On
the other hand, universal experience prepares us to consider mistakes of
the senses, imperfect observation and erroneous inference as not only
possible, but eminently probable on the part of the witnesses of
phenomena, even when they are perfectly honest and truthful, and more
especially so when such disturbing causes as religious excitement and
superstition are present. When the report of the original witnesses only
reaches us indirectly and through the medium of tradition, the
probability of error is further increased. Thus the allegation of
miracles is discredited, both positively by the invariability of the
order of nature, and negatively by the fallibility of human observation
and testimony. The history of miraculous pretension in the world and the
circumstances attending the special exhibition of it which we are
examining suggest natural explanations of the reported facts which
wholly remove them from the region of the supernatural.
When we proceed to examine the direct witnesses for the Christian
miracles, we do not discover any exceptional circumstances neutralising
the preceding considerations. On the contrary, we find that the case
turns not upon miracles substantially before us, but upon the mere
narratives of miracles said to have occurred over eighteen hundred years
ago.
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