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Writer's pictureBible Brian

Faith and collective experience


I was once in a Facebook discussion group, in which I brought up the argument from reason. One of the Evolutionists believed he had a way to explain how human reason can just as easily be accounted for within the Evolutionist worldview. It's simple: If the majority of people experience the same thing, that thing is obviously true. A schizophrenic can experience things that aren't really there, but that experience won't be shared by other people.


It's interesting to note that the Bible actually agrees. The testimony of one witness was not seen as valid (Numbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 17:6, 19:15). Two or more witnesses had to be brought forward (Matthew 18:16; 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19), and even then, their testimonies have to agree (Mark 14:59). So, ironically, in making this argument, the Evolutionist further conformed to the axioms of Scripture.


Furthermore, he actually failed to demonstrate that Evolution could provide such an axiom. After all, how do we know we haven't evolved in such a way? In the article linked above, I demonstrated that Evolution actually allows for the collective Evolution of false beliefs if those false beliefs provided a survival advantage to our ancestors. Thus two, three, seven, even a hundred witnesses will give the same false testimony, simply because that is the way the group evolved.


Furthermore, even good science can sometimes lead to a false conclusion. For example, in 1921, Theophilus Painter analysed the number of chromosomes in a human sperm and concluded that, therefore, human beings have 48 chromosomes. The actual number is now known to be 46. With the right equipment, and knowledge of how to use it, anyone can observe the fact that sperm cells have 24 chromosomes. Painter was not a schizophrenic. He wasn't hallucinating. He wasn't remembering a dream as if it had really happened. He had a very real experience that could be shared by many people, he simply concluded the wrong thing.


Unlike the fact that sperm cells have 24 chromosomes, Evolution is not an experience we can all share. There are no tools that can show us the past. Thus, even if we could firmly establish that human beings are capable of reasoning, there is no amount of science that can be done to indisputably prove it. It is a belief that is extrapolated from our experience. Sort of like an ink blot test. We can both experience the same fossils, for example, but only an Evolutionist will conclude "these two fossils look similar, therefore they share an Evolutionary heritage".


But it gets far worse for people who argue like this. Not only have they agreed with the Bible's standard of evidence, failed to demonstrate that Evolution can sustain such a standard, failed to show that Evolution can fulfill such a standard, and even shown that even then, sometimes it fails, but ultimately, they have confirmed the case for the Gospel.


See, the Bible isn't just the inane rants of a single schizophrenic. There are more than 40 confirmed authors of the Bible, many of whom lived contemporaneously with the events being described. This is especially true of the New Testament, which was written by eyewitnesses and contemporaries to eyewitnesses and contemporaries, sometimes even appealing to other eyewitnesses as supporting evidence. More impressive is the fact that sometimes, it even appeals to its own audience as if they, too, had first hand knowledge of the events surrounding Jesus' ministry, death and resurrection.


It is most noteworthy that Paul, an extremely zealous Pharisee, miraculously became a Christian after spending significant amounts of time persecuting them. Paul actively sought out and killed Christians until one day, he claimed to have seen the risen Lord, after which he became the world's most famous missionary, and was ultimately killed for his faith. But friendly witnesses are not all we have. There are scores of hostile witnesses as well. Witnesses who attempted to come up with alternative explanations for the resurrection, but nevertheless admitted that Jesus lived, died, and His body ultimately disappeared, and people claimed to have seen Him alive again.


Going by the idea that the more people who experience a thing, the more likely it is to be true, there is nothing in history more likely to be true than the New Testament. So, aside from confirming that the argument from reason supports Christianity, this particular atheist has given one more reason to become a Christian.

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