Old and ready to go?

The post-modern mind cannot grasp why so many people, well over a billion, cling to ideas contained within the covers of a very ancient book, or collection of books: the Bible. Today, media commentators and experts of any kind seem fully in agreement that what ultimately belongs to a pre-scientific age must, of necessity, be discarded and replaced by what is scientifically up-to-date.

So why stubbornly hold on to obsolete ideas? Why not march along with the apostles of this new Enlightenment? Simply because the above view on religious ideas has some serious flaws to it.

First, scientific methods geared to checking truth claims can only be properly applied to objects or processes involving tangible matter. The Bible makes the truth claim that God is spirit as opposed to matter (that is, having a physical body), and that God consequently cannot be seen by the human eye (but, check out Romans ch. 1, verses 19-20). You can always deny God's existence, but you cannot prove the veracity of your claim by resorting to known scientific methods.

Second, the fact that a truth claim was made thousands of years ago doesn't automatically call for the outright rejection of the truth claim itself. Truth has no expiry date. A truth claim, by its very nature, demands unbiased and thorough testing, and only after that can you legitimately write it off as unfounded or conclude that it does hold water.

Third, God makes some astounding claims on the pages of the Bible. Among them is the claim that you can actually experience Him, not as a general idea or principle, but as a living being. It even goes as far as saying that if you call on God in all honesty (and desperation), He will respond to your call in ways that make sense to you. The Bible promises that you will be able to recognize the intervention of the Divine Being. And if He's truly alive, He should be able to make His presence felt and seen, don't you agree?