From
‘An enquiry concerning human understanding’ (1748)
| 1 |
A miracle is a violation of the laws
of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established
these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the
fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can be possibly
imagined. Why is it more than probable that all men must die; that lead cannot, of itself, remained suspended in the air; that fire consumes wood, and is extinguished by water; unless it be, that these events are found agreeable to the laws of nature, and that there is required a violation of these, or in other words, a miracle to prevent them. |
 |
|
| 2 |
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; and even in that case there is a mutual destruction of arguments, and the superior only gives us assurance to that degree of force, which remains, after deducing the inferior. |
|
|
| 3 |
[There has never been] in all
history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of
such unquestioned good-sense, education and learning, as to secure
us against all delusion in themselves; of such undoubted integrity,
as to place them beyond all suspicion of any design to deceive others;
of such credit and reputation in the eyes of mankind, as to have
a great deal to lose in case of their being detected in any falsehood;
and at the same time, attesting facts performed in such a public
manner and in so celebrated a part of the world, as to render the
detection unavoidable. |
|
|
| 4 |
The passion of surprise and wonder, arising from miracles, being an agreeable emotion, gives a sensible tendency towards the belief of those events, from which it is derived. And this goes so far, that even those who cannot enjoy this pleasure immediately, nor can believe those miraculous events, of which they are informed, yet love to partake of the satisfaction at second-hand, or by rebound, and place a pride and delight in exciting the admiration of others…A religionist may be an enthusiast, and imagine he sees what has no reality: he may know his narratives to be false, and yet persevere in it, with the best intentions in the world, for the sake of promoting so holy a cause. |
|
|
| 5 |
In matters of religion, whatever
is different is contrary…It is impossible the religions of
ancient Rome, of Turkey, of Siam, and of China should, all of them,
be established on any solid foundation. Every miracle, therefore,
pretended to have been wrought in any of these religions (and all
of them abound in miracles), as its direct scope is to establish
the particular system to which it is attributed; so has it the same
force, though more indirectly, to overthrow every other system.
In destroying a rival system, it likewise destroys the credit of
those miracles, on which that system was established. |
|
|
| Some questions | |
|
|
