Descarte’s Folly
Descarte’s Folly
By Jack Kinsella
Somebody emailed me recently to ask me how I can be so sure the Bible is true. After all, I wasn’t there when it was written. I am not a scholar of ancient Hebrew and Greek. I have never read an original manuscript in the original manuscript.
So I am largely basing my eternity on faith in what total strangers with unknown agendas want me to believe, my correspondent argues. Given all the variables, how can I be so smugly sure that there is a God? After all, I’ve never seen Him.
And secondly, how can I be so sure of the Bible? The French philosopher and celebrated atheist Rene Descarte famously argued; Cogito ergo sum ( I think, therefore I am.)
Arguing about the existence of God is a fool’s errand. Particularly when it is hurled as some kind of challenge to a believer.
First off, what is it that we’re discussing again? Oh, yeah, does God exist? If He doesn’t, then why are we discussing Him? How often does one get into a debate about that which does not exist?
If Descartes’ dictum applies to Descartes, would it also not apply to the debate about God? If one is debating the existence of God, then does that not constitute empirical proof that God must be?
As to the challenges to the Bible, one could apply almost the same argument. The Bible exists, and it speaks of God, so if the Bible is true, then God must also exist. That is logical — because faith is logical.
One does not go to work on Monday without logically expecting to be paid for that work on payday. Faith is the expectation of things hoped for and the substance of that not seen. If one does not have faith that there will be a payday, there is no logic in coming to work.
But how can one prove the Bible is true? My correspondent is right in his assessment of my limitations. But he is wrong where he assumes my faith is in the translators.
The translators weren’t smart enough.
It wasn’t until Columbus sailed to the New World and back that cartographers stopped drawing maps of a flat earth. But the Book of Job notes that “He walks above the circle of heaven”. (Job 22:14) The original Hebrew, using Roman characters, is, “Choq- chag `al- pney- mayim `ad-takliyt ‘owr `im- choshek.”
The word translated as circle comes from the Hebrew word “chuwg” which transliterates into English as ‘circuit’ or ‘sphere’ in addition to ‘circle’.
The Book of Isaiah was buried along with the Dead Sea Scrolls in the latter part of the 1st century. There it remained, untouched (and unadulterated) almost 1900 years before being discovered in 1947.
When we went to Israel we saw the complete Book of Isaiah on display it’s all there. And it differs from the modern version only in that ancient Hebrew didn’t have vowels.
How do I know that? Is it faith in the translators? Actually, no. It is faith in the enemy if there were a way to discredit the Bible, then he would have found a way. He didn’t — so that one must not work.
The Book of Isaiah, buried in the ground 1400 years before Columbus, tells us that it is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth. Who told Isaiah the earth was round?
Medically, the Bible tells us the chemical nature of human life (Genesis 2:7, 3:19) the nature of infectious diseases (Leviticus 13:46) and the importance of sanitation to health (Numbers 19, Deuteronomy 23:12-13, Leviticus 7-9).
And all this was a matter of record many thousands of years before doctors gave up the practice of blood-letting as a cure for disease. The life is in the blood, says Leviticus 17:11.
Job 26:7 says the earth is suspended on nothing. How did he know that? In 1611, when the KJV translators were translating it, they probably didn’t know that.
Job 28:25 says air has weight. Science confirms air is about 50 miles thick, exactly the right composition to support life. It’s perfect for our lungs. The air filters deadly rays. If the earth was 10% larger or smaller all would die. We are in a fragile balance before the sun between frying and freezing.
Job 26:10 says; “He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.” (KJV) The RSV translates it; “He has described a circle upon the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.”
(Job lived in a desert.)
Job 36:27-28 explains the hydrological cycle, the condensation and hydrology maintain life, provide evaporation, transportation, precipitation and run-off .
He describes the repeated cycle of precipitation, its evaporation, and condensation in the clouds.
Solomon explains that the wind doesn’t move in a straight line but blows in circular patterns. We see that from satellite weather photos. Solomon didn’t have weather satellites.
Neither did the translators of the KJV in 1611 when they translated this verse from Ecclesiastes 1:6; The wind blows to the south and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits with wind returns.
Job 38:22 mentions the treasures of the snow. Each flake is of perfect dimensions and all are different. The snow is beneficial for nitrogen for fertilizer.
How often do you think it snowed in the southern Iraqi desert where Job lived? Who told him that much about snow?
Water is heavier than air, and is transported in clouds. Dost thou know the balancing of the clouds, the wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge? (Job 37:16)
How could somebody living 2100 years before Christ know what science still didn’t know at the dawn of the 20th century? The Book of Job says light is in motion.
Einstein didn’t know that until the late 1940 s. I know how Einstein figured it out. Now, to the challenge facing the skeptic if he wants his argument to have any credibility at all…
Who told Job?
Assessment
If the skeptics are right and the Bible is really nothing more than an ancient collection of myths and fairy tales, then it shouldn’t be too difficult to prove their case.
In every generation since its compilation, the Bible has been the subject of discussion between believers and non-believers. In every generation, non-believers have made it their mission in life to disprove the Scriptures.
The Bible contains sixty-six different books, written by forty different men, most of whom lived and died in different centuries, in different countries, many of them unaware of other prophets or other prophecies. The writers of the Bible were shepherds and kings, statesmen and beggars.
The Bible claims 100% accuracy, the only thing necessary would be to conclusively disprove one single tenet of Scripture. One point, historically, scientifically, medically, geographically…that’s all it would take.
Any discrepancy has been analyzed and re-analyzed by both friend and foe, read and re-read, argued and re-argued, in a million conversations over thousands of years.
Whoever successfully proved the Bible wrong on any point; doctrine, history, archeology, law, medicine, science, or geography would have single-handedly destroyed the basic foundation of the Judeo-Christian ethic.
The Bible says of itself, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
So after almost two thousand years of debate and argument and counter argument by scholars the world over, who has claim to the title of the Man Who Proved The Bible Wrong?
God exists because if He didn’t exist, there would be no debate about His existence. The Bible is true because it contains facts that were unknown until those facts became known. And in every case where the facts are known, they line up with the Scripture.
The evidence for the existence of God is overwhelmingly solid. Indeed, what is missing from the debate is the evidence for the existence of the skeptic, although the Scriptures provide an explanation for that, too.
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” (Romans 1:28)
It seems the Bible has ALL the evidence. Even evidence that explains the existence of the skeptic…its all in there.
That’s how I know the Bible is true.