Argumentative Essay On Are Miracles Real
Are miracles real?
The concept of miracles is a topic which is frequently brought up in discussions about the nature of the world. The issue is, however, that many people are simply observing coincidences and then calling them miracles. In order to deal with this issue it is important that we define what a miracle is, explore the different interpretations of what miracles are and are not, and then reach a conclusion about whether miracles can exist in our world.
There is no standard definition about what defines a miracle and different philosophers such as David Hume and Saint Augustine have different definitions on the subject. For somewhere to start, however, we might observe that the term originates from the Latin word miraculum, which …show more content…
This refers to how we receive information about miracles. In the modern world this is communicated though human testimony reported in a newspaper or through other media. The issue with these sources of information is that they are not unbiased and as such suffer from a degree of bias about the miracle and the circumstances in which it could have occurred. This forms part of Hume’s argument in of Miracles in which he fundamentally states that the human testimony tends to accord itself with reality, and the laws of nature tend to be constant. Since a miracle, by some definitions, is a violation of the laws of nature, it can only be credible to the extent to which the testimony in its favour is more forceful than the laws of nature that contradict it (Keener, 2012). Hume then goes on to provide reasons to state that the human testimony will not overcome the laws of …show more content…
Hume’s argument begs the question through the need to argue that the reports of resurrections, for instance, are to be dismissed on the grounds that the event conflicts with a law of nature. If the law depends on the assumption that resurrections have not occurred, then he is begging the question by assuming that it has not happened before. “We must take seriously the possibility that there has been a breach in the uniformity of nature, which means that we cannot assume, without begging the question, that our ordinary observations are relevant.” (Armstrong,
The concept of miracles is a topic which is frequently brought up in discussions about the nature of the world. The issue is, however, that many people are simply observing coincidences and then calling them miracles. In order to deal with this issue it is important that we define what a miracle is, explore the different interpretations of what miracles are and are not, and then reach a conclusion about whether miracles can exist in our world.
There is no standard definition about what defines a miracle and different philosophers such as David Hume and Saint Augustine have different definitions on the subject. For somewhere to start, however, we might observe that the term originates from the Latin word miraculum, which …show more content…
This refers to how we receive information about miracles. In the modern world this is communicated though human testimony reported in a newspaper or through other media. The issue with these sources of information is that they are not unbiased and as such suffer from a degree of bias about the miracle and the circumstances in which it could have occurred. This forms part of Hume’s argument in of Miracles in which he fundamentally states that the human testimony tends to accord itself with reality, and the laws of nature tend to be constant. Since a miracle, by some definitions, is a violation of the laws of nature, it can only be credible to the extent to which the testimony in its favour is more forceful than the laws of nature that contradict it (Keener, 2012). Hume then goes on to provide reasons to state that the human testimony will not overcome the laws of …show more content…
Hume’s argument begs the question through the need to argue that the reports of resurrections, for instance, are to be dismissed on the grounds that the event conflicts with a law of nature. If the law depends on the assumption that resurrections have not occurred, then he is begging the question by assuming that it has not happened before. “We must take seriously the possibility that there has been a breach in the uniformity of nature, which means that we cannot assume, without begging the question, that our ordinary observations are relevant.” (Armstrong,