Believing a miracle
On the axis: Existence of God · a miracle
Can testimony make believable an event that contradicts the regular course of nature, or is it always more likely that the witness is mistaken?
Justification
In the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Hume dismantles the argument from design: the order of the world warrants no secure inference to an infinite, wise and good creator, above all given evil. Without professing firm atheism (he allows a vague cause or causes of order), he empties theism of any determinate content: the position leans clearly toward agnosticism and atheism.
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (esp. parts V, VIII and XI) · The Natural History of Religion
Justification
Hume sets religious belief against the : no religion grounded in reason holds up, faith always exceeding the available evidence (hence the ironic fideist twist when he concludes that only a continued miracle, faith itself, makes one believe Christianity). Religious belief thus belongs to another register than knowledge, and where it claims to demonstrate (natural theology) it conflicts with rigorous reason.
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, sect. X, conclusion (on faith) · Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, part XII
Anchors: Hume
leads to: Faith and reason