A Faith So Blind
"If we take in our hand any volume: of divinity or school of metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames; For it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion." - David Hume, On Human Nature and the Understanding, 163.The empiricist insists that miracles cannot exist. How could they in a purely objective universe? To believe in such a concept as the miraculous would require a tremendous act of faith, and consequently can be deemed mere lunacy.
But what happens when the empiricist is confronted with an historically verifiable "miracle?" For the sake of simplicity, let us assume that it is not contested that something happened. Take, for instance, the common approach of The Discovery Channel when dealing with a miraculous event depicted in the Bible. The approach used to be to simply disregard any text that suggested something that even slightly resembled the miraculous, and this approach is still taken to a large extent. But it seems that lately it has shifted, and instead of disregarding the text as a whole, the event must be rationalized and explained away scientifically. For example: Instead of saying that the Moses-led Israelite crossing of the Red Sea never happened, some supposed scientific explanation is offered to account for what happened.
This is where things get interesting.
You see, those who ascribe to the rationalistic mindset will not entertain any notion of the miraculous. It simply cannot happen. So, when confronted by an historically-verified miracle, the only way to account for it is with some far-fetched "scientific" explanation, which actually ends up being so far-fetched that it takes an even greater faith to believe in it than that God may have simply just intervened in human history.
"Commit it then to the flames!" Commit what? Ideas that cannot be measured mathematically or scientifically? But what about your fundamental premise? What about this supposed absolute itself? Can it be measured and validated by mathematics or science? No, it cannot. That is because the statement itself is philosophical in nature, and a poor one at that, for it is a self-destroying commitment. It is one that takes an extreme level of faith to ascribe to... no, it is one that takes a sheer act of lunacy.
Labels: theology