Who Deserves the Benefit of the Doubt? 11-16-08
I was looking at the RSS feeds from Fox News on my computer recently and saw the headline “Oldest Possibly Hebrew Inscription Possibly Found.” This understandably drew my attention, so I clicked on the link and was presented with the news story; the article informed me about a ceramic shard that was found at a site that has been dated to 1000BC-975BC – contemporary with King David. The story then proceeded to explain that “some scholars and archeologists argue that the Bible’s account of David’s time inflates his importance and that of his kingdom, and is essentially myth” (article). This is said to come from an objective viewpoint.
Now compare this to the “facts” of the story of human evolution. Java Man, Piltdown Man, Nebraska Man, and Ramapithecus were all at one time or another proclaimed to be evidence of the evolution of man from a “common ancestor” with apes and other primates. They have all been subsequently revealed as frauds: Java Man had been manufactured out of small fragments from two different creatures; Piltdown Man was a deliberate hoax, Nebraska Man had been conjured up from a pig’s tooth, and Ramapithecus turned out to be an ape. Neanderthal Man has tested out as human in every way: DNA, lifestyle, etc. So if it walks like a human, has the DNA of a human, and acts like a human – maybe it is human? But Anthropology is given the benefit of the doubt – they “know” humans evolved, so they will keep searching until they prove it.
Similarly, look at the “facts” of the origin of the universe. The universe “obviously” began as an infinitely small, infinitely hot, infinitely dense point that exploded outwards into the universe that we know today. Out of that, over 100 Billion galaxies were born, each with maybe 100 Billion stars – that’s ten thousand billion billion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 1×1022) stars! So the argument is that we cannot possibly be the only living beings. Astrophysicist Hugh Ross, in his book The Creator and the Cosmos, laid out forty-one parameters needed for a planet capable of sustaining life – such as type of galaxy, star mass, tidal force, thickness of crust, atmospheric pressure, etc. He made the calculation that the probability of a planet meeting all forty-one parameters is one in a hundred thousand trillion trillion trillion trillion (1×1053). That means that even in a universe with ten thousand billion billion stars, there’s only one chance in one million trillion that a single planet could exist! But stating that we are the only ones here shouts volumes about the power of the creator, so astronomers claim natural origins (no God) and are given the benefit of the doubt.
Every discipline that makes the claim that there is no God, or that the God of the Bible is not real, is given this benefit! No serious historian doubts the authenticity of Caesar’s Gallic War, The History of Thucydides, or The History of Herodotus, and yet there is not a single manuscript that dates to within less than 900 years of the original writing! But the New Testament documents are always held up to scrutiny and called into question as being inauthentic, even though there are literally thousands of manuscripts existing that date to within a couple of centuries (150-200 years), with a fragment of the Gospel of John that dates to within fifty years of the original! But the doubting historians are given the benefit of the doubt.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25 NIV)
We need to take comfort in all of this; God has placed before us the cross of Christ, which our modern “intellectuals” view as foolish and ignorant. But these same individuals place their faith in the flimsiest evidences and latch on to anything that will tell them that there is no God. But if look at the two sides, the atheist position needs the benefit of the doubt, while the God-believing side deserves it.