РефератыИностранный языкHuHume Essay Research Paper In explaining Humes

Hume Essay Research Paper In explaining Humes

Hume Essay, Research Paper


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.


7 1

Сохранить в соц. сетях:
Обсуждение:
comments powered by Disqus

Название реферата: Hume Essay Research Paper In explaining Humes

Слов:2085
Символов:13211
Размер:25.80 Кб.