Argument from scriptural miracles

From Iron Chariots Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

It has been suggested that this article be merged with Argument from miracle testimony

Jesus and the miracle of the feeding of the multitudes

The argument from biblical miracles states (more or less) that because a holy book states that people witnessed miracles, people actually did witness miracles. This is often associated with a holy figure such as Jesus or Gautama Buddha and is interpreted as evidence of their divine character. It is a form of argument from miracle testimony.

David Hume criticised belief in miracles based on testimony in his essay Of Miracles because it is far more likely that the supporting testimony is incorrect.

"The miracles of Jesus and of the Bible writers are God's stamp of approval on their teaching. This witness testifies that there is a God who possesses supernatural power. And since the Bible writers did miracles, they must have been guided by God's power. Likewise the fact that Jesus did miracles confirms the truthfulness of His claims that He was the Son of God.[1]"
"Further : some parts of Scripture containing an account of miracles fully sufficient to prove the truth of Christianity, are quoted as genuine, from the age in which they are said to be written, down to the present : and no other parts of them, material in the present question, are omitted to be quoted in such manner as to afford any sort of proof of their not being genuine. [2]"

"I should not be Christian but for the miracles"

— St Augustine of Hippo[3]



The Bible

Jesus is said to have performed many miracles, including walking on water, raising from the dead (both others and himself) and healing the sick by touch.


There are relatively few claims of Muhammad performing miracles.


Gautama Buddha is recorded as performing many miracles.

Counter arguments

Assuming the Bible is accurate

Main Article: Argument from scripture

This argument assumes the Bible is true, which is questionable since it is full of false statements, contradictions and written long after the events by non-eye witnesses.

Redundant argument

  1. If the Bible is assumed to be true, the Bible confirms that God exists (e.g. Genesis 1:1 Bible-icon.png) and the argument is not required.
  2. If the Bible is not assumed to be true, the argument is based on an unsupported premise.

Accepting unreliable testimony from confirmation bias

Main Article: Outsider test

There is no other evidence of the miracles apart from the holy book that a man walking on water, or feeding 5000 with five loaves and two fishes, or turning water into wine. We are left solely with testimonial attestation of these events.


Would adding centuries of possible embellishment and distortion make the testimonies more, or less, credible?

The reason we reject their testimony is that we have prior experience that these things do not usually occur. We base our beliefs depending on the weight of the evidence, considering that such things might occur outside our experience and the possibility that the "miracle" witnesses were mistaken. This standard of evidence for miracles was suggested by John Locke and in David Hume's essay Of Miracles.

The primary reason such miracle testimony is accepted is that the believers' incredulity are overridden by their a priori assumption that their god, or Jesus, is all-powerful; the testimonies are worthless without it. This will shift the discussion in that direction.

Miracles don't prove God exists

"Now one point that John Lennox made, appealing to the resurrection [of Jesus], was to say if the resurrection is true there is a God. That doesn't follow at all. All that follows at most is there is some supernatural being capable of performing a physical resurrection of a human being. Why should that be omnipotent? Why should that be omniscient? Why should that be perfectly good? It could be a being that is doing it in order to dupe loads of us into having belief in a false religion.[6]"


  1. Gospel Way, Testimony #5: Miracles [1]
  2. Joseph Butler, The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, 1736
  3. The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations, edited by Martin H. Manser
  4. Miracles of the Qur'an
  5. Islam and Miracles
  6. [2]

See also

External links

v · d Arguments for the existence of god
Anthropic arguments   Anthropic principle · Natural-law argument
Majority arguments   Argument from admired religious scientists
Moral arguments   Argument from justice · Divine command theory
Dogmatic arguments   Argument from divine sense · Argument from uniqueness
Transcendental arguments   God created numbers · Argument from the meaning of life
Scriptural arguments   Scriptural inerrancy · Scriptural scientific foreknowledge · Scriptural codes
Personal tools
wiki navigation