Wars
have been fought over beliefs about God. People have been
tortured in Inquisitions because of beliefs about God. Others
have been excommunicated because of beliefs about God. Billions
of peoples have beliefs about the afterlife that are based on beliefs
about God. So, what is a “belief”? According
to Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
“A belief is a state or
habit of mind in which trust or confidence
is placed in some person or
thing.”
Trust is a feeling of
confidence. Be sure to note that belief, trust, and confidence are
all emotional states. Beliefs are the building blocks of religious belief
systems and they are viewed as “truths” to believers.
In
his book, Letters from an Astrophysicist, Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson discusses the
difference between science and religion (p. 99):
“Science follows evidence. When strong
evidence supports an idea, the concept of belief, when invoked the way religious
people use it, is unnecessary. In other
words, established science is not an ensemble of beliefs, it’s a system of
ideas supported by verifiable evidence . . . You do not ask if I
believe in the sunrise. Or if I believe the sky is blue. Or if I believe Earth
has a Moon. These are non-controversial truths about the
physical world for which the word “believe” has no place.”
The
term “verifiable evidence” means “facts.”
“A “fact” is something that has actual existence. Facts are sensory perceivable. Facts are the
building blocks of science.
But
did you notice that in the above paragraphs, both religion and science
used the word “truth.” It is defined as “the property (as of a
statement) of being in accord with fact or reality.” For this reason, it is
essential for explorers of biblical heritages to make clear distinctions
between the two types truths:
●
Fact-Based Truths – This is what scientific truths are
based on.
●
Authority-Based Truths – This is what religious truths
are based on.
Religious
truths are based on authority, including truths about “God.” I am not aware of
any fact-based truths about God. But, in some cases, there are fact-based
truths that are related to authority-based truths
of religions – for example “beliefs about the Bible.”
Biblical
Heritage Explorers are committed to following the guideline below:
My belief system will
include all of the facts,
open enough to be
examined and questioned,
and flexible enough to change
if errors or new facts are discovered.
Now
let’s use the guideline to examine the belief statement below:
My Bible is the
inerrant infallible Word of God.
There
are facts related to the “My Bible” part of the belief
statement. It is a book that actually exists, and its
words are sensory perceivable.
The
“inerrant infallible” part of the belief statement is an authority-based
truth. In my case, those words were part of my church’s Statement
of Faith. “Inerrant and infallible” means the words in the Bible are "without
error or fault incapable of making mistakes or being wrong.”
One
day I was reading my Bible, a New King James Version, and I read the
verses below about God’s instructions to Noah. I have a banking background and
numbers always catch my attention.
Genesis 6:19-20
And of every living thing of all flesh you
shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive
with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of
animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its
kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.
Genesis 7:2-3
You shall take with you seven
each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each
of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; also seven
each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the
face of all the earth.
The
numbers in the verses above do not match:
2 of every male and
female is different from
7 of every male and
female.
Clearly,
my Bible did not contain words that are "without error or fault
incapable of making mistakes or being wrong.” Contrary to what some people
say, what I discovered doesn’t mean I should throw it in the trash
or that it is useless.
It simply means a
belief about the Bible was wrong
and that I need to
identify and examine the authority behind it.
Examining
belief statements about God is a much more complex task, therefore we created a
Meme Model to guide explorers. I will show you how to use it in
my next email. Thank you for exploring with me. Please share and discuss this
email with others.
Shalom,
Jim
Myers
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