Hume and Blackburn on Miracles

Some actual newspaper headlines:

 Bush changing his name to ‘God’

 Beer makes you smarter
 Aliens claim Jacko is their son
 Pope John Paul II keeps a pair of Mother
Teresa’s unwashed panties for good luck
 UFO found on beach after killer tsunami
 Post Office to offer XXX stamps to honor porn
stars
 Compare:
 Man claims God ordered him to kill son
 Talking reptile gets couple evicted from
dream home
 Man heals lepers with bare hands
 Border guard thwarted by parting sea
 Homeless man, claiming to be lovechild of
God and virgin, rises from dead
 When anyone reports anything:
S says that p,
So we know that:
 S said that p and p is true
or
 S said that p and p is not true

 Believe whatever is most likely

i.e., believe whatever is least miraculous
 Hume:
“No testimony is sufficient to establish a
miracle, unless the testimony be of such a
kind, that its falsehood would be more
miraculous, than the fact, which it
endeavours to establish”
 Some actual newspaper
headlines:

 Bush changing his name to ‘God’

 Beer makes you smarter
 Aliens claim Jacko is their son
 Pope John Paul II keeps a pair of Mother
Teresa’s unwashed panties for good luck
 UFO found on beach after killer tsunami
 Post Office to offer XXX stamps to honor porn
stars
 Compare:
 Man claims God ordered him to kill son
 Talking reptile gets couple evicted from
dream home
 Man heals lepers with bare hands
 Border guard thwarted by parting sea
 Homeless man, claiming to be lovechild of
God and virgin, rises from dead
 Miracles and testimony
When S reports that p,
we know that:
 S said that p and p is true
or
 S said that p and p is not true

 Which should we believe?

whatever is most likely
i.e., believe whatever is least miraculous
 Hume:
“No testimony is sufficient to establish a
miracle, unless the testimony be of such a
kind, that its falsehood would be more
miraculous, than the fact, which it
endeavours to establish”
 The Problem of Evil
 Why does God allow evil, unnecessary
suffering?

The existence of evil is thought by some to

prove that God does not exist
 An Incompatible Triad
 God is omnipotent
 God is wholly good
 Evil exists
 “Omnipotent”: can do anything that is possible
 “good”: opposed to evil
 “evil”: suffering, especially unnecessary suffering

Can’t all be true, yet each is essential to

standard theism
 Standard Responses:
1. Good cannot exist without evil
---so even God can’t make a good world
without evil in it

 Incompatible with God’s omnipotence,

unless read as logical necessity: evil
logically necessarily accompanies good
 Is so much evil necessary? Was there
good before the Holocaust?
 Standard Responses:
2. Evil is necessary means to good

 Incompatible with God’s omnipotence.

God is not bound by causal law
 Surgeon has to cause pain in order to
heal; God doesn’t
 Standard Responses:
3. Universe better with some evil than with
none.
--- 2nd order goods (e.g., courage,
generosity) logically require some 1st order
evil (e.g., hunger, pain)

 But then there are 2nd order evils:

cowardice, callousness, selfishness
 So there is no net gain of good
 Standard Responses:
4. Free will
---evil is the logically necessary result of free will, and it
is better to have free will and consequent evil than to be
mere automata (robots).
 (a) Free will is incoherent.
 (b) God could let people act freely when they’re doing
good things, prevent them from doing bad things.
 Could allow them to choose bad things, but not allow that choice
to have bad consequences
 (c) Only takes care of some evils: moral evil (caused by
human choice), but not natural evil (e.g., plagues,
earthquakes, etc.)
 Swinburne’s theodicy
Theodicy: explanation of why a good God
allows evil

 We have influence on our own destiny,

destiny of others on the planet, and it’s
good for us that it’s like that
Suppose you have the choice to experience
a few moments of bliss, or pain that’s
going to make a difference. You’d pick the
second.

 Good and evil not merely pleasure, pain.

That wouldn’t account for why free will is
good
 Free will: responsibility, ability to do good
or harm.
 Free and responsible choice.

 Father leaves older son with younger son;

wouldn’t be giving him responsibility if he
kept watchful eye, made it impossible for
him to do harm

 I must be able to do you harm to have real

choice