Questions tagged [miracles]
A miracle is an event attributed to a supernatural agent even if there is a naturalistic explanation for the event.
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How does determinism or eternal existence affect how “lucky” something is?
Suppose I have a dice with 1 million sides. I then think of a number, say, 700,000. Assume that there is no rigging involved.
The dice then lands on 700,000. Let’s assume we live in a world where this ...
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What is the status of the no miracles argument?
The most powerful intuition motivating realism is an old idea,
commonly referred to in recent discussions as the “miracle argument”
or “no miracles argument”, after Putnam’s (1975a: 73) claim that
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Does quantum mechanics make miracles merely coincidences?
Part of the reason events like Moses parting the Red Sea or a person tunneling through a wall is considered miraculous is because this is considered a violation of a law of nature.
But doesn’t the ...
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Can the Humean argument against miracles also apply to divine providence?
Hume famously said,
That 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 ...
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Would LEGIT miracles and prophecies serve as proof for a religion [duplicate]
Let's say that a random man comes to me and preaches his faith. He says that his religious book was sent down to Earth 3000 years ago and revealed to a man called 'X'.
I ask him for proof about his ...
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How does quantum mechanics affect the probability of macro events?
Events in the world can be described on the macro scale or the micro scale. For events that occur in the macro scale, such as the shape of a particular rock that forms, would the rock have formed in ...
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Should religiously significant coincidences be seen as miracles?
It seems that in most of philosophical history, the attention of the word miracle has referred to a direct violation of a law of nature.
It would, however, be naive to not notice how religious ...
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When do we need an alternative explanation for statistically unlikely events?
When do we need an alternative explanation for statistically unlikely events?
I ask because I am interested in miracles: is an extremely unlikely event enough to warrant the claim that something is ...
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David Hume on Miracles
David Hume's definition of a miracle (refining, paraphrasing): X is a miracle if (and only if) not X is an even greater miracle.
Is this definition problematic in any way?
When anyone tells me, that ...
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Why do we need repetitive demonstration to accept miracles happening?
From the highest upvoted answer on Is any aspect of the supernatural testable? What level of proof is possible for the supernatural?:
However, you are probably wasting your time on the various ...
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Can a zero prior probability for some theories be justified?
Let us assume the case of psychics and call the hypothesis of a “psychic explanation” H. Bayesian theory tells you to never assign a prior of zero. This is because if P(H) = 0, then no amount of ...
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Is there something a little artificial about 'miracles'?
A miracle is something that is currently inexplicable by the laws of nature: statues crying blood; the resurrection of the dead; turning water into wine; etc.. Suppose I can accurately guess the ...
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Is Hume's famous quote on miracles equivalent to Sagan's extraordinary claim principle?
Hume said
"That 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 ...
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Is getting 100 Heads in a row from a fair coin a miracle or not?
Suppose a man continues to toss a coin until he gets 100 heads in a row. Suppose the outcomes of all tosses from the 9999901th toss to the 10 millionth toss are all heads and 100 heads in a row didn't ...
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Do miracles have a probability of zero, or are they simply extremely unlikely events?
Splitting the sea into two seems physically impossible because they break physical laws. However, is this because the chance of atoms rearranging together such that the sea splits is extremely minute, ...
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