Hume and Miracles

The Scottish philosopher, David Hume (1711- 76), was a genius. His work, however, is often profoundly unsettling for Christians. He argues that our ideas are simply ‘calmer’ versions of our emotions and sensations: they are not the result of reason understanding features of reality. Indeed, Hume gives a rather modest role to reason: it helps us verify facts and make decisions but it has little real power in its own right. Hume is famous for questioning whether there are such things as causes at work in nature, whether substances exist, and what the self is. He is critical of traditional morality, claiming a greater role for sentiment and showing little concern for basic human goods, the traditional virtues and absolute moral norms.

Part of Hume’s scepticism was his critique of miracles. He wrote that a miracle is as unlikely as anything could be: it is always more likely that the witnesses are mistaken or lying. Part of the weakness of his account is that he saw miracles as violations of nature, whereas for Christians they are God making some use of nature – something perfectly probable. Hume died an atheist, refusing even to say the Our Father on his deathbed.