12. What Is a Miracle? Summary and Analysis

Most of what are called miracles are garbled accounts of something that happened after generations of retellings. We tend to exaggerate coincidences and pass these stories along to others. These myths about miracles tend to make good stories and get further added to or embellished as time passes. This means that a story about a frightful encounter with a small shadow can eventually wind up being a story about spirits or monsters. These stories are often very thrilling to tell, and this causes them to get added to even more as time goes on. When, then, is it reasonable for us to believe in a miracle? Philosopher David Hume came up with a good measure for believing if an account of a miracle is true or not. He says one should determine whether or not...