- Miracles are scientifically
impossible, right?
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That's at least what
one of history's most
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influential philosophers
tried to convince everybody of,
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and that's what
we're gonna think about
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on today's edition of Authentic.
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[upbeat music]
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Quite some time ago,
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a regular listener
asked me to talk about
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the Scottish
philosopher David Hume,
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a man who became
something of a poster boy
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for 18th century atheism.
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Even though it's
not entirely clear
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that David Hume
completely abandoned his belief
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in a personal God,
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the way he wrote
actually suggests
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that he might have
remained something of a theist
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to the very end of his life,
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which means he did believe
in the existence of a God
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who's personally
involved in human history.
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But of course, then again,
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it's also possible
that he knew he was writing
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for a mostly theistic
or God-believing audience,
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and so he just
adapted his writing style
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to keep his audience.
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But all that aside,
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what I really
want to focus on today
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is Hume's attack on the
possibility of miracles.
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It's really one of
his more famous works.
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David Hume was a
dedicated empiricist,
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which means he wasn't
gonna believe something
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unless there was abundant proof.
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An empiricist is
somebody whose epistemology,
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whose understanding of
how we actually know things
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is grounded in the
evidence of our senses.
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Mr. Hume was so
insistent on empiricism,
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on demanding proof for
everything he was going to
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believe that it actually
led to some logical conundrums.
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Maybe I'll dedicate another show
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to those
conundrums on another day
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because I think some
real problems emerged
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from his
theories about knowledge.
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But for today, I just wanna
focus on his rather short essay
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that deals with miracles.
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And maybe to kick
the ball down the field,
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I'll just read you an excerpt
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I believe sums up his
thinking about the subject.
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Hume writes this.
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"A Wise man, therefore,
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proportions his
belief to the evidence.
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In such
conclusions as are founded on
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an infallible experience,
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he expects the event with
the last degree of assurance
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and regards his past experience
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as a full proof of the
future existence of that event."
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What he's basically describing
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is what you and I might
call the scientific method,
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an approach to the
world that was all the rage
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during the enlightenment,
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when Hume was busy
writing all this stuff.
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And of course, I happened to be
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a big fan of the
scientific method
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because of all the
good that came out of it.
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It's a reliable approach that
yields meaningful discovery.
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I mean, if it wasn't
for the scientific method,
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we might still
be be drilling holes
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in people's skulls
to let the demons out
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when they had a migraine.
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So, there's validity
to what Hume is saying.
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The very essence of
a science experiment
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is to determine whether or
not something is repeatable,
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whether or not you
can make it happen again
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under the very
same circumstances.
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So if Galileo drops a ball
from the leaning tower of Pisa
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and it falls to the ground,
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and he does that 4
million times in a row
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and gets the same
result every single time,
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then on the 4,000,001st time,
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it's logical to
predict that the ball
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is going to drop to the
ground in exactly the same way.
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Hume is telling us that
he believes that's how a wise
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person makes
all their decisions.
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And for the most part,
obviously, I'd have to agree.
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It's usually a wise thing to go
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with the weight of the evidence.
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And of course in the case
that your scientific experiments
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do not produce
100% identical results,
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then you have to go with the
result that happens most often.
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"In all cases," Hume writes,
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"we must balance the
opposite experiments,
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where they are opposite,
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and deduct the smaller
number from the greater
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in order to know the exact
force of the superior evidence."
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Again, it's the
weight of the evidence.
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And the irony of this passage,
from being perfectly honest,
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is that I use a similar approach
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when it comes to
studying the Bible.
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I'm convinced that
the Bible presents itself
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as a harmonized whole
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in spite of the
fact that the authors
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of the various
books of the Bible
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lived centuries
apart from each other,
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and they were
approaching their subject
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from a wide variety of
backgrounds and perspectives.
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So when you read the Bible,
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trying to
figure out what it says
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about a particular subject,
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say, for example, what
happens when somebody dies,
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what I need to do
is read the entire book
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and then consider the
weight of the evidence.
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And interestingly enough,
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that's really what Hume was
saying about life in general.
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The smartest thing you can
do is gather all the evidence
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and place your confidence
in the majority evidence.
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So for example, if you
have one or two bits of evidence
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that appear to imply
that the earth is flat,
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but you have overwhelming
evidence that it's a sphere,
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the wise person's
going to go with the sphere
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because there's
probably something wrong
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with the
understanding that comes
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from the minority evidence.
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Now, from that point,
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Hume moves on to the
problem of eyewitness testimony.
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And this is really
where Hume's distaste
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for cause and
effect comes into play.
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He said, "You cannot
prove that certain events
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cause other events to happen."
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"We only live under
that impression," he said,
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"because of our experience,
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but there's no absolute proof
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that cause and effect
are actually real things.
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It's just a
matter of probability."
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In his famous essay on miracles,
this is how he puts it.
