LO: I will evaluate Hume’s argument against Miracles. Hmk – Prepare presentations for Tuesday’s lesson

Starter Inductive or deductive reasoning? “I'm Sherlock Holmes, the world's only consulting detective. I'm not going to go into detail about how I do what I do because chances are you wouldn't understand. If you've got a problem that you want me to solve, then contact me. Interesting cases only please. This is what I do: 1. I observe everything. 2. From what I observe, I deduce everything. 3. When I've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how mad it might seem, must be the truth. If you need assistance, contact me and we'll discuss its potential.”

The term ‘inductive reasoning" refers to reasoning that takes specific information and makes a broader generalization that is considered probable, allowing for the fact that the conclusion may not be accurate. Hume argues inductively from observations that the laws of nature are such that they cannot be violated. E.g. Laws of nature tend to remain consistent and don’t change (specific reasoning)  Miracles claim to violate laws of nature  The laws don’t change, so all miracle claims must be false (broader generalization). The fact that the probability of a miracle occurring is very low is not enough on its own to prove that it is irrational to believe that miracles do occur. Hume acknowledged this problem, but believed that there is more evidence to suggest miracles don’t occur. Hume’s inductive problem

Responses to Hume – Active reading Use handout to prepare a presentation to the rest of the class on Swinburne’s response to Hume. Focus on the following: What Swinburne says about ‘generalisations’ ‘corrigible’ A definition How Swinburne challenges what Hume has said With regards to educated people Miracles in different religions cancelling each other out

P.R.E. Boxing THE RULES: Anybody who wishes to speak must put up their hand. When a person is speaking, everyone else listens. Only one person speaks at a time. Everyone should try to speak at least once during the session. The person speaking chooses the next person to speak from another side (who has their hand up). If there is more than one person who wishes to speak, you should pick the person who has said the least so far (NAME) A new speaker first has to offer a critical comment and EVALUATE what the previous person has said e.g. I agree because…., I think that is wrong because…., I disagree about this aspect…. The speaker must then say something substantial to drive the discussion forwards (BUILD) NAME EVALUATE BUILD NAME EVALUATE BUILD ‘Hume was wrong about Miracles.’

Evaluating Hume Hume’s argument from induction can be challenged; just because something is improbable doesn’t make it impossible. Hick said that we do not know the laws of nature, and that they appear to have been broken before. He believed that when new things are observed our understanding of the natural law should simply be widened. Swinburne also had reservations about the laws of nature and said they could be seen as probabilistic generalisations as shown by quantum physics. However, these are subject to change as future experience may change our generalisations. Swinburne means by this that a miracle may simply not fit the laws of nature as we understand them. Swinburne also adds that the more evidence there is for a miracle, the stronger the possibility that it happened, providing that the sources of evidence support each other. There is no such thing as an unbiased perspective – maybe an atheist like Hume wants to fail to see the miraculous Although contradictory claims from other religions may devalue a particular religion’s report of a miracle, this only shows that it is not the most rational position to believe in miracles, not that miracles are impossible. However, the range of different religious miracles do not necessarily cancel one another out. Most religious miracles do not purport to establish the truth of a particular religion; for example, healing miracles at Lourdes or in the River Ganges are just instances of God helping the needy. That fact that miracles are ‘claimed’ by particular religious groups is incidental.

Views of other scholars Read pg together Flew, Lewis, Swinburne, Polkinghorne

Homework Present a summary report to be delivered as a speech on what different scholars have said on the topic of miracles so far. Focus on the following: Hume Swinburne 1. Flew 2. Lewis 3. Polkinghorne 4. Dawkins Can you tell me what the other scholars said about miracles? Do some research. This is to be presented in Tuesday’s lesson.

Plenary LO: I will evaluate Hume’s argument against Miracles.