Hume on miracles and the Lourdes phenomenon Alexandru Anghel

meaningful discourse and resolution", and concerning the NOMA principle, “the magisterium of
science covers the empirical realm: what the Universe is made of (fact) and why does it work in
this way (theory). The magisterium of religion extends over questions of ultimate meaning and
moral value. These two magisteria do not overlap, nor do they encompass all inquiry (consider,
for example, the magisterium of art and the meaning of beauty).”
These philosophical and methodological positions are, in my opinion, mistaken, and, for
them to work, you have to disregard or to minimize a very important aspect of religion: its
cosmological claims. Yes, religion, like science, has a lot to say about the origin of the world and
the appearance of man, about morality, about the origin and workings of phenomena… about
“miracles”. Science and religion are two (most of the time conflicting) kinds of explanation
about the world; their methods differ in many respects and the outcome of one proves sometimes
damaging to the other. 1
My scope in this paper is to critically discuss a very cherished and very controversial and
ambiguous element in religion in particular and spirituality in general: the miracle. I will discuss
a case that is closer to our days in comparison, for example, with the New Testament reports of
miracles. For my assessment I will use David <strong>Hume</strong>’s evaluation of miracle reports and
reliability of witness, taken from his (skeptical) philosophy of religion, in order to observe in
what degree <strong>Hume</strong>’s arguments are tenable. I will also take into consideration some
contemporary philosophical and scientific investigations that can be applied to the case in
question in order to complement or update certain aspects of <strong>Hume</strong>’s evaluation.
The article is divided in three sections. In the first section I will talk about the idea of
miracle and what it means in religion and in philosophy in general and about <strong>Hume</strong>’s
interpretation of miracles in particular. In the second I will present what I call the Lourdes
phenomenon, one of the places of pilgrimage in the Christian world where, every year, there are
reported new miracles performed by the Virgin Mary. In the last section I will assess the Lourdes
phenomenon using <strong>Hume</strong>’s critical methods presented in the second section.
1. <strong>Hume</strong> on miracles
1 By now, science proved to have a corrosive effect on religion, the latter changing some of its claims about the
universe, the most notorious one being the shift from the Ptolemaic earth-centered to the Copernican sun-centered
planetary system.