2. Can There Be Evidence for a Claim I Cannot Prove?
“You can’t prove the existence of God.” It is a familiar refrain, perhaps because there is truth in it.
I readily admit that no argument or evidence of mine ever will convince anyone else that God is real and desires a personal relationship with each of us. That is the province of the Holy Spirit. The extent of every believer’s task is to assist in the removal of intellectual and emotional barriers to Christ that people have erected. While this task at times can be accomplished through words, actions are more often effective. As St. Francis of Assisi put it, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.”
In that spirit, I offer a brief explanation of how God has proven His existence to me. I think of proof from a legal (as opposed to, say, a scientific) perspective. I search for the legal theory that best fits the available facts; if the fit is tight, I consider the theory proven. More specifically, I:
(1) preliminarily investigate facts relevant to the question, then (2) survey a broad range of legal theories potentially relevant to the question, then (3) further investigate the facts, then (4) conduct deeper research of a narrower range of legal theories that seem to fit the available facts better than others, then (5) further investigate the facts, and so on, until (6) the time comes to decide which theory best fits the facts.
In retrospect, I see that, during the course of day-to-day life, I loosely applied this approach to the question of the existence of God. At one time or another, my search focused primarily on (1) Christianity, (2) some form of Unitarian Universalism that I concocted in my own mind, and (3) agnosticism (at least that is how I tended to live). I gradually (and primarily subconsciously) tested the fit of each theory with the experiences of life, searching for a worldview with coherent answers for the primary issues of life − origin, meaning, morality and destiny.1/
1/ If you are familiar with Ravi Zacharias (http://www.rzim.org/ravi.php), I am sure that you recognize my reference to “origin, meaning, morality and destiny.” I find his construct invaluable when thinking critically about the implications of competing worldviews. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Zacharias’ work, go to http://www.rzim.org/faqs/about.php to find a four-minute video of Ravi speaking at the University of Michigan in 2003.
