Good morning! My name is Jason Sparks. I am a minister for
the Hope
An astronomer who was on his way to give a lecture discovered that his seatmate on the airplane was a preacher. Early in the conversation he assured the preacher that he knew everything about religion he needed to know. The preacher expressed delight and asked where the scientist had studied religion and how much he had read the Bible.
"Oh, no," the astronomer replied, "I've never studied theology, and I don't read the Bible, but I know the Golden Rule, and I figure that's enough religion for me."
"Well, on that basis," declared the preacher, "I guess I know all about astronomy."
The scientist scoffed and asked the preacher what he knew about the cosmos, to which the he replied gravely, "Twinkle, twinkle little star; how I wonder what you are."
Plainly just because this preacher knew a child’s song did not mean he knew all about astronomy and that was an excellent way to prove another point. Just because people know a little about the Bible does not mean that they know everything about it. This astronomer was not being rational!
This morning we are going to consider the fact that truth is rational. It is based on and understood by reason. This is something that is very important to recognize, especially in religion.
Most people recognize that being irrational is not a good way to live. We try our best to live our lives in a logical, rational fashion. When we go to the doctor, for example, and he gives us a prescription, we expect the pharmacist to use common sense when filling the prescription. We want him to think rationally. Our very lives may depend on it!
But as we see in the story of the astronomer, sometimes people do not apply reason to religion. In fact, some even deny that faith is based on correct reasoning. But Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 “Test everything; hold on to what is good.” In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul told them to “test themselves”. Testing involves providing evidence and reasoning correctly about that evidence.
People who believe in and promote the theory of evolution also claim that religious truth is not rational because it is not based on real evidence. But this could not be further from the truth! The Bible was written to provide historically accurate evidence—the reasons why we believe! It is not our purpose to day to examine this evidence, but we welcome any discussions regarding these things. We can provide evidence that proves everything we believe. After all, that is what we are commanded to do in the Bible. Once again, Test or prove all things and hold fast to what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). At the end of this program we will give you our contact information. We encourage you to find out more if you are interested. As always, our work and materials are absolutely free of charge to you.
Now, in dealing with rational thought there is a principle that some have called the Law of Rationality. This law basically states that one must only form conclusions based upon sufficient evidence. In other words, if you decide upon something it should be decided upon by collecting enough evidence to warrant that conclusion.
If I give a piece of cheese to you and claim that this shows that the moon is made of cheese, it would not be rational to believe me because the evidence does not support that conclusion. There is some evidence—the piece of cheese—but there is not ENOUGH evidence to believe the claim that the moon is made of cheese! Because of this important, recognized principle of learning and thinking, we can conclude that if we are rational, we can find truth, but if we are irrational we may not find truth at all—or only by accident. Irrational thought does not find truth and is not based on sufficient evidence.
Religious truth is rational. Here is where many people fall into trouble. They have often based their beliefs on subjective emotional experiences and not on facts. As humans, we are free to believe anything we want to believe. We have the right to think anything we want to think. And many people are very sincere about their religious beliefs. But it is also possible to be sincerely wrong about those beliefs. If religious truth is truth, it is subject to the Law of Rationality. That means that if it is true it can be substantiated by various forms of evidence. If a belief has absolutely no evidence to support it, it cannot be truth.
Religion as a whole has a history of trouble with this. There could be many reasons people do not use rational thinking in religious matters.
On reason people are sometimes not rational in their religion is that their belief might be wrong! If a belief is not supported by the evidence, it is not truth. That sounds harsh in religious circles, and even pompous to some, but it is still true. Unfortunately, even though confronted with overwhelming evidence that shows their beliefs to be wrong, some people will resort to saying it is a matter of faith, not subject to reason and evidence. After all, they say, faith is going beyond the evidence and taking a “leap in the dark.” This “leap of faith” into ideas that have no basis of evidence is not the biblical definition of faith.
According to the Bible, faith is completely based on rational thinking. Time and again we are told to weigh evidence and draw rational conclusions. A simple glance through the pages of the Bible will show this fact. Jesus Himself was the most rationally thinking man that has ever lived. His logical thinking was sharp and to the point and confounded His enemies at every turn! To Jesus, faith was rational and reasonable! In fact, the whole of Christianity is based on the teachings and rationality of Jesus Christ. This is so abundantly clear that all it takes to see this is to read the pages of the New Testament and see what Jesus taught! This rationality—this reliance upon evidence to prove positions we hold—is shown in such statements like Paul made in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 when he wrote, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” This command to “prove” the things we believe is a command to reason and think about our beliefs and compare them to the evidence to see whether what we believe is true or false.
Another possible reason why some see a problem between evidence and their beliefs is that they have not taken the time to gather the necessary evidence to make an informed decision. And that is what truth seekers do. Instead of seeking evidence to support our wishes, we should be gathering the evidence and looking at it closely enough to see what it teaches us. Thankfully, there is evidence enough to prove religious truth, but as we discussed last week, we might have to dig for it.
This is one of the fundamental principles to understand for Bible study. Many people seem to want to take a passage here and there and set them at odds with other passages as if the writers were arguing with each other. The Bible was written by many different men over the course of 1600 years, but the Bible also tells us that there was one unifying mind that brought all of these thoughts together in perfect unity. This unity means that passages should be read to see what additional thoughts are given, not try to make the thoughts conflict and pick the one that is most suited to your tastes.
In Psalm 119 verse 160, David wrote, “The sum of your word is truth.” And indeed, if we take all that the Bible says on any subject, and use some rationality, we can determine truth and can find the complete harmony between all the writers of the Bible.
Many people are surprised that the Bible calls on its followers to prove whether their beliefs are true or not. Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament in the first century after Jesus, told the Christians in the city of Thessalonica, “Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, NKJ). This commanded to Christians shows that God intends for us to prove the things we believe.
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