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"It being a general
maxim that no objects
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have any discoverable
connection together,
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and that all the inferences,
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which we can draw
from one to the other,
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are founded
merely on our experience
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of their constant
and regular conjunction,
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it is evident that
we ought not to make
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an exemption to this maxim
in favor of human testimony,
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whose connection with
any event seems, in itself,
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as little
necessary as any other."
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What he's saying is
that eyewitness testimony
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does not prove causality,
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even if a thousand people
witnessed the very same thing.
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So for example, the Bible states
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that more than 500 people
saw Jesus back from the dead,
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but from David
Hume's perspective,
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that wouldn't prove anything.
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It doesn't
prove that God somehow
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violated the laws of nature
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and raised a
person from the dead.
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What you should do, he argued,
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is go by the
weight of the evidence
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from your own perspective.
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And I understand
why he thought that way.
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Most of us know that dead people
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do not generally
come back to life.
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I mean, I've
witnessed hundreds of deaths
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and not one single resurrection.
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According to Hume,
that's how you need
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to judge the story of the Bible.
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If I'm confronted with
one story of a resurrection,
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I need to go back to
my own experience and say,
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"That's not very likely."
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And even if the eyewitnesses
were highly reliable,
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people we really, really,
really trust, he still says
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you should ignore what they say
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and go with your own experience.
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But then there's this
hypothetical situation he brings
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up that appears to contradict
his stubborn insistence
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on his
show-me-the-proof approach.
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He supposes that a
person from the far north
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travels down to
the Indian subcontinent
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and tells an Indian prince
about frozen lakes and rivers.
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And of course, the prince
has never seen any such thing
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because he lives in
a much warmer climate.
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And Hume suggests that the
most rational course of action
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would be for that prince to
deny the reality of ice and snow
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because he's never seen them.
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Here's what David Hume writes.
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"The inhabitants of
Sumatra have always seen
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water fluid in
their own climate,
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and the freezing of the rivers
ought to be deemed a prodigy.
00:08:07.12\00:08:10.59
But they never saw water
in Muscovy during the winter,
00:08:10.59\00:08:13.52
and therefore they
cannot reasonably be positive
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what would there
be the consequence."
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A frozen river in India would
seem like a miracle to people
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who had never
witnessed it before.
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It would look like
an event that violates
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the laws of nature, at least
the way they understood them.
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And Hume argues that
it isn't really a miracle,
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it just looks like one
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because the people who
live their entire lives
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in that warm climate
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just haven't done
the experiments with cold
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temperatures. What
they need to do, he says,
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is send a search party to Russia
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to add to their
empirical database.
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And at that point,
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the ice will no
longer seem like a miracle.
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So, you can probably
see where this is going
00:08:51.89\00:08:54.60
when it comes comes to
the miracles of the Bible.
00:08:54.60\00:08:57.00
He's going to dismiss
them as highly improbable
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and probably
not worth believing.
00:08:59.87\00:09:02.67
But now I've gotta take a break,
00:09:02.67\00:09:04.41
and there's a very
high degree of probability
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that I'll be
right back after this.
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[gentle music]
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- [Announcer] Life
can throw a lot at us.
00:09:13.35\00:09:15.25
Sometimes we don't
have all the answers,
00:09:15.25\00:09:18.62
but that's where
the Bible comes in.
00:09:18.62\00:09:21.02
It's our guide to a
more fulfilling life.
00:09:21.02\00:09:24.13
Here at The Voice of Prophecy,
00:09:24.13\00:09:25.69
we've created the
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to be your guide to the Bible.
00:09:27.86\00:09:29.40
They're designed to
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00:09:29.40\00:09:31.90
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00:09:39.27\00:09:41.54
- In order for us to understand
00:09:42.54\00:09:44.08
why David Hume rejected
the possibility of miracles,
00:09:44.08\00:09:47.65
we really need to understand
his definition of a miracle,
00:09:47.65\00:09:51.59
which he explains like this.
00:09:51.59\00:09:53.19
He writes, "A miracle is a
violation of the laws of nature,
00:09:53.19\00:09:57.83
and as firm and
unalterable experience
00:09:57.83\00:09:59.96
has established these laws,
the proof against a miracle,
00:09:59.96\00:10:03.37
from the very
nature of the fact,
00:10:03.37\00:10:05.30
is as entire and as any
argument from experience
00:10:05.30\00:10:08.90
that can possibly be imagined."
00:10:08.90\00:10:11.71
In other words, he says,
if you haven't seen it happen,
00:10:11.71\00:10:15.01
then it probably isn't true.
00:10:15.01\00:10:17.01
And I'll give them
credit where credit is due.
00:10:17.01\00:10:19.45
For a lot of life, that works.
00:10:19.45\00:10:22.35
If a human being dies,
00:10:22.35\00:10:23.62
you believe it
because you've seen it before.
00:10:23.62\00:10:25.82
But if that same human
being comes back to life,
00:10:25.82\00:10:28.76
then human might argue
that it probably isn't true
00:10:28.76\00:10:30.99
because, well, you've
never seen that before.
00:10:30.99\00:10:33.63
Let's just think
about that for a minute.
