Against Miracles as Law-Violations: A Neo-Aristotelian Approach

Miracles are commonly understood in the way David Hume defined them: as violations of the laws of nature. I argue, however, that the conjunction of Hume’s definition with a neo-Humean view of the laws of nature yields objectionable consequences. In particular, the two jointly imply that some miracles are logically impossible. A better way of thinking about miracles, I suggest, is on a neo-Aristotelian metaphysics. On that view, the laws of nature contain built-in ceteris paribus clauses that allow for the possibility of external influences in the natural world. Miracles, understood as instances of external, divine influence, would therefore neither violate the laws of nature nor be instances of those laws. In this respect, neo-Aristotelians have an advantage over neo-Humeans in providing a coherent account of miracles

Of Miracles and Evidential Probability: Hume’s “Abject Failure” Vindicated

This paper defends David Hume's "Of Miracles" from John Earman's (2000) Bayesian attack by showing that Earman misrepresents Hume's argument against believing in miracles and misunderstands Hume's epistemology of probable belief. It argues, moreover, that Hume's account of evidence is fundamentally non-mathematical and thus cannot be properly represented in a Bayesian framework. Hume's account of probability is show to be consistent with a long and laudable tradition of evidential reasoning going back to ancient Roman law

October 1970

My dear Brother: The key to good Lutheran theology is the doctrine of the Incarnation. Often I have told students, worried about the miracles, to concentrate first, completely, and humbly on the miracle of miracles, the decisive touchstone of all Christian dogma — the dogmatic, ringing, even arrogant affirmation of the In carnation, of the simple yet infinitely mysterious fact that the Nazarene carpenter, the friend of little children, was also the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Alpha and Omega of life and time and history and eternity

Sustainable Miracles

Growth Miracles, Total Factor Productivity, Brazil

The Anti-Induction for Scientific Realism

In contemporary philosophy of science, the no-miracles argument and the pessimistic induction are regarded as the strongest arguments for and against scientific realism, respectively. In this paper, I construct a new argument for scientific realism which I call the anti-induction for scientific realism. It holds that, since past theories were false, present theories are true. I provide an example from the history of science to show that anti-inductions sometimes work in science. The anti-induction for scientific realism has several advantages over the no-miracles argument as a positive argument for scientific realism

Reid\u27s A dream of miracles (Book Review)

Reid, R. (2016). A dream of miracles. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. 323 pp. $15.99. ISBN 978140168831

The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne: Or a Word or Two on Those Port Annie Miracles by Jack Hodgins

Review of The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne: Or a Word or Two on Those Port Annie Miracles by Jack Hodgins

The Buddha’s Great Miracle at Śrāvastī: A Translation from the Tibetan \u3cem\u3eMūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya\u3c/em\u3e

This article offers an annotated translation of the story of the Buddha’s great miracle at Śrāvastī, as found in the Tibetan translation of the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya. While miracles of the Buddha are many and various, the great miracle of Śrāvastī, one of the Buddha’s principal miracles, is almost the prototypical Buddhist miracle story, and the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya contains a significant version of it. Yet of the many versions preserved in a variety of languages, this is one of the last to garner much scholarly attention. This article makes it more widely accessible to an interested audience, thereby contributing to the further study of Buddhist miracle literature