The dark pit of doubt is hard to get out of. Every time I think I’ve made progress toward faith I seem to slip back. One of the things I’ve learned through this struggle is to be cautious about moving the “goal post”. While in doubt, I am searching for evidence for the Christian faith. But what evidence will satisfy this criteria? If I say, I just want some shred of evidence. What happens when I find that shred? Will I want more? Will I demand more evidence? Will I keep moving the goal post further and further till it is out of reach?
Something that I’ve been trying to do is to think ahead of time of what criteria the evidence must meet in order for me to “step forward in faith”. This at first seems to be an impossible task. How does one qualify something so abstract?
Does one come up with some probability equation? How does one put probability values on the disciples’ response, the early church’s expansion, the resurrection? I would say this is impossible, and there would be far too many assumptions to make it meaningful at all. However, discussing probability is something worth discussing for maybe a future post.
Mark,
Your question of criteria and probability sounds like the scientific side of what I see as a philosophy question of epistemology–how do we come to know what is true? By reason, feeling, or divine revelation? Which criteria of truth do we use? Or can we know truth at all? These and many more are questions I am wrestling with. I am searching for truth, but I don’t yet know how I will recognize it when I find it, because I have not settled on an epistemology/a way of arriving at truth. (So I feel like I’m traveling without a destination or a map!) But like you, I am trying to think about it as I go. Sorry I don’t have any answers to offer yet; I just thought I’d share the way I look at the issue you raised.