00:10:35.03\00:10:37.07
I'm gonna borrow an
example from a YouTube video
00:10:37.07\00:10:39.43
I was watching the other day,
00:10:39.43\00:10:41.00
so I can't claim any kind
of original thinking here.
00:10:41.00\00:10:44.11
But for a
really long, long time,
00:10:44.11\00:10:47.41
the scientific community denied
the existence of meteorites,
00:10:47.41\00:10:51.41
something that you
and I take for granted.
00:10:51.41\00:10:54.98
And why did they deny
the existence of meteorites?
00:10:54.98\00:10:57.89
Well, they had
never actually seen one.
00:10:57.89\00:11:00.09
And the idea that
rocks can fall from the sky
00:11:00.09\00:11:02.52
seemed absolutely ludicrous.
00:11:02.52\00:11:05.69
Now, nevermind the fact
00:11:05.69\00:11:07.30
that countless people
had already found them for
00:11:07.30\00:11:10.53
centuries, and they said,
"Those are just laypeople.
00:11:10.53\00:11:11.97
They don't have
scientific credibility."
00:11:11.97\00:11:14.37
Nevermind the fact that
you can actually see meteors
00:11:14.37\00:11:17.07
flash across the sky
on almost any given night,
00:11:17.07\00:11:19.97
and never mind the fact
that people have actually
00:11:19.97\00:11:22.18
found them on
the ground still warm
00:11:22.18\00:11:24.68
from their entry
into the atmosphere.
00:11:24.68\00:11:27.68
If a scientist hadn't seen
it with his or her own eyes,
00:11:27.68\00:11:30.59
then it couldn't
possibly be true.
00:11:30.59\00:11:32.69
Why?
00:11:32.69\00:11:34.19
Because in their experience,
rocks don't fall from the sky.
00:11:34.19\00:11:37.96
In fact, back at the
beginning of the 19th century,
00:11:37.96\00:11:41.00
somebody was
delivering a lecture
00:11:41.00\00:11:42.50
on the possibility of meteorites
00:11:42.50\00:11:44.97
to the French
Academy of Science.
00:11:44.97\00:11:47.37
And the great
scientist, Pierre Laplace,
00:11:47.37\00:11:49.97
who did not
believe in meteorites,
00:11:49.97\00:11:52.14
apparently stood up in
that meeting and shouted,
00:11:52.14\00:11:54.44
"We've had
enough of such myths."
00:11:54.44\00:11:57.15
And why did he
object so angrily?
00:11:57.15\00:11:59.48
It's because the
evidence was coming
00:11:59.48\00:12:01.02
from the eyewitness
testimony of mere lay people.
00:12:01.02\00:12:04.65
So, in other words, if
it doesn't happen in a lab,
00:12:04.65\00:12:07.29
then it doesn't happen at all.
00:12:07.29\00:12:09.16
The hostility of
the scientific community
00:12:09.16\00:12:11.16
was so fierce at that
time that some museums
00:12:11.16\00:12:14.00
actually got rid of
their meteorite collections,
00:12:14.00\00:12:17.03
assuming it
couldn't possibly be true.
00:12:17.03\00:12:20.24
And that's the biggest
problem with Hume's approach.
00:12:20.24\00:12:23.30
He kind of made
himself, in his own experience,
00:12:23.30\00:12:25.57
the final arbiter of truth.
00:12:25.57\00:12:27.88
Nevermind the fact
that 500 people saw
00:12:27.88\00:12:30.41
Jesus come back from the dead.
00:12:30.41\00:12:32.58
They were somehow
mistaken or deluded, he said,
00:12:32.58\00:12:35.38
or they were just lying in order
to perpetuate their belief.
00:12:35.38\00:12:39.22
And he said that because he
had never seen any such thing.
00:12:39.22\00:12:42.89
Now, I've gotta be honest.
00:12:42.89\00:12:44.46
On the one hand, I kind
of admire his skepticism
00:12:44.46\00:12:47.50
because I'm a bit
of a skeptic myself.
00:12:47.50\00:12:50.50
I want proof before
I'm willing to consider
00:12:50.50\00:12:53.40
what you're trying to
convince me of is true,
00:12:53.40\00:12:55.60
and I continue to believe that
a healthy dose of skepticism
00:12:55.60\00:12:59.01
serves most of us very well.
00:12:59.01\00:13:01.48
I mean, we're
living in a time when
00:13:01.48\00:13:03.65
people are buying
wild conspiracy theories
00:13:03.65\00:13:05.68
because of some video
they saw on the internet.
00:13:05.68\00:13:08.22
And I'm a little
appalled at how easy it is
00:13:08.22\00:13:10.82
to convince some people
of whackadoodle theories.
00:13:10.82\00:13:14.02
But then again,
on the other hand,
00:13:15.19\00:13:17.19
am I really going
to accept the idea
00:13:17.19\00:13:19.03
that because I've
never seen something before,
00:13:19.03\00:13:21.43
it's not possible?
