witnesses.

    Model answer

    No miracle has been attested by enough people of unquestioned good sense, education and reputation, with too much to lose by lying.

  5. 5

    State Hume's argument from the love of wonder.

    Model answer

    People take pleasure in surprise and marvel, which makes them credulous about extraordinary reports and eager to pass them on.

  6. 6

    State Hume's argument from ignorant and barbarous nations.

    Model answer

    Miracle reports cluster among peoples with little critical scrutiny and diminish as knowledge advances, which suggests a human rather than divine cause.

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