Monday, January 29, 2007
OK, I have been giving this some thought and have arrived at this point. It is not a matter of what is believable, but rather what is true. A system of belief may not always be comfortably within the realm of believability even though it is within the bounds of possibility. If my criterion for belief is what I consider probable then I may miss something important. I need a way of determining if a system of belief is true.
I realize that I will not always be able to determine a statement or system of belief is true absolutely, but I should be able to tilt the scales to one side or the other. Borrowing from the legal arena if I can not prove a matter I should be able to reach a point beyond reasonable doubt one way or the other.
I am going to suggest three considerations for evaluating religious and/or philosophical positions. I like the way Ravi Zacharias states them. The tests are “(1) Logical consistency, (2) empirical adequacy, and (3) experiential relevance.”
Can Man Live without God, page 123.
Logic won’t do it alone as the rules of logic can only demonstrate error. We need a means of testing any truth claims and they should have a real application to my life. I will start the evaluation with logic because if a system is not logical I need not go through the trouble of testing.
I realize that I will not always be able to determine a statement or system of belief is true absolutely, but I should be able to tilt the scales to one side or the other. Borrowing from the legal arena if I can not prove a matter I should be able to reach a point beyond reasonable doubt one way or the other.
I am going to suggest three considerations for evaluating religious and/or philosophical positions. I like the way Ravi Zacharias states them. The tests are “(1) Logical consistency, (2) empirical adequacy, and (3) experiential relevance.”
Can Man Live without God, page 123.
Logic won’t do it alone as the rules of logic can only demonstrate error. We need a means of testing any truth claims and they should have a real application to my life. I will start the evaluation with logic because if a system is not logical I need not go through the trouble of testing.