00:13:21.43\00:13:23.16
I mean, until we delved into
the world of quantum mechanics,
00:13:23.16\00:13:26.63
we would've never
believed it was possible
00:13:26.63\00:13:28.67
for particles to exist
in two locations at once
00:13:28.67\00:13:31.34
because we'd never seen
something like that before.
00:13:31.34\00:13:34.64
So is David Hume's insistence
that we instantly dismiss
00:13:34.64\00:13:37.78
anything we don't understand
00:13:37.78\00:13:39.25
really the best
approach for life?
00:13:39.25\00:13:42.82
I mean, just
listen to what he says.
00:13:42.82\00:13:45.25
He tells the
story of a clergy member
00:13:45.25\00:13:47.09
who heard about the
miracle of a man with one leg
00:13:47.09\00:13:49.99
who rubbed holy oil on the stump
00:13:49.99\00:13:52.16
and suddenly grew a new leg.
00:13:52.16\00:13:54.83
David Hume doubted
it just like I would.
00:13:54.83\00:13:57.80
Here's what he said about
that clergy member's skepticism.
00:13:57.80\00:14:00.94
"He therefore
concluded, like a just reasoner,
00:14:00.94\00:14:04.31
that such an
evidence carried falsehood
00:14:04.31\00:14:06.27
upon the very face of it,
00:14:06.27\00:14:07.78
and that a miracle, supported
by any human testimony,
00:14:07.78\00:14:10.88
was more properly a subject
of derision than of argument."
00:14:10.88\00:14:14.85
But you know, I think
it's here that David Hume
00:14:16.25\00:14:18.89
kinda gives his hand away
00:14:18.89\00:14:19.95
because the scientific method
00:14:19.95\00:14:21.69
does not demand that
you ridicule new ideas.
00:14:21.69\00:14:24.86
And it leads me
to believe that Hume
00:14:24.86\00:14:26.83
really doesn't want
miracles to be true.
00:14:26.83\00:14:30.23
Now, whether or not
00:14:30.23\00:14:31.47
that particular
story of the leg was true,
00:14:31.47\00:14:33.57
it doesn't really matter.
00:14:33.57\00:14:35.44
The American philosopher
William James suggested
00:14:35.44\00:14:38.11
that you and I
tend to ignore new ideas
00:14:38.11\00:14:40.34
that do not click
with our current worldview,
00:14:40.34\00:14:42.94
or, to use his own
analogy, those new ideas
00:14:42.94\00:14:45.81
don't cause an electrical
connection with your brain
00:14:45.81\00:14:48.48
when you try to plug them in.
00:14:48.48\00:14:49.95
It's what most people
would call confirmation bias.
00:14:51.35\00:14:54.79
When you accept the
things you want to believe
00:14:54.79\00:14:56.86
and you reject everything else,
00:14:56.86\00:14:59.33
and every single
one of us does that.
00:14:59.33\00:15:01.13
Now, of course, when
it comes to miracles,
00:15:02.30\00:15:04.13
that can cut two ways.
00:15:04.13\00:15:05.83
I've seen secular people
reject potential miracles
00:15:05.83\00:15:08.50
because they don't
want them to be true.
00:15:08.50\00:15:10.97
But then again, I've
seen well-meaning Christians
00:15:10.97\00:15:13.58
look for miracles
where there are none
00:15:13.58\00:15:16.28
because they want it to be true.
00:15:16.28\00:15:18.88
And the problem is
00:15:18.88\00:15:20.15
that many of the
biggest advancements in science
00:15:20.15\00:15:21.95
would've never
happened if we rigidly followed
00:15:21.95\00:15:24.35
Hume's way of thinking.
00:15:24.35\00:15:25.65
Let's go back to people
like Copernicus or Galileo,
00:15:27.06\00:15:29.69
people who insisted that the sun
00:15:29.69\00:15:31.23
was the center
of the solar system.
00:15:31.23\00:15:33.63
The collective logic
of the West at that time
00:15:33.63\00:15:36.26
stated otherwise.
00:15:36.26\00:15:37.20
It seemed obvious to most people
00:15:37.20\00:15:39.43
that the earth was the
center of the system because
00:15:39.43\00:15:42.24
the sun rises on the eastern
side of the sky in the morning,
00:15:42.24\00:15:45.51
crosses over our
heads during the day,
00:15:45.51\00:15:47.51
and then sets in the west
at night, every single day.
00:15:47.51\00:15:52.18
By all obvious appearances,
00:15:52.18\00:15:53.58
the sun appears to
be orbiting the earth.
00:15:53.58\00:15:56.38
But suddenly we had
some people insisting
00:15:56.38\00:15:58.62
that the opposite is true.
00:15:58.62\00:16:00.22
The earth is orbiting the sun
and not the other way around.
00:16:00.22\00:16:03.06
Now, the common sense of the day
00:16:04.23\00:16:05.93
would suggest that
Copernicus was wrong
00:16:05.93\00:16:07.93
because we'd been
living with a different model
00:16:07.93\00:16:10.13
for a really long time.
