Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance
about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By
faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what
is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews 11:1-2)
Let’s
continue exploring what faith is. The first verse above tied it to what we
believe and hope. The third verse claims faith is the means by which we
understand. This extends yesterday’s ideas. A materialist looks at the fossil
record, the geological record, and the cosmos and says, “evolution.” A
creationist looks at the exact same evidence and says, “creation.” I can
completely understand the logical argument for the evolutionary perspective
(not the details of the chemistry, physics, and math.) It makes perfect sense
of the evidence. I can also completely understand the logical argument for the
creationary perspective. It all depends on the presupposition of the believer.
If you reject the idea of God, evolution makes a lot of sense. I still don’t
think the evidence is sufficient, but it makes a lot of sense. If you accept
the idea of God, creation makes a lot of sense. And the evidence that points in
God’s direction is growing.
In the 1700s, David Hume wrote a philosophical treatise on cause and effect. An agnostic once challenged me to read it. It’s fascinating reading. In summary, it argues that we cannot know that just because effect X has always followed supposed cause A doesn’t mean it always will. The sustenance we’ve gained from eating a piece of bread doesn’t guarantee that we will always gain sustenance. The next piece may poison us. He was giving an example, but this is what we’re finding to be true. The last bee sting didn’t give us a problem. This one put us in anaphylactic shock. The same with the bread. Last time, we didn’t have any allergic symptoms, but now our system can’t handle the gluten, or the sugar, or whatever. We can’t know. We look at the weather-forecast and it says the same thing as yesterday. Yesterday it didn’t rain. Today, we get drenched. Not long ago, it was safe to go to Walmart….
We’re safe in our homes, unless mold levels, or radon levels, or carbon dioxide levels, or the fibers with which we’ve built or decorated that home don’t turn out to be poisonous to us, or the trees we’ve planted don’t fall and crush us, or a gas leak doesn’t develop and blow the house up. Hume goes on to say that there are a few things we can know, and those are things we can figure out for ourselves. Most of them are math functions. Two plus two equals four. The circumference of a circle divided by its diameter will yield 3.14-ish. A2+B2=C2. E=mc2. How do you know those are true? How many circumferences and radii have you measured? How many sides of right triangles? When did you calculate the speed of light, and the mass of an object, and found the relationship between their product and energy? The fact is that we were all taught these things, and we took them on faith.
Ultimately, almost everything we know, we know by faith. When Scripture says, “The righteous man shall live by faith,” it’s not saying anything special or spectacular. The unrighteous man also lives by faith. The current theory is that the universe exploded out of a singularity. By definition, a singularity is a place/time/? in which the laws of physics do not apply. In other words, it exploded out of chaos into growing order, which violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but matches mythology nicely. Does that mean the scientists don’t know as much as the story-tellers of old?
So, by faith we understand that what is was not, but became. And by faith, we understand either that somehow, it did so as the result of an incalculable number of accidents and violations of the cause/effect cycle, or we understand that a mind guided and controlled it. In either case, our understanding is based on our beliefs, which are accepted by faith was being true. Yes, Mr. Hume was right. That’s not the effect the agnostic hoped to cause.
In the 1700s, David Hume wrote a philosophical treatise on cause and effect. An agnostic once challenged me to read it. It’s fascinating reading. In summary, it argues that we cannot know that just because effect X has always followed supposed cause A doesn’t mean it always will. The sustenance we’ve gained from eating a piece of bread doesn’t guarantee that we will always gain sustenance. The next piece may poison us. He was giving an example, but this is what we’re finding to be true. The last bee sting didn’t give us a problem. This one put us in anaphylactic shock. The same with the bread. Last time, we didn’t have any allergic symptoms, but now our system can’t handle the gluten, or the sugar, or whatever. We can’t know. We look at the weather-forecast and it says the same thing as yesterday. Yesterday it didn’t rain. Today, we get drenched. Not long ago, it was safe to go to Walmart….
We’re safe in our homes, unless mold levels, or radon levels, or carbon dioxide levels, or the fibers with which we’ve built or decorated that home don’t turn out to be poisonous to us, or the trees we’ve planted don’t fall and crush us, or a gas leak doesn’t develop and blow the house up. Hume goes on to say that there are a few things we can know, and those are things we can figure out for ourselves. Most of them are math functions. Two plus two equals four. The circumference of a circle divided by its diameter will yield 3.14-ish. A2+B2=C2. E=mc2. How do you know those are true? How many circumferences and radii have you measured? How many sides of right triangles? When did you calculate the speed of light, and the mass of an object, and found the relationship between their product and energy? The fact is that we were all taught these things, and we took them on faith.
Ultimately, almost everything we know, we know by faith. When Scripture says, “The righteous man shall live by faith,” it’s not saying anything special or spectacular. The unrighteous man also lives by faith. The current theory is that the universe exploded out of a singularity. By definition, a singularity is a place/time/? in which the laws of physics do not apply. In other words, it exploded out of chaos into growing order, which violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but matches mythology nicely. Does that mean the scientists don’t know as much as the story-tellers of old?
So, by faith we understand that what is was not, but became. And by faith, we understand either that somehow, it did so as the result of an incalculable number of accidents and violations of the cause/effect cycle, or we understand that a mind guided and controlled it. In either case, our understanding is based on our beliefs, which are accepted by faith was being true. Yes, Mr. Hume was right. That’s not the effect the agnostic hoped to cause.
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