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Paper Trails and Possibility of Miracles
~ by David Basinger in Sophia: A Journal for Discussion in Philosophical Theology (Volume 26, Number 3 / October, 1987)
In response to Robert A. Larmer, Basinger argues: "There is little basis upon which to claim that all proponents of solely
natural causation are guilty of dogmatic, uncritical, question-begging
reasoning. To claim emphatically that there is in fact no God (and thus
no divine causal intervention) may be an unwarranted metaphysical
contention. But the nontheist need not be making any such ontological
claim. She can simply be saying that, while this epistemological
contention is debatable, its affirmation is not necessarily any more
dogmatic or question begging than the belief that the 'total' evidence
makes theistic belief (and thus the possibility of divine intervention)
most reasonable."
~ by David Basinger, in Sophia: A Journal for Discussion in Philosophical Theology. (1983, vol. 22, no2, pp. 15-22)
Basinger responds to Anthony Flew's contention that: "the historian must maintain with respect to any alleged miracle that the event did not in fact occur as reported". Basinger concedes that Flew's argument has merit, but argues that it ultimately fails. And by the way, to save a trip to dictionary.com, "nomology" is the science of laws. Basinger concludes: "The fact that
an alleged occurrence is incompatible with current nomologicals must
indeed be seriously considered when the historian rules on its
historicity. However, Flew has failed to demonstrate that a seeming
counterinstance must be shown to be consistent with current
nomologicals before the historian can justifiably rule that it can be
known to have occurred. Alleged 'miracles' cannot be dismissed this
easily."