00:16:10.13\00:16:12.37
And honestly, it was a
useful model, the old one,
00:16:12.37\00:16:15.67
because it was
regular and predictable.
00:16:15.67\00:16:17.74
The math actually worked,
00:16:17.74\00:16:19.57
and it was useful for
things like navigation.
00:16:19.57\00:16:22.38
Almost all of our
everyday experience
00:16:22.38\00:16:24.55
appeared to
contradict Copernicus.
00:16:24.55\00:16:26.58
And so from Hume's perspective,
00:16:26.58\00:16:29.52
we probably should have just
ignored him or made fun of him
00:16:29.52\00:16:32.32
as a lot of people did.
00:16:32.32\00:16:34.52
Now, to be fair to Hume,
00:16:34.52\00:16:36.93
he would argue that
the Copernican model
00:16:36.93\00:16:38.89
was not a violation
of the laws of nature.
00:16:38.89\00:16:41.43
It was just a deeper
understanding of them.
00:16:41.43\00:16:44.23
Miracles, however,
must be rejected, he said,
00:16:44.23\00:16:47.04
because they
clearly violate those laws.
00:16:47.04\00:16:49.90
The only way you should
ever accept a miracle, he said,
00:16:49.90\00:16:53.14
is if the
falsification of that miracle
00:16:53.14\00:16:55.61
seems even more absurd
than the miracle itself.
00:16:55.61\00:16:59.81
But you know, under all
of that is this assumption
00:16:59.81\00:17:03.28
that the creator
would be bound by the laws
00:17:03.28\00:17:05.39
of the physical universe,
00:17:05.39\00:17:06.86
and God would never be
able to suspend those laws
00:17:06.86\00:17:08.89
or override them.
00:17:08.89\00:17:10.69
But why would that be true?
00:17:10.69\00:17:12.59
The Book of Genesis
makes it quite clear
00:17:12.59\00:17:14.23
that God is
distinct from his creation,
00:17:14.23\00:17:16.36
and it talks about
something theologians might call
00:17:16.36\00:17:19.07
fiat creation.
00:17:19.07\00:17:20.84
God created the universe
by speaking it into existence.
00:17:20.84\00:17:24.07
He didn't have to wrangle
with pre-existent materials.
00:17:24.07\00:17:27.11
He simply thought and
spoke the entire universe
00:17:27.11\00:17:30.28
into existence,
00:17:30.28\00:17:31.58
and that's a
really important concept.
00:17:31.58\00:17:33.48
It's one of the things
that makes the Genesis account
00:17:33.48\00:17:35.68
much different
than pagan mythology.
00:17:35.68\00:17:38.19
You'll notice there's no origin
story for God in the Bible,
00:17:38.19\00:17:42.22
and his existence is not
dependent on the material
00:17:42.22\00:17:45.76
universe. It shows us that space
and time were God's invention,
00:17:45.76\00:17:48.53
and he is not bound
by the laws of nature.
00:17:48.53\00:17:52.60
So, why couldn't God
raise somebody from the dead?
00:17:52.60\00:17:56.71
Whether or not that's possible
00:17:56.71\00:17:58.07
does not rely on
David Hume's assumptions.
00:17:58.07\00:18:00.91
I would have to argue,
00:18:00.91\00:18:02.14
especially in
light of Hume's analogy
00:18:02.14\00:18:03.58
of the Indian prince
who struggled to believe
00:18:03.58\00:18:05.48
in the existence of ice,
00:18:05.48\00:18:07.32
that just because
you've never seen it,
00:18:07.32\00:18:09.68
that doesn't mean it
isn't out there somewhere,
00:18:09.68\00:18:12.02
and it doesn't mean that
somebody else's eyewitness
00:18:12.02\00:18:14.66
report is
necessarily ridiculous or false.
00:18:14.66\00:18:18.06
I'll be right back after this.
00:18:18.06\00:18:20.23
- [Announcer] Dragons,
beasts, cryptic statues,
00:18:23.80\00:18:28.10
Bible prophecy can be
incredibly vivid and confusing.
00:18:28.10\00:18:32.67
If you've ever read
Daniel or Revelation
00:18:32.67\00:18:34.84
and come away scratching
your head, you're not alone.
00:18:34.84\00:18:37.88
Our free focus on prophecy
guides are designed to help you
00:18:37.88\00:18:41.38
unlock the
mysteries of the Bible
00:18:41.38\00:18:43.08
and deepen your
understanding of God's plan
00:18:43.08\00:18:45.55
for you and our world.
00:18:45.55\00:18:47.16
Study online or
request them by mail,
00:18:47.16\00:18:49.59
and start bringing
prophecy into focus today.
00:18:49.59\00:18:52.49
- So now let me tell you
about one of my own encounters
00:18:53.86\00:18:56.26
with the seemingly miraculous
00:18:56.26\00:18:58.17
so that we can just think
about this a little bit more.
00:18:58.17\00:19:01.57
About two decades ago, I
was working in South Asia,
00:19:01.57\00:19:04.77
and we had
something like 25,000 people
00:19:04.77\00:19:07.91
attending a series of
lectures that I was presenting.
