Friday, May 9, 2014

Can you prove Christianity scientifically?

Julia and I enjoy working in Nalerigu, Ghana. An aspect of our job which we love is leading a bible study every Thursday night with the volunteers and full-time doctors who come to the hospital. Volunteers come from all over the world to work at the Baptist Medical Center and we have had the opportunity to get to know and minister to a lot of different volunteers. About half of the volunteers who come to the hospital are not Christian and the Thursday night devotional is there first taste of Christianity in a long time. After listening to a few Thursday night devotional some will come to our house and ask questions. Below is a common question and answer:

All this stuff about God, Jesus, and the resurrection. Can you prove it to me scientifically?

The short answer to this question is, No, I can not. Allow me to explain. Scientific proof is based on showing that something is a fact by repeating the event in the presence of the person questioning the fact. It is done in a controlled environment where observations can be made, data collected and hypotheses empirically verified. Testing the truth of a hypothesis by the use of controlled experiments is one of the key techniques of the modern scientific method. For example, someone claims that ivory soap doesn't float. I claim it does float, so to prove my point, I take the doubter to the kitchen, put eight inches of water in the sink at 82.7 degrees, and drop in the soap. Plunk! We make observations, we draw data, and we verify my hypothesis empirically: ivory soap floats.

If the scientific method were the only method we had for proving facts, you couldn't prove that you had lunch today. There's no way you could repeat that event in a controlled situation. Thankfully, the other method of proof, the legal-historical method, is based on showing that something is a fact beyond reasonable doubt. In other words, we reach a verdict on the weight of the evidence and have no rational basis for doubting the decision. Legal-historical proof depends on three kinds of testimony: oral testimony, written testimony, and exhibits. Using the legal-historical method to determine the facts, you could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you went to lunch today. Your friend saw you there, the waiter remembers seeing you, you have the restaurant receipt, and there's a stain on your shirt.

The scientific method can be used to prove only repeatable things. It isn't adequate for proving or disproving questions about persons or events in history. The scientific method isn't appropriate for answering questions as, Did Abraham Lincoln live? Was Martin Luther King Jr. a civil rights leader? Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Was Christopher Columbus a real person? Was Jesus Christ raised from the dead? These questions are outside the realm of scientific proof, and we must place them in the realm of legal-historical proof.

What you should be asking is, is there legal-historical proof for Christianity? The answer to that questions is an emphatic yes and will be answered in subsequent posts.

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