Where's the Proof?
John 5:40 and the burden of "proof."
March, 2021
The title of this month's editorial is related to the theme of the spotlight verse. Believers sometimes ask this out of curiosity, non-believers as a criticism. This is sometimes tied to a specific discipline, but it's usually targeted at the broad genre of "science." The general challenge is, "Why hasn't God been scientifically confirmed? Why isn't there absolute scientific proof that God exists?"
To explain why there is no accepted "scientific proof" of God, consider the following parable.
A man wakes up one morning with a bizarre idea: that he is dead. He can't shake it, and for weeks he keeps insisting he's a dead man. Doctors devise a plan. They spend hours discussing the fact that living people bleed, and dead people do not. This involves countless pictures, descriptions, videos, and other proofs. Eventually, the man agrees. He declares, without any qualifications, that only living people bleed. As soon as the man makes that remark, a nurse reaches out and sticks him in the arm with a needle. Looking at the little trickle of blood, the man says with surprise, "I guess I was wrong…dead people bleed, too!"
In parallel, consider how atheism has changed its view of the universe.
For most of history, atheists claimed the universe was eternal: that it had an infinite past. This was a way of rejecting the need for a creator. That which had no beginning did not need a "beginner." In the early 20th century, evidence from men like Einstein, Hubble, LeMaitre, and others provided clear evidence of a "beginning." That theory is now called the "Big Bang," and the name was meant as an insult from atheists who rejected it. Their main reason for resistance was spiritual. Any theory saying the universe "began" from a single point in a single instant was too much like religion for their tastes. Eventually, Penzias and Wilson confirmed even more evidence supporting that idea. In effect, they proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the universe "began." Atheists immediately pivoted to claiming that if we could prove there was a beginning, that itself was evidence God was not involved.
For a direct example from Scripture, consider Jesus' response to the religious leaders who hated Him. After pointing out that His claims were supported by Scripture, personal testimony, and miracles, He explained the exact reason why that evidence was rejected: "You search the Scriptures…it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me…" (John 5:39–40).
The common theme of all three examples is preference. Ultimately, what a person wants to believe can override everything else. When it comes to God, the blunt truth is that people disbelieve in Him because they want to disbelieve.
Every single person has enough evidence to point them towards God (Romans 1:18–20; Psalm 19:1). It's not enough to answer every possible question or resolve every tiny doubt. But there's more than enough to start us on the process of seeking Him (Matthew 7:7–8). Once we do that, we're going to see how everything points to His truth. The only way we can escape that, in the end, is by making a deliberate choice to ignore certain things. We block our minds off from certain ideas, out of our own preferences, to choose not to see the reality of God.
In actual practice, "proof" is subjective. There are no such things as "brute facts" which literally force a person to accept some conclusion. The man who thought he was dead seems like an extreme, silly story, at first. Then we look at atheists rejecting crystal-clear support for Genesis by reversing their own claims. We see men who saw Jesus perform miracles in person refuse to make the obvious conclusion. On a daily basis, we observe people who ignore evidence and context to hold on to their preferred political or social views.
In this life, we will never see "proof" which forces all people to accept God. In the end, everyone will be faced with God (Romans 14:10–12; Revelation 20:11–15), but even that only means they will admit He exists (James 2:19). It won't mean they submit to His role as their Creator (Matthew 25:41). The best we can expect is to present people with what's true (1 Peter 3:15–16) and leave their decision in God's hands.
-- Editor
