Ayaan Hirsi Ali on The argument from miracles

During her atheist period, Hirsi Ali would have firmly rejected miracle claims on the same evidential grounds as any rationalist thinker. Her work focused on the real-world consequences of religious belief rather than the philosophical arguments for God, but her commitment to evidence-based reasoning was unambiguous. Miracle claims, rooted in ancient testimony and resistant to empirical verification, would have found no purchase with the Hirsi Ali of Infidel and Heretic.

Her 2023 conversion complicates the picture. Hirsi Ali has not, to date, publicly endorsed specific miracle claims or explained how she reconciles her conversion with the evidential standards she previously applied. Her stated reasons for becoming Christian are civilisational and moral — she believes Christianity provides the philosophical foundation that Western liberal democracy needs to survive — rather than evidential or experiential.

This leaves her position on miracles genuinely uncertain. It is possible that she accepts certain Christian miracle claims as part of her new faith, or that she regards the question as secondary to the cultural and moral functions of Christianity. Without more explicit statements, any characterisation involves a degree of extrapolation.