00:19:07.91\00:19:11.18
And knowing that I
was a Christian minister,
00:19:11.18\00:19:13.15
hundreds of people would line up
00:19:13.15\00:19:14.68
after I was finished talking,
00:19:14.68\00:19:16.28
hoping I would
just pray for them.
00:19:16.28\00:19:18.59
And some nights I would
be standing there for hours.
00:19:18.59\00:19:21.89
Now, there was one evening
where a mother approached me
00:19:21.89\00:19:24.16
with her little
boy who appeared to be,
00:19:24.16\00:19:26.16
I don't know, about 10 or 12.
00:19:26.16\00:19:28.03
His face was
tragically disfigured.
00:19:28.03\00:19:29.90
One of his eyes was
significantly lower than the
00:19:29.90\00:19:33.37
other, and the
eyeball itself was diseased
00:19:33.37\00:19:35.40
and obviously non-functional.
00:19:35.40\00:19:37.77
It was tragic. It was awful.
00:19:37.77\00:19:40.31
So she asked that I
would pray for her boy,
00:19:40.31\00:19:42.31
and of course I did it.
00:19:42.31\00:19:43.78
I mean, I was happy to do that.
00:19:43.78\00:19:46.08
Then, the next night,
00:19:46.08\00:19:47.52
the same woman
approached me with another boy
00:19:47.52\00:19:49.88
who also appeared to be
about 10 or 12 years of age,
00:19:49.88\00:19:52.42
but this boy
looked perfectly healthy,
00:19:52.42\00:19:55.66
and she noticed that I
was kind of missing the point.
00:19:55.66\00:19:57.69
And she said, "You
don't recognize him, do you?
00:19:57.69\00:20:00.80
You don't recognize my boy."
00:20:00.80\00:20:02.76
And then she told
me it was the same boy
00:20:02.76\00:20:05.07
whose eye had
been healed overnight.
00:20:05.07\00:20:08.07
Now, personally, I've seen
enough of that kind of thing
00:20:09.50\00:20:12.11
over the years that I no
longer doubt that it's possible.
00:20:12.11\00:20:15.51
Experience has taught me
that sometimes it happens.
00:20:15.51\00:20:19.41
But at the same time,
00:20:19.41\00:20:20.68
given the number
of religious hucksters
00:20:20.68\00:20:22.35
who dominate the
airwaves here in America,
00:20:22.35\00:20:24.65
healing people for
money, well, I'm also skeptical.
00:20:24.65\00:20:28.79
And there are all kinds
of plausible explanations
00:20:28.79\00:20:31.13
for what I saw that night.
00:20:31.13\00:20:32.76
Maybe she had twin boys.
00:20:32.76\00:20:34.66
Maybe she brought me the
healthy boy to deceive me,
00:20:34.66\00:20:37.27
or maybe I misunderstood what
the translator was telling me.
00:20:37.27\00:20:40.70
But then I've got to ask myself,
00:20:41.67\00:20:44.07
why in the world would
that mother try to deceive me?
00:20:44.07\00:20:47.44
Conversion from
Hinduism to Christianity
00:20:47.44\00:20:49.94
is not just frowned upon
in that particular location.
00:20:49.94\00:20:52.61
It was completely illegal.
00:20:52.61\00:20:55.42
I could go to
prison if somebody thought
00:20:55.42\00:20:57.55
I had a role in
somebody's choice
00:20:57.55\00:20:59.42
to become a Christian believer.
00:20:59.42\00:21:01.69
So what would be the
point of trying to fool me
00:21:01.69\00:21:04.49
with a miracle?
00:21:04.49\00:21:05.99
And of course, you could
probably think of reasons.
00:21:05.99\00:21:09.06
I mean, maybe she was
looking for fame and publicity,
00:21:09.06\00:21:11.93
which might give her a
ticket out of her poverty.
00:21:11.93\00:21:14.94
But logic tells me
she didn't have a reason
00:21:14.94\00:21:18.61
to lie about this.
00:21:18.61\00:21:20.24
It's not like she was motivated
00:21:20.24\00:21:21.64
to affirm my Christian faith.
00:21:21.64\00:21:23.65
If anything, most
of the people I met
00:21:23.65\00:21:25.28
didn't want to believe
the claims of the Bible.
00:21:25.28\00:21:28.82
So if I'm gonna ask
myself what's most probable
00:21:28.82\00:21:31.79
after years and years
of thinking about this,
00:21:31.79\00:21:34.32
I'd lean in the
direction of believing her.
00:21:34.32\00:21:37.69
And yes, I might be suffering
from confirmation bias,
00:21:37.69\00:21:41.56
but let me tell you this.
00:21:41.56\00:21:43.53
I don't suffer
from confirmation bias
00:21:43.53\00:21:46.00
any more than David Hume did.
00:21:46.00\00:21:48.00
And just because he
didn't see something,
00:21:48.00\00:21:50.67
that doesn't make it untrue.
