A while back, I considered myself an agnostic because of what I call "the Inception effect." In the Christopher Nolan movie Inception, a character has doubts about what is real. It boils down to the question, "How can I know that the world I live in isn't just a dream?" In my agnostic experience, I struggled with the question of how I can know God is real?
"Well, there's evidence in various historical documents that corroborates the evidence put forth in the Bible."
Yes, but how can I know that evidence wasn't forged or otherwise falsified?
"Well, this other evidence..."
And on and on it went.
What cleared my doubt away was, in part, accepting the fact that everything requires faith. If we divorce faith from its religious connotation, then we can say it takes faith to believe just about anything. An atheist scientist has faith their instruments will provide accurate information for their experiments. Every time you sit, you have faith the surface upon which you rest your blessed assurance will hold you up.
We all practice faith without thinking about it.
The English word "faith" comes from a Proto-Indo-European word meaning "to persuade." It is synonymous in that sense with "belief." How can we know anything we believe is true? It is accepted (on faith) that correctly interpreted evidence yields truthful revelations. We see this play out in courtrooms.
A knife is presented as evidence. Fingerprints are on the handle. A set of fingerprints was taken from the defendant. Because no two sets of fingerprints has ever been found to be identical, we accept that if the fingerprints on the knife handle match the fingerprints taken from the defendant, they at least held the knife at some point in time.
Other evidence was previously presented years ago concerning the veracity of these accepted beliefs about fingerprints. It was hypothesized that no two people have identical fingerprints, and thus far that has held true. The evidence for this belief grows stronger with each set of fingerprints examined and found to be unique. Our faith in fingerprints as evidence is based on our certainty in what we confidently expect. We would say no one has or will have identical fingerprints based on previous experience.
That is the concept of faith or belief in as concise and clear a nutshell as I can manage, and I'd like to put my beliefs on trial. The accusation is, simply, that what I believe--about the Bible, specifically--may not be true. I expect some of my beliefs to change during this trial. It is my intention to go through the Bible, verse by verse, to study what it says.
I will also look at the issues inherent in the study of the Bible, such as interpretation and translation. I aim to consider the literary, historical, and culture context of each verse, chapter, and book. I will also examine the history of how the Bible came to be, and the history of the people and organizations involved in that history.
Previously, I have posted what amounts to my testimony, but that is the potatoes. This trial will be the meat, in which I will attempt an in-depth study of what I believe and what is true. I've no idea where this is going to end up, or how my beliefs will change, but I plan to get started with an opening statement tomorrow.
"Well, there's evidence in various historical documents that corroborates the evidence put forth in the Bible."
Yes, but how can I know that evidence wasn't forged or otherwise falsified?
"Well, this other evidence..."
And on and on it went.
What cleared my doubt away was, in part, accepting the fact that everything requires faith. If we divorce faith from its religious connotation, then we can say it takes faith to believe just about anything. An atheist scientist has faith their instruments will provide accurate information for their experiments. Every time you sit, you have faith the surface upon which you rest your blessed assurance will hold you up.
We all practice faith without thinking about it.
The English word "faith" comes from a Proto-Indo-European word meaning "to persuade." It is synonymous in that sense with "belief." How can we know anything we believe is true? It is accepted (on faith) that correctly interpreted evidence yields truthful revelations. We see this play out in courtrooms.
A knife is presented as evidence. Fingerprints are on the handle. A set of fingerprints was taken from the defendant. Because no two sets of fingerprints has ever been found to be identical, we accept that if the fingerprints on the knife handle match the fingerprints taken from the defendant, they at least held the knife at some point in time.
Other evidence was previously presented years ago concerning the veracity of these accepted beliefs about fingerprints. It was hypothesized that no two people have identical fingerprints, and thus far that has held true. The evidence for this belief grows stronger with each set of fingerprints examined and found to be unique. Our faith in fingerprints as evidence is based on our certainty in what we confidently expect. We would say no one has or will have identical fingerprints based on previous experience.
That is the concept of faith or belief in as concise and clear a nutshell as I can manage, and I'd like to put my beliefs on trial. The accusation is, simply, that what I believe--about the Bible, specifically--may not be true. I expect some of my beliefs to change during this trial. It is my intention to go through the Bible, verse by verse, to study what it says.
I will also look at the issues inherent in the study of the Bible, such as interpretation and translation. I aim to consider the literary, historical, and culture context of each verse, chapter, and book. I will also examine the history of how the Bible came to be, and the history of the people and organizations involved in that history.
Previously, I have posted what amounts to my testimony, but that is the potatoes. This trial will be the meat, in which I will attempt an in-depth study of what I believe and what is true. I've no idea where this is going to end up, or how my beliefs will change, but I plan to get started with an opening statement tomorrow.
