Essay/Term paper: Hume

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Philosophy Essays

Hume


In explaining Hume's critique of the belief in miracles, we must first
understand the definition of a miracle. The Webster Dictionary defines a
miracle as: a supernatural event regarded as to define action, one of the acts
worked by Christ which revealed his divinity an extremely remarkable
achievement or event, an unexpected piece of luck. Therefore, a miracle is
based on one's perception of past experiences, what everyone sees. It is based
on a individuals own reality, and the faith in which he/she believes in, it is
based on interior events such as what we are taught, and exterior events, such
as what we hear or see first hand.

When studying Hume's view of a miracle, he interprets or defines a miracle as
such; a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature, an event which is not
normal to most of mankind. Hume explains this point brilliantly when he states,
"Nothing is esteemed a miracle, if it has ever happened in the common course of
nature. It is no miracle that a man seemingly in good health should die on a
sudden." (Hume p.888) Hume states that this death is quite unusual, however it
seemed to happen naturally. He could only define it as a true miracle if this
dead man were to come back to life. This would be a miraculous event because
such an experience has not yet been commonly observed. In which case, his
philosophical view of a miracle would be true.

Hume critiques and discredits the belief in a miracle merely because it goes
against the laws of nature. Hume defines the laws of nature to be what has
been "uniformly" observed by mankind, such as the laws of identity and gravity.
He views society as being far to liberal in what they consider to be a miracle.
He gives the reader four ideas to support his philosophy in defining a true
miracle, or the belief in a miracle. These points leads us to believe that
there has never been a miraculous event established.

Hume's first reason in contradicting a miracle is, in all of history there has
not been a miraculous event with a sufficient number of witnesses. He
questions the integrity of the men and the reputation in which they hold in
society. If their reputation holds great integrity, then and only then can we
have full assurance in the testimony of men. Hume is constantly asking
throughout the passage questions to support proof for a miracle. He asks
questions such as this; Who is qualified? Who has the authority to say who
qualifies? As he asks these questions we can see there are no real answers, in
which case, it tends to break the validity of the witnesses to the miracle.

Hume's second reason in contradicting the validity of a miracle is that he views
all of our beliefs, or what we choose to accept, or not accept through past
experience and what history dictates to us. Furthermore, he tends to discredit
an individual by playing on a human beings consciousness or sense of reality.
An example is; using words such as, the individuals need for "excitement" and "
wonder" arising from miracles. Even the individual who can not enjoy the
pleasure immediately will still believe in a miracle, regardless of the
possible validity of the miracle. With this, it leads the individual to feel a
sense of belonging and a sense of pride. These individuals tend to be the
followers within society. These individuals will tend to believe faster than
the leaders in the society. With no regard to the miracles validity, whether
it is true or false, or second hand information. Miracles lead to such strong
temptations, that we as individuals tend to lose sense of our own belief of
fantasy and reality. As individuals we tend to believe to find attention, and
to gossip of the unknown. Through emotions and behavior Hume tends to believe
there has been many forged miracles, regardless if the information is somewhat
valid or not.

His third reason in discrediting the belief in a miracle is testimony versus
reality. Hume states, "It forms a strong presumption against all supernatural
and miraculous events, that they are observed chiefly to abound among ignorant
and barbarous ancestors; or if civilized people has ever given admission to
any of them, that people will be found to have received them from these
barbarous ancestors, who transmitted them with that inviolable sanction and
authority, which always attend perceived opinions." (Hume p.891) In any case
many of the miraculous events which happened in past history would not be
considered a miracle in today's world, or at any other time in history. The
reality most people believed at that period, as a result can be considered lies
or exaggerations. Hume discredits the miracle as to the time period in which
the miracle is taking place, the mentality, or the reality of individuals at
that given time. Hume suggests that during certain times in history we are
told of miraculous accounts of travelers. "Because we as individuals love to
wonder, there is an end to common sense, and human testimony, in these
circumstances, loses all pretensions to authority." (Hume p.890)

The final point Hume gives to discredit the validity of a miracle is that there
must be a number of witnesses to validate the miracle. "So that not only the
miracle destroys the credit of testimony, but the testimony destroys itself."
(Hume p.892). This basically means that the witnesses must all give the exact
same testimony of the facts of the event. Hume finds difficulty in the belief or
integrity of any individual, and the difficulty of detecting falsehood in any
private or even public place in history. "Where it is said to happen much more
when the scene is removed to ever so small a distance." (Hume p.892) A court
of justice with accuracy and judgment may find themselves often distinguishing
between true and false. If it is trusted to society through debate, rumors,
and mans passion it tends to be difficult to trust the validity of the miracle.

