How can we know?

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How Can We Know?

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Answer: The same way we do with other important choices in life.

Learn from the boy as he jams his fingers into an open electrical socket . . .

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This method is simple and proven, and we use it naturally every day.

A — RECOGNIZE WHERE YOU STAND and HOW SERIOUS and impactful the decision is.

B — Follow the same PROBLEM-SOLVING STEPS you use for any important issue.

C — AVOID PERSONAL OBSTACLES that can divert judgment from the best life choice.

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One of the earliest memories I have involves a pretty good story. I was on a class field trip and was so young that eight of us were all holding hands with each other during the entire time at the museum. We sat down in a circle, still holding hands, with myself at one end, the teacher in the middle, and the last student at the other end, holding the hand of the museum worker who was reading us a story.

Almost immediately I lost interest in the story and noticed that there was an open electrical outlet on the wall next to me. Within moments, I went through steps A and B:

A) I had to think it through as I would surely have consequences.

B) I used the basic scientific method: 

1. 1. Observation or Problem: If I jam my fingers into that open outlet, will the shock just get me, or will it make it all the way to shock the museum reader?
   2. Hypothesis: My past history had shown that even touching the metal prongs of a night light will shock me, and I had heard stories of others touching sticks to electric fences and getting shocked. My mom had given me a brief physics lesson noting electricity can travel through some things, so it may make it through a line of connected people. I included views from science, personal history, and even ethics, but failed to place much weight on ethics.
   3. Test and Data: I jammed my fingers into the open-ended wires in the outlet, and sure enough, the back-straightening jolt instantly went through the line of us and terminated with the unsuspecting museum employee.
   4. Analysis: My hypothesis was correct and totally worth the effort.

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A – RECOGNIZE WHERE YOU STAND & HOW SERIOUS and impactful the decision is

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This was covered in the Why Should I Care? section:

• You are currently directing your life using a specific worldview map.
• This brings a quantity and quality of impacts as serious as it gets.
• Wherever different worldview beliefs contradict each other, only one, at most, can fit reality, be true, and guide you accurately.
• There will be a time for all of us, when either truth will welcome us home with correct guidance to expected results or we will fall from our beliefs, which are not supported by reality, into an unyielding, unexpected truth.

So how do we know we are using an accurate map to direct our choices, responses, goals, and future? How do we know we are not in serious need of a more accurate map? The answer is the same whether you are walking a path or making a choice in life: There are guideposts.

Worldviews are claims about reality, and therefore can be tested for truth. Tests serve as guideposts in science, theology, and our everyday life.

Researchers in every area of study have continually ventured down every possible path to search for signs (tests for truth) that will serve as a guide to the correct path and many guideposts have been and continue to be found. How we naturally find these guideposts is discussed in Part B and how we use them is found in Part C of this article. Right now, we will consider one sample of a straight-forward way to approach the big question of beliefs.

WHAT WORLDVIEW FITS REALITY? WHICH ONE IS TRUE? YOU CAN CHECK.

The question of beliefs can seem overwhelming with all the available information, misinformation, opinions, etc. However, there are a number of useful approaches to effectively reach accurate conclusions about which worldview(s) fit reality and which do not. I like the Five Smooth Stones approach, summarized below, for two reasons: It is simple (notice only two possible options for many of the steps), and the evidence is already in (a continuous flow of evidence has smoothed and hardened the five steps) to provide solid guidance to accurate answers.

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Notice that if we exist, there are only two options: Either the universe had a beginning, or it did not have a beginning. Simple. Next, if there was a beginning, then either that beginning had a personal, intelligent agent involved, or it did not. Again, only two options are possible here, and massive evidence is available to serve as a guidepost at that intersection. Once we follow the evidence where it leads, then we move to the next options and examine even more amazing guideposts until finally determining what it all means for each of us.

In addition, out of all the worldview beliefs, the biblical model really places itself on the microscope for confirmation or rejection by providing further tests of truth. If there is a God who communicated what purpose, relationship, and response is expected of us, then that communication (coming from one beyond our limited experience) could display properties beyond the level of human capability. Look for such communication, and you will find four extra and specific tests for truth:

1. Only the Bible provides properties reaching a level of performance and uniqueness no other source throughout history has ever come remotely close to reaching. If you don’t think there is something beyond man behind the Bible, then there should be many comparable man-made examples—what are these other examples?
2. Jesus also placed his and the Bible’s entire claim on an event so unique that no other event approaches it as a test for the reality of the belief. What other belief system provides such an event(s)?
3. God claimed his Holy Spirit would reach out to us. This experience is by its nature personal and subjective, and thus difficult to test objectively; therefore, it will not be explored in this study.

God, through the Bible and more personally through Jesus, also made it known that by the universe he creat

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When I bring up the scientific method or problem-solving steps, I can just see the eyes of those who aren’t into science drift away into daydreaming. But you don’t need to memorize the terms or have any inclination for science because we all use these steps naturally every day and we have since childhood, as was displayed with my class shocker experiment.

Since childhood, we naturally and efficiently integrate different sources of knowledge when facing a problem to solve or decision to make. Here is a description of those steps:

Step 1. DETERMINE PROBLEM OR OBSERVATION
You face some problem or encounter something you have a question about.

