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Full Idea
Those who endeavour to establish God's existence and the truth of religion by means of miracles seek to prove the obscure by what is more obscure.
Gist of Idea
Trying to prove God's existence through miracles is proving the obscure by the more obscure
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (Letters to Oldenburg [1665], 1675?)
Book Ref
Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics, Improvement of Understanding, Letters', ed/tr. Elwes,R [Dover 1955], p.302
A Reaction
Nicely put. On the whole this has to be right, but one must leave open a possibility. If there is a God, and He seeks to prove Himself by a deed, are we saying this is impossible? Divine intervention might be the best explanation of something.
20716 | False prophets will perform wonders to deceive even the elect [Mark] |
5974 | People report seeing through rocks, or over the horizon, or impossibly small works [Plutarch] |
7902 | The Buddha made flowers float in the air, to impress people, and make them listen [Mahavastu] |
4827 | Priests reject as heretics anyone who tries to understand miracles in a natural way [Spinoza] |
4868 | Trying to prove God's existence through miracles is proving the obscure by the more obscure [Spinoza] |
12571 | If miracles aim at producing belief, it is plausible that their events are very unusual [Locke] |
5030 | Miracles are extraordinary operations by God, but are nevertheless part of his design [Leibniz] |
12909 | Everything, even miracles, belongs to order [Leibniz] |
12784 | Allow no more miracles than are necessary [Leibniz] |
2227 | A miracle violates laws which have been established by continuous unchanging experience, so should be ignored [Hume] |
2228 | All experience must be against a supposed miracle, or it wouldn't be called 'a miracle' [Hume] |
2229 | To establish a miracle the falseness of the evidence must be a greater miracle than the claimed miraculous event [Hume] |
7636 | It can't be more rational to believe in natural laws than miracles if the laws are not rational [Ishaq on Hume] |