Throughout the rest of the readings Hume states a few events which many believe
are miracles. He discredits many these miracles through his critiques. I have
chosen to illustrate two "so-called" miracles from the New American Bible and
to show how Hume would view these miracles. The stories are of Noah's Ark and
The Burning Bush.

The story of Noah's Ark took place when the Lord began to realize how great mans
wickedness on earth had become. He began to regret the fact that he had
created man on earth. The lord decided the only way to rid the wickedness
would be to destroy all men, and all living creatures living on the earth.
The only men in which he would not destroy were to be Noah, his sons, Noah's
wife and his sons wives. He also would save a pair of animals. Of each species.
The rest were to perish from the earth. He chose Noah to be the favor and
carry out the task. The Lord requested Noah to build a ark explained exactly
how it was to be made. Noah spent six hundred years of his life building the
ark in which God insisted upon. When the ark was finally complete The Lord
told Noah it was time to gather the selected few the floods were about to come.
These floods lasted forty days and forty nights. The floods wiped out all
living creatures on earth, except all on the ark. In the six hundred and first
year of Noah's life the floods stopped and the earth began to dry. Noah then
built an alter to the Lord and choosing from every clean animal he offered
holocaust on the alter. As God states "Never again will I doom the earth
because of man, since the desires of man's heart are evil from the start; nor
will I ever strike down all living beings, as I have done."

In deciding upon whether this is a valid miracle in Hume's opinion of miracles I
believe he would consider it to be a miracle but, would have a hard time
validating the testimony of it. The reasons in which he would criticize the
validity with in the testimony would be as follows. The testimony versus the
reality. To further support the theory he would argue the time period in which
the miracle had taken place. And would find it difficult to believe with out a
reasonable doubt. There is a question to whether it could be lies or
exaggerations. Furthermore, it could not possibly be a validated miracle
considering the amount of men in which witnessed the event. As well a s
questioning the integrity of the men. Although this miracle was a act of God
we can still question the validity of our ancestors or God for that matter.
Hume would not be satisfied not only with the integrity of the individuals but
the amount of witnesses at the given time. Therefore we can only view this as
a miracle depending upon our own individual perceptions of what we believe to
be true. This leads to a non uniform event since we as individuals hold
different beliefs of what we hold true, and false.

The second miracle in which I will discuss was that of Moses and the burning
bush. As Moses was working in the fields a angel of the Lord appeared to him
in fire flaming out of the holy bush. Almost amazing the bush was full of
flames but was yet not consumed. As he walked closer he heard the voice, the
voice of God telling Moses he was the chosen one to take the Israelite's out of
Egypt away from the cruel hands of the Egyptians. In disbelief that he was the
chosen one he set forth on his journey to Egypt with God watching over him and
leading the way. As Moses leads the Israelite's out of Egypt he comes to the
Red Sea with the Egyptians close behind. As the bible explains the miracle
takes place the Red Sea splits leading the Israelite's to freedom. As the
Egyptians were crossing the sea it closed it's gates and let them drown with
in the waters of the sea. In justifying whether Hume would discredit this
miracle he would definitely see how one may say it is a miracle, but again
would have a hard time validating the testimony of the miracle. Again we see
the pattern of the fact that there is no one to testify for the event. We can
only view this as a truthful experience through our belief in God and the bible.
It is what we are taught to believe through religious texts, and our house of
worship. It is the individuals perception of reality and what he or she
believes to be a valid event.

In conclusion, a miracle is actually based on an individuals own perception of
past and present experiences. The belief in a miraculous event tends to have
no real evidence through mans hope, it tends to be something better through our
expectations. I can not debate the belief of a miracle. There is no right or
wrong belief. It is viewed through our own individual perception and faith,
our existence and sense of reality.