Comparing Hume's On Miracles And The Scientific Worldview
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The problem concerning the reconcilability of religious claims to miracles and the scientific worldview
The notion that instances of religious miracles can still form part of and is reconcilable with a modern scientific worldview is a notion that is becoming more difficult to justify. In the modern trend of religious adaptability to a growing scientific worldview the reconcilability between religious claims and a scientific worldview can be made. The reconcilability of religious claims pertaining to miracles in a scientific worldview however poses many problems that prevent any form of reconciliation. Definitively the concepts of miracles and a scientific worldview are fundamentally different and are in conflict with each other. Many modern…show more content… Throughout human history the presence of miracles have not only given evidence of a divine power but have also served as the only form of interaction between the divine and humanity. David Hume was an important figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. He was a sceptic and is noted for his arguments against the cosmological and teleological arguments for the existence of God. His article "On Miracles" in chapter 10 of "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding’’ has also been highly influential. David Hume describes a miracle as "a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent". It is clear from Hume’s definition and the critical stance he takes in his chapter on miracles that he did not believe in the probability and validity of the presence of miracles. Hume describes a miracle as a transgression against the laws of nature which entails that miracles are in fact inconceivable within the laws of nature which are the pillars of the scientific worldview. Hume’s argument against the validity of miracles is an argument that is rational and sound but does not however completely exclude the possibility of miracles in the world of natural laws but rather only discredits its plausibility. Hume bases his argument against the validity of miracles on the probability that it is more likely for these miracles to have been created than for these miracles to have actually