Step 2. CREATE HYPOTHESIS/MODEL
You ask a question based on the problem, or what you encountered. Based on what you already know, what is your guess at the correct answer to the question? A hypothesis is an educated guess at the answer, while a model is like a set of hypotheses. Your worldview beliefs are a model about reality.

Step 3. TEST HYPOTHESIS/MODEL
It is not necessary for you to know all the ins amd outs of different types of reasoning or experimentation; just living life and being open to truth will bring much of the evidence to you. Here are some sources of information

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Step 4. COLLECT AND ANALYZE RESULTS

To do this step correctly, you must approach the information gathered honestly, avoiding the PERSONAL OBSTACLES that distract you or lead you to a wrong conclusion because it is easier or more comfortable. You then are able to use RECOGNIZED STANDARDS for judging any theory/hypothesis/model/belief.

The personal obstacles are sneaky, and actually so interesting that this topic is covered in its own article: How Stupid Are We? But the standards used to judge a hypothesis, scientific model, or belief are well established and will be covered in the next section.

Step 5. DRAW CONCLUSIONS AND REPEAT THE PROCESS, REVISING AS NEEDED

Does the evidence support/reject/revise any models? Repeat the process as often as necessary to reach a well-supported conclusion. An accurate model will not only display robust verification when tested, but you will also see (beyond all the different opinions, personal preferences, information, misinformation, etc.) a trend of evidence pointing to the model fitting reality.

Step 6. COMMUNICATE AND EXPAND THE RESULTS

Sharing your findings with others is a step of paramount importance in science and life, as it can benefit others and promote further progress.

An example: You are approaching a yellow light . . .

YOU NATURALLY USE EMPIRICAL SCIENCE from data you have gathered through your driving experience and determine whether you could stop in time at your current speed.

You may not do a PHYSICS calculation, but you do consider velocity, momentum, and the road condition’s impact on stopping.

You make an ESTIMATE of “how red” the light will be by the time you are in the intersection.

You use ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY, knowing the law says stop and someone could get hurt if you go through a red light or if you slam the brakes and slide out of control.

You use OBSERVATION and HISTORICAL knowledge to determine the likelihood of the police being nearby, considering the results from past situations like this.

You use LOGIC to put all the facts together and try to make a rational choice in the short time you have to decide.

This problem-solving method is natural stuff you practice every day, and we will use the same approach to face the choices of different beliefs.

 

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HOW Can We KNOW?

The same way we know with other theories or choices in life.

If you expect to “know,” meaning know with absolute certainty your worldview belief is true, then you need to check out “No one can know for certain until after death” in the Frequently Asked Questions section. In the meantime, how do we evaluate different models/theories/choices/beliefs?

What are the objective standards used? For example, is the Earth flat or round?

Aristotle used philosophy by noting all stuff of the earth tended toward the center, eventually resulting in a sphere; even people in ancient times could see the earth’s shape during a lunar eclipse and those on an ocean can note the curved horizon. Later, people circumnavigated the globe. A round Earth fits EETTCCA (see below) much better than a flat earth.

Standard Tests for Truth

a) Explanatory power(HOW WELL does the model explain the evidence/facts?)

b) Explanatory scope(HOW MUCH does the model accurately explain?)

c) Testability, especially PREDICTABILITY (provides claims/predictions, which can be tested and verified or falsified)

d) Trends(as more answers come in, does the model’s support TREND UP OR DOWN?)

e) Cumulative case(best evidence from all relevant sources COMBINED)

f) Coherent answers(real, interlocked, and fitting answers for ALL THE BIGGEST QUESTIONS IN LIFE)

Life’s Biggest Questions

1. Origin: Where did it all come from?
2. Meaning: Why are we here? Does my life have any meaning/purpose/value?
   What is most important in my life?
3. Cause: Does God exist? If so, what God is it? Or is there no God? Is the answer unknowable?
4. Choices: Is there true right and wrong?
   Are there really decisions that are the best for me?
   What is my current condition, and can I reach something better?
5. Destination: Is there something after this life?
   If so, what is it and how do I reach what is best for me?
6. g) Logic(avoids unwarranted assumptions, unsupported points, logical inconsistencies, ad hoc, etc.)

In other words, what model best fits the facts, best explains what we know about the universe and life, does not have core beliefs lacking supportive evidence, and provides claims (especially predictions) we can test? For which does the evidence from all fields of study and the trends of further discovery point directly to its accuracy?

These are standards historians, scientists, attorneys, crime scene investigators (CSI), logicians, and everyone associated with evaluating evidence have relied upon. Using these same standards, it is extraordinary how far separated the biblical option stands from all other theories, which is explored in the Now Make Your Bet section, in which different worldview beliefs are explained, compared and tested.

Once you A) RECOGNIZE WHERE YOU STAND and HOW SERIOUS and impactful the decision is, and B) Realize you can just use THE SAME PROBLEM-SOLVING STEPS you use for any important issue and evaluate the different beliefs using the SAME TESTS TO KNOW which belief is true as is used with any theory, model, or choice in life, then you need to understand one more thing to ensure your decision is best. C) AVOID PERSONAL OBSTACLES that can divert judgment from the best life choice, which is covered in the next section.

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After running a check on “yo self,” it’s time to jump into the really interesting stuff: Show Me Evidence of God.

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