00:21:50.67\00:21:52.27
I mean, just ask
yourself, how many generations
00:21:53.68\00:21:55.51
have denied the
possibility of human flight?
00:21:55.51\00:21:58.48
We all know you and
I are heavier than air.
00:21:58.48\00:22:00.75
And prior to
the Wright Brothers,
00:22:00.75\00:22:02.68
we had a uniform
experience with gravity.
00:22:02.68\00:22:05.52
Men who jumped off of high
places hit the ground and died.
00:22:05.52\00:22:10.06
Of course, Hume would tell us
00:22:10.06\00:22:12.09
we're only being
skeptical about flying
00:22:12.09\00:22:14.00
because we had not yet
expanded our understanding
00:22:14.00\00:22:16.73
of the universe.
00:22:16.73\00:22:18.30
But then I might be
tempted to reply by saying
00:22:18.30\00:22:21.40
that the only reason he
did not appear to believe
00:22:21.40\00:22:23.47
in a God who intervenes
in the affairs of this world
00:22:23.47\00:22:26.27
is because he
had not yet expanded
00:22:26.27\00:22:28.01
his
understanding of the universe
00:22:28.01\00:22:30.01
to include a supreme being.
00:22:30.01\00:22:32.75
And oddly enough, a lot of
highly qualified people today
00:22:32.75\00:22:36.08
are starting to wonder
if there didn't have to be
00:22:36.08\00:22:38.75
some kind of sentient being
00:22:38.75\00:22:40.46
who started this
universe in motion
00:22:40.46\00:22:42.89
because the laws
of physics now appear
00:22:42.89\00:22:45.59
to demand such a thing.
00:22:45.59\00:22:46.80
What we have in
the pages of the Bible
00:22:48.23\00:22:50.10
is 1,500 years of
testimony from people who said
00:22:50.10\00:22:53.70
they interacted with
something or somebody
00:22:53.70\00:22:56.14
that transcends our
everyday experience.
00:22:56.14\00:22:59.11
And one theme that
shows up in this book
00:22:59.11\00:23:01.44
over, and over,
and over, and over
00:23:01.44\00:23:03.88
is the idea that we
cannot fully comprehend
00:23:03.88\00:23:06.58
what lies beyond
our personal experience,
00:23:06.58\00:23:09.68
and I'm thinking
about that moment
00:23:09.68\00:23:11.62
when Job
finished questioning God,
00:23:11.62\00:23:13.92
and God took a
turn questioning Job.
00:23:13.92\00:23:16.62
This is found in
Job chapter 38, it says,
00:23:16.62\00:23:19.59
Then the Lord answered Job
out of the whirlwind and said,
00:23:19.59\00:23:22.66
"Who is this who darkens counsel
00:23:22.66\00:23:25.03
by words without knowledge?"
00:23:25.03\00:23:26.87
Now prepare yourself like a man.
00:23:26.87\00:23:28.57
I will question you
and you shall answer me.
00:23:28.57\00:23:32.37
Where were you when I laid
the foundations of the Earth?
00:23:32.37\00:23:35.74
Tell me if you
have understanding.
00:23:35.74\00:23:37.85
"who determined
its measurements?
00:23:37.85\00:23:39.81
Surely you know.
00:23:39.81\00:23:41.38
Or who
stretched the line upon it
00:23:41.38\00:23:43.15
to what were its
foundations fastened?
00:23:43.15\00:23:45.59
Or who laid its cornerstone
00:23:45.59\00:23:46.99
when the morning
stars sang together
00:23:46.99\00:23:48.79
and all the sons of
God shouted for joy?"
00:23:48.79\00:23:51.96
Of course, a
critic might point out
00:23:53.09\00:23:54.63
it's a little
convenient to suggest
00:23:54.63\00:23:56.63
that we just need faith to
approach an incomprehensible
00:23:56.63\00:24:01.27
God. But then again, if
there was an omniscient god,
00:24:01.27\00:24:04.77
of course he'd be
somewhat incomprehensible.
00:24:04.77\00:24:07.51
And I guess what
I'm driving at is this.
00:24:08.71\00:24:10.75
David Hume seems
to have made himself
00:24:10.75\00:24:12.91
the final arbiter of truth,
00:24:12.91\00:24:14.68
and that's an approach
with all kinds of problems.
00:24:14.68\00:24:17.75
There's a reason
that epistemology
00:24:17.75\00:24:19.45
continues to be studied today
00:24:19.45\00:24:20.86
because we don't
really know how we know things
00:24:20.86\00:24:23.83
or how we can
know them for sure.
00:24:23.83\00:24:26.39
And Hume's insistence
that a transcendent god
00:24:26.39\00:24:29.10
would have to live by the rules
00:24:29.10\00:24:30.53
of the physical
universe he created.
00:24:30.53\00:24:32.90
Well, Hume is
putting God in a category
00:24:32.90\00:24:35.14
that the Bible does
not appropriate to Him.
