Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- DIVINITY
- ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
- II Classical Ontological Arguments
- III Modern Modal Ontological Arguments
- IV Kurt Gödel's Ontologischer Beweis
- V First Causes “The Second Way”
- VI Ultimate Reasons: Proofs a contingentia mundi
- VII Look ’Round! – Arguments from Design
- VIII Clouds of Witnesses – “Of Miracles”
- ON TWO PARTS OF THE COMMON CONCEPTION
- ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
- PRACTICAL ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THEISTIC BELIEFS
- Notes
- References
- Index of Names
VIII - Clouds of Witnesses – “Of Miracles”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- DIVINITY
- ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
- II Classical Ontological Arguments
- III Modern Modal Ontological Arguments
- IV Kurt Gödel's Ontologischer Beweis
- V First Causes “The Second Way”
- VI Ultimate Reasons: Proofs a contingentia mundi
- VII Look ’Round! – Arguments from Design
- VIII Clouds of Witnesses – “Of Miracles”
- ON TWO PARTS OF THE COMMON CONCEPTION
- ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
- PRACTICAL ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THEISTIC BELIEFS
- Notes
- References
- Index of Names
Summary
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses … run with patience the race that is set before us. …
Hebrews 12.1There surely never was a greater number of miracles ascribed to one person, than those, which are lately said to have been wrought in France upon the tomb of Abbé Paris. … Where shall we find such a number of circumstances, agreeing to the corroboration of one fact? And what have we to oppose to such a cloud of witnesses, but the absolute impossibility or miraculous nature of the events, which they relate?
David HumeINTRODUCTION AND PREFATORY REMARKS
The evidence of testimony depends not only on the reliability of those testifying, but also on the credibility of what they attest apart from their testimony for it.
[When] the fact which the testimony endeavours to establish partakes of the extraordinary and the marvellous – in that case the evidence resulting from the testimony admits of a diminution, greater or less in proportion as the fact is more or less unusual … “I should not believe such a story were it told to me by Cato” was a proverbial saying in Rome. … The incredibility of the fact, it was allowed, might invalidate so great an authority. (p. 113)
How great the diminution, when the fact partakes of not merely the extraordinary and marvelous, but the miraculous?
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- Chapter
- Information
- Logic and TheismArguments for and against Beliefs in God, pp. 298 - 342Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003