Reddit reply in r/AcademicQuran: how do historians approach miracle claims a brief — November 15, 2024 · lxan9zu | Ali Shukri Amin

>This is simply false for naturalists who apply **methodological naturalism**. You simply assume that supernatural hypotheses are entertained to begin with and that evidence for them can accumulate so as to become overwhelming; this is only possible when methodological naturalism is not at play. If it is, then a supernatural explanation would never be accepted.

Since this is a very obvious objection to methodological naturalism, you're behind on this point. [Boudry, Blancke and Braeckman](https://blogs.helsinki.fi/ekojonen/files/2015/10/Methodological-naturalism-and-the-truth-seeking-objection-Kojonen-1.pdf) (as quoting in that paper) present a "pragmatic defense of methodological naturalism." The issue of methodological naturalism being unable to accept a "miracle" even with copious empirical evidence is called the "truth-seeking objection." They argue "science should in principle be open also to supernatural explanations and the ID proponent´s arguments; they are rejected only because of their failure, not because the idea of design is itself outside the bounds of the natural sciences"

Most methodological naturalists are "provisional," i.e. true supernatural phenomenon are rejected because of lack of evidence *not a priori.* You can read more about that in the above.

In [Methodological Naturalism, Analyzed ](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-024-00790-y)by Miles Donahue, he explains that the idea that methodological naturalism is "a provisional guideline grounded in the historical failure of supernatural hypothesis," the exact thing you are describing as some second "approach," is one of the interpretations of methodological naturalism.

In [In Defense of Methodological Naturalism](https://joelvelasco.net/teaching/3330/mcdonald_tro09-methodological_naturalism.pdf)*,* McDonald & Tro argue methodological naturalism is adopted "simply because of the past success of natural explanations."