00:24:35.14\00:24:37.71
Now, I realize I'm
probably not convincing
00:24:37.71\00:24:39.84
some people of anything.
00:24:39.84\00:24:41.01
And given the
rather lengthy effort
00:24:41.01\00:24:42.78
that Hume put
into his philosophy,
00:24:42.78\00:24:44.51
there's no way I'll
do this subject justice,
00:24:44.51\00:24:46.98
but I will say this.
00:24:46.98\00:24:48.75
It seems to me
that Hume was inventing
00:24:48.75\00:24:50.49
his own definition
for what God needs to be.
00:24:50.49\00:24:53.59
And when that didn't look right,
00:24:53.59\00:24:55.29
he shoots down that definition.
00:24:55.29\00:24:58.09
I'll be right back after this.
00:24:58.09\00:25:00.16
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00:25:02.70\00:25:03.97
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- I think we're
gonna have to come back
00:25:33.46\00:25:34.73
to David Hume some other day
00:25:34.73\00:25:35.96
because he's been
really influential
00:25:35.96\00:25:38.00
and I've barely
scratched the surface,
00:25:38.00\00:25:40.07
but maybe for now
let me just say this.
00:25:40.07\00:25:42.80
If there's one thing that
most skeptics have in common,
00:25:42.80\00:25:45.41
it's their
insistence on defining
00:25:45.41\00:25:47.14
what God needs to be
from their perspective,
00:25:47.14\00:25:50.05
and then blowing
that straw man apart.
00:25:50.05\00:25:52.58
For example,
some skeptics insist
00:25:52.58\00:25:54.38
that God should
never ever take a life,
00:25:54.38\00:25:57.05
even though he's
the author of life
00:25:57.05\00:25:58.55
and presumably gets
to define such rules.
00:25:58.55\00:26:01.49
Or they might
insist that if God is real,
00:26:01.49\00:26:03.29
he's morally bound to intervene
00:26:03.29\00:26:05.16
before anything bad ever
happens, every single time.
00:26:05.16\00:26:09.56
Even though, if he does exist,
00:26:09.56\00:26:11.80
you'd think he'd be
the one who gets to define
00:26:11.80\00:26:14.00
what is moral and what is not.
00:26:14.00\00:26:16.60
So maybe today,
I'll just leave you
00:26:16.60\00:26:18.04
with a bit of an
apparent paradox,
00:26:18.04\00:26:19.87
which seems
appropriate for today's show.
00:26:19.87\00:26:22.68
There are two opposite
ideas that are held in tension
00:26:22.68\00:26:25.25
all the way through the Bible.
00:26:25.25\00:26:26.92
On the one hand,
we're told that we can never
00:26:26.92\00:26:28.78
truly know God.
00:26:28.78\00:26:30.65
"For as the heavens
are higher than the earth,"
00:26:30.65\00:26:32.52
God says, in Isaiah 59,
00:26:32.52\00:26:34.59
"so are my ways
higher than your ways
00:26:34.59\00:26:37.06
and my thoughts
than your thoughts."
00:26:37.06\00:26:38.86
But then on the other hand,
the Book of Jeremiah says this.
00:26:40.26\00:26:43.10
Thus says the Lord,
00:26:43.10\00:26:44.40
"Let not the wise
man glory in his wisdom.
00:26:44.40\00:26:46.57
Let not the mighty
man glory in his might,
00:26:46.57\00:26:48.87
nor let the rich
man glory in his riches.
00:26:48.87\00:26:51.41
But let him who
glories glory in this,
00:26:51.41\00:26:53.81
that he
understands and knows me,
00:26:53.81\00:26:55.88
that I am the Lord
exercising lovingkindness,
00:26:55.88\00:26:58.45
judgment, and
righteousness in the earth."
00:26:58.45\00:27:02.05
If God is real, that
would mean that you and I
00:27:02.05\00:27:04.49
will always
struggle to explain Him.
00:27:04.49\00:27:07.36
Because after all, if
we fully comprehended God,
00:27:07.36\00:27:10.39
that would mean
we had become God.
00:27:10.39\00:27:13.33
But then at the same time,
He invites you to know Him.
00:27:13.33\00:27:16.10
And what he specifically says
00:27:16.10\00:27:18.20
is that you can
know his character.
00:27:18.20\00:27:20.40
God doesn't have
to part the Red Sea
00:27:21.54\00:27:23.10
or bring back the
dead to convince me.
00:27:23.10\00:27:25.41
He doesn't have to
suspend the laws of nature
00:27:25.41\00:27:27.44
to reveal himself.
00:27:27.44\00:27:28.91
And I challenge you to
pick up a Bible for yourself
00:27:28.91\00:27:31.51
and have a look at what
it says about who He is.
00:27:31.51\00:27:35.52
I'm Shawn Boonstra.
00:27:35.52\00:27:36.62
This has been "Authentic."
00:27:36.62\00:27:38.22
Thanks for joining me.
00:27:38.22\00:27:39.65
[upbeat music]
00:27:39.65\00:27:42.26