MIRACLES FROM THE BOOK THE GOD DEBATE BY LENNOX
Re: The God Debate: A New Look at History's Oldest Argument
This Christian book by obfuscator Professor Lennox claims that Hume stated
miracles don't happen for they are contradicted by natural law. That is a
Christian lie. It is dishonest how Lennox never mentions how Hume said
simply that as it is more likely for dead man to stay dead you cannot believe in
a resurrection unless the evidence is very strong. Hume is not saying a
dead man cannot rise but is talking about how likely it is.
Anyway supposing the book is spot on that Hume defined miracles as impossible
for it is impossible for nature to change. It argues that Hume confused
uniformity with absolute uniformity.
What we are not told is that uniformity could still be enough to make miracles
unbelievable. You don't need to presuppose absolute uniformity if you want to
show miracles are too much to believe in.
And if nature is not absolutely uniform then you cannot know if a claimed
miracle was a fluke of nature or really a miracle.
Hume presumably argued that a miracle must be a pure once-off to be a miracle.
Because Hume reportedly says that a miracle by definition is unprecedented, we
cannot believe a miracle even if it really happens because it is so improbable.
Lennox is trying to make Hume look daft. Hume never said that. For Hume a brick
floating in mid-air once every year is still to be suspected as a trick for
bricks PROBABLY should not do that.
The book then repeats Lennox's allegation that Hume is merely inventing a
definition of miracles that rules out the possibility of believing in miracles.
Hume is accused of assuming that miracles are unbelievable and of being guilty
of assuming what he wants to prove.
But Lennox does not really believe Hume is doing wrong. Does Lennox want to
accuse those who say that miraculous trolls are improbable of bias? Life is not
worth living if we are going to consider everybody to be irrational because
there are many miracles they will not consider to be possible.
Also, Lennox is accusing Hume of saying nature is absolutely uniform so miracles
cannot happen. But even if Hume did, his argument was not about miracles being
impossible but about them being improbable. Hume did spell out when it is
sensible to believe in miracles. It is not true that he reasoned that miracles
don't happen therefore they don't happen.
It is not fair to accuse Hume of defining miracles as unbelievable and that he
is guilty of assuming that they are unbelievable when that is the very thing
that needs proving. Hume only said that because of the problem of human error
and bias and lying it is not that simple. It is reasonable to hold that somebody
who reportedly takes a ride in an alien spaceship is mistaken or lying. It is
mistaken to believe them. Also, people do lie when they must know everybody
knows they are doing it. Imagine how the tendency to lie could be stronger when
the person tells a supernatural lie for that cannot be found out. You cannot
prove that the person who claims visions of Jesus is lying. The supernatural
cannot be disproved.
Later in the book, Lennox's distinction between miracle and supernatural is
made. Lennox says that creation of all things from nothing is supernatural but
not miraculous. Ghosts and possession by demons are supernatural but not
miraculous. Lennox says that the miraculous will always be supernatural but he
insists that not all that is supernatural is miraculous.
Lennox then by his definition cannot prove that the resurrection of Jesus was
miraculous. Perhaps the people who met him after his death had supernatural
experiences? His argument seems to be that though the supernatural makes all
things, it is only when the supernatural is trying to give a religious message
from God that it can be called a miracle. But what about the fact that the best
miracle tales give no such message? They portray themselves as just happening!!
If ghosts and demonic possession are not miracles they can simulate miracles.
Lennox does not and will not tell us that!!
The book says that Hume believed that if a miracle is unprecedented in one
generation it needs to be performed in the next generation so that it can be
unprecedented to it too.
Hume said none of that and it contradicts Lennox's allegation that for Hume a
miracle is a total once-off. If a miracle gives you a great spiritual message
then why is the miracle so important? Why can't the message be bigger than the
miracle meaning you don't need a repeat of the miracle in every generation?
Hume said miracles may happen but if they do they are not believable for they
are so strange and rare and can be believed if the evidence is good enough but
it sadly never is. We follow this rule not just in miracles but in all strange
things. For example, if an old man looked 20 we would keep the same rule. We
would not believe he is really old even if he has papers. There is nothing wrong
with any of that. Lennox and Co are lying about what Hume believed. They see
nothing wrong with his view and so they have to make a laughing stock of it.
The Bible should give an argument like Hume's and refute it. It doesn't. This
ruins its credibility and its miracle tales. The argument is fundamental.
Lennox should be dismissed from his job for no scientist who lies that much can be trusted.