The Miracle Myth: Why Belief in the Resurrection and the Supernatural Is Unjustified

by Lawrence Shapiro

Overview

There are many who believe Moses parted the Red Sea and Jesus came back from the dead. Others are certain that exorcisms occur, ghosts haunt attics, and the blessed can cure the terminally ill. Though miracles are immensely improbable, people have embraced them for millennia, seeing in them proof of a supernatural world that resists scientific explanation.

Helping us to think more critically about our belief in the improbable, The Miracle Myth casts a skeptical eye on attempts to justify belief in the supernatural, laying bare the fallacies that such attempts commit. Through arguments and accessible analysis, Larry Shapiro sharpens our critical faculties so we become less susceptible to tales of myths and miracles and learn how, ultimately, to evaluate claims regarding vastly improbable events on our own. Shapiro acknowledges that belief in miracles could be harmless, but cautions against allowing such beliefs to guide how we live our lives. His investigation reminds us of the importance of evidence and rational thinking as we explore the unknown.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231542142
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	08/30/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Larry Shapiro is professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of Embodied Cognition (2011), Zen and the Art of Running: The Path to Making Peace with Your Pace (2009), and The Mind Incarnate (2004), and the editor of The Routledge Handbook of Embodied Cognition (2014) and Arguing About the Mind (2007).

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Justified and Unjustified Belief
2. Miracles
3. Justifying Belief in Supernatural Causes
4. Justifying Belief in Improbable Events
5. Evidence for Miracles
6. Jesus's Resurrection
7. Should We Care That Beliefs in Miracles Are Unjustified?
Appendix 1. What Is Supernatural?
Appendix 2. Supernatural Causes
Notes
Further Reading
Index

Editorial Reviews

Most people, at least in the United States, believe in miracles. But should they? In this easy to read and often witty book the philosopher Shapiro demonstrates that there is no scientific or logical justification for doing so. I suspect that The Miracle Myth will convert few true believers, but even they should benefit from reading it.

Ronald L. Numbers

Shapiro does more than hammer some more nails in the coffin of miracles that David Hume fashioned. He marshals much of what we have learned about inference to the best explanation and Bayes's theorem in the 270 years since Hume's inquiry. Yet he does it with Hume's lightness of touch, a wealth of relevant examples of contemporary credulousness, and no equations. It is a book to enjoy and then pass on to friends given to wishful thinking.

Alex Rosenberg

The Miracle Myth is an exceptionally clear book on a controversial and interesting topic.

Michael P. Lynch

The Miracle Myth is an extremely impressive book. It is beautifully written, engaging yet philosophically sophisticated, and offers a novel perspective on the question of how to assess the reliability of accounts of miracles. Even those of us who remain convinced that the evidence for miracles is compelling will find plenty to think about in Shapiro's arguments.

David A. Skeel

07/11/2016
Shapiro (Embodied Cognition), a philosophy professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, argues that there are not sufficient reasons for anyone to believe in miracles. Defining miracles as extremely improbable events with a supernatural cause, he lays out two trajectories of careful logic to refute faith in them. First, he shows briefly that seeing supernatural causes requires assumptions that cannot rule out other nondivine interventions. Second, the improbable nature of miracles heightens the requirements for proof. He builds these arguments through stories of improbable events that he claims most people view as absurd (a talking frog in India, alien abductions, and the revelation of the Book of Mormon) before applying the same scrutiny to Jesus’s resurrection. Shapiro admits that miracles might have occurred, but he seems convinced that his work will cause even the firmest believers to doubt and reorganize their lives along more rational lines. His self-satisfaction might alienate some readers, but the explanations for his claims (especially on the nature of historical proof) are clear and readable. For those opposed to miracles, he offers a logically consistent line of argument. For believers, his reliance on purely logical approaches is unlikely to shake conviction. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

10/01/2016
Shapiro's (philosophy, Univ. Wisconsin-Madison; The Mind Incarnate) aim here is quite precise. It is not to show that miracles never happened, or that we do not know that they ever occurred, but that we are not justified in believing there has ever been a miracle. He begins by defining miracles (a highly improbable event caused by supernatural agency) and justification (something that increases the probability that a belief is true) and then proceeds to argue that the existence of highly improbable occasions cannot be used to point to any supernatural agency because any natural explanation is at least as good. Shapiro follows this with an argument reminiscent of David Hume's, that the evidence for anything that might count as a miracle must be all but overwhelming in order to justify its assent. Finally, the author makes the case that the evidence for miracles (in particular the Resurrection of Jesus) is not only not overwhelming but dubious. Because he does not handle the New Testament material as carefully as he might, Shapiro needlessly overstates this final point. VERDICT Shapiro makes a clear argument, which allows us—believers or not—to examine critically our own positions.—James Wetherbee, Wingate Univ. Libs., NC

Library Journal