I would like to start off with
Hume’s perspective on Miracles. Hume
starts off by defining what a miracle is; he says that a miracle is a violation
of the laws of nature. This means that events such as people dying and fires
are found agreeable to nature, and in order for them to be a miracle a
violation is required to prevent them and make them not agreeable to nature,
Hume uses the example of a dead man coming back to life. The whole second
paragraph Hume explains his view more strongly he says that the probability
that a person’s testimony of a miracle being wrong outweighs the probability of
that person testimony of a miracle being right.
Swinburne on the other hand I feel believes
that miracles are more likely to happen than Hume does. Swinburne talks about what he thinks miracles
would be, and they are things; such as Levitations, Resurrection from the dead
in full health of a man whose heart has not been beating for twenty four hours,
water turning into wine without the assistance of chemicals, and then a man
getting better from polio in a minute. In Swinburne’s piece he also talks about
Hume’s perspective. He starts off with a scenario, if there were two hundred
people to have witnessed the same event which was a non-repeatable event, and that
these people would be willing to prove that the event did not occur if there
were grounds to do so. He next asks the question does the combined evidence
prove that the event in fact did happen. Swinburne tells us that Hume’s answer
would be no, which would be getting to the point that Hume’s standards of
evidence are too high.
I believe that Swinburne is trying to show us
that he himself believes more in miracles than Hume does. It seems to me that
Hume doses not believe in miracles at all. Swinburne examples of miraculous events
are pretty close to what the Bible says a miracle is. To me this also shows
that Swinburne is more of a believer.
"Sugar the miracle cat"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57402771/sugar-the-miracle-cat-survives-19-story-fall/
Miracle or just part of nature?
What do you think?
I think the event was a miracle. A cat falling out of a 19 story building and living is very much a miracle. Regarding the post above, I like what Swinburne says about miracles. I think people now in-days expect too much from miracles and miss out on the little everyday miracles. Miracles are going to be defined different depending on the person and what their beliefs are. I understand where Hume is coming from in regard to miracles violating the laws of nature but at the same time I feel that Swinburne is more right when it comes to defining a miracle.
DeleteI agree with Jenny, i think that it was a miracle, the cat walked away with minor bruises and lived after fall all that way. That was a very lucky cat. Then i also agree with Jenny when she says that people now expect too much from miracles and that we miss the little everyday things, i believe this is why more people are starting to believe less in miracles because they are always expecting the bigs ones to happen and they miss the small ones right in front of them
ReplyDeleteThat and I also believe it is the way the media portrays miracles. You know according to movies, it's cliche, but miracles happen everyday to everyone. Which is not always the case.
ReplyDeleteYeahh it could be the way that the media is portraying this "miracle" but i guess it depends on what you consider a miracle and what your definition of a miracle is. For everyone it will be differnt. Miracles may not happen everyday to everyone i do agree but something so simple as this cat living is a miracle in many eyes. I do agree that media does go over the top with things.
ReplyDeleteMiracles are something that you just can't always explain. Nowadays, some people believe that everything can be explained with math and science.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has their own belief in what a miracle is supposed to be.
this idea of a miracle is something that can not be explain. however, if something has the ability to be explained but is still miraculous is it no longer a miracle. im sure that if someone invested time and money into researching the cats fall they could show why it survived. would this make it not a miracle? maybee a miracle is not something unexplainable but instead something that has such a low chance of happeing that makes when it does happen a miracle
ReplyDeleteScientists have discovered a species of mushroom in the Amazon that is capable of living off of plastic and can do so without the presence of oxygen. Theoretically, we can dig a big hole in the ground and throw in our plastic waste (which we already do anyway, only now it just sits buried for who knows how long) then sprinkle on some of these mushrooms, cover it all up and let them consume the plastic naturally.
ReplyDeletePlastic-eating fungus discovered in Amazonian rainforest
As an atheist I am certain that a reasonable scientific explanation of this fungus and its origins can be found through biological research, but this seems pretty miraculous to me. Now if only we could find some organism that naturally consumes nuclear waste...
I agree with Russ here. Defining a miracle is like defining love, nearly impossible. One may think that someone surviving a gunshot to the head is a miracle, but another might say its not. Some people may say that the sun coming up every morning is a miracle, most people say it's just another day... A miracle is simply an improbable event that, by chance, happened.
ReplyDelete