Truth through the brambles

Posted by admin on Oct 7, 2009 in Academy | 0 comments

The scene: Four friends look across a beautiful inlet on Vancouver Island. The morning sun streams over the hills and glistens on the water. Surrounded by forest and blackberry brambles, the friends wonder about God and life and the universe.

“What is truth?” one asks.

“This. This is truth. God is here.”

“How do I know that it’s true?”

“It’s just true. You have to trust.”

Trust? This goes against my strong desire for a clear and linear path to knowing truth. Can’t I empirically, scientifically and objectively know what is true?

Truth is, essentially, an abstract body of reality, made up of smaller, bite-sized facts. And a fact is a fact when we know it to be true, based on a process of observation and extrapolation known as science. How do we know if the scene above is true?

Take one of the blackberries: I see it, feel it in my hand, hear it squish and taste it. If I have faith in my own senses and powers of observation, the blackberry is true. As we observe our surroundings, we form theories to explain objective reality. The theories that we form are filtered through our own subjective lens. If I believe that I am big, I can observe that the blackberry is simple and small. But if I believe atomic theory, then the blackberry is large and complex.

Science can only offer evidence, not proof. If I continue to observe the blackberry, I eventually see that it brings forth a plant that produces more blackberries. This happens with every blackberry I see, and I might suggest that all blackberries come from the seed of another. However, I cannot prove to you that this is the only way a blackberry can ever come into existence. I can only continue to observe that blackberries continue to come from blackberries. As I observe and theorize, I trust that I am increasing my understanding of what is real and true. If I add biochemical tests to my observations, I can see that there is a complex mechanism by which a macromolecule called DNA directs the development and reproduction of the blackberry.

As a Christian, I believe that this cycle of events was put into motion by a supremely intelligent deity, and perhaps that this cycle only persists because of that deity’s sustaining power. These ideas are not observable and testable, yet many believe that they are a part of reality. Science and religion often find themselves at odds because of this.

Naturalistic and empirical science can only provide us with an understanding of natural truth. My leap of faith says there is more than just natural truth. Supernatural truth does not follow the same rules as natural truth, thus the faith that it requires is legitimate and cannot be invalidated by a scientific understanding. So when my friend says that God is here, she is correct. Because truth requires faith; whether by reason or revelation.