How do we believe a miracle?  For some a miracle is the birth of a baby; for others, a dramatic and unexplainable improvement in one's health; for others, a rainbow; for others, peace in the midst of a lengthy and seemingly intractable conflict.  For still others, those of a religious persuasion, a miracle is the appearance of an extraordinary prophet or a god or, for Christianity, the resurrection of Christ.  In many ways, what constitutes a miracle depends on what a person already believes.  We tend to see according to how we see the world, that is, our worldview.  If we do not believe that a particular event could happen, we will be far less likely to believe, even if given evidence, that this particular event did in fact happen.
     David Hume, the leading skeptic of the eighteenth century, agreed.  For him, the issue was not so much that a miracle could not happen, but that we will never have sufficient reason to believe that one did happen.  He said that he would believe a miracle happened only if the likelihood of it happening exceeded the likelihood of proving that it did not.
    Therefore, according to Hume, the issue is the credibility of the reasons we have for believing a miracle could happen.  Do we believe someone's testimony?  Do we believe scientific evidence?  Do we believe general cultural consensus?  In the end, it seems that we need to balance all of these, and more, when deciding whether a particular miracle did indeed happen.  If we reject one of these pillars, we do injustice to human integrity; if we reject all of them, we reject ourselves.  Ultimately, we will not believe a miracle has happened unless we are willing to admit that we can learn from many vantage points beyond our own.  Ultimately, we will not believe, for instance, that Jesus rose from the dead unless we are willing to look at the evidence through the lens of others as well as our own.  It's hard to justify believing anything to be true solely on the basis of what we think we already know.
     It works both ways, of course.  If one already believes in Jesus, then she will be more likely to believe he rose from the dead.  To be therefore totally fair, this person must be willing to examine any evidence raised against the historicity of this event.  Only then can her belief be justified.
     On the other hand, think about this:  if God in fact exists, is it really too much to suppose that he raised Jesus from the dead?  For better or worse, we will only believe anything, anything at all, if we already believe in belief.
     And if we are human, we already do.