The great eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher David Hume had something to say about miracles, and I’d like to talk about it because it’s important. I’ll put
it in my own words. If somebody claims to have seen a miracle – makes, for example, the miraculous claim that Jesus rose from his grave, or the miraculous claim that the boy Jesus turned mud into sparrows – there are two possibilities.
Possibility 1: It really happened.
Possibility 2: The witness is mistaken – or is lying, was hallucinating, has been misreported, saw a conjuring trick, etc.
You might say: ‘This witness is so reliable, I’d trust him with my life, and there were lots of other witnesses – it would be a miracle if he was lying or otherwise mistaken.’ But Hume would retort: All well and good, but even if you think Possibility 2 would be a miracle, you’d surely admit that Possibility 1 is even more miraculous. When you have a choice of two possibilities, always choose the less miraculous