Credo

Robert C. Newman

In looking around for a means by which one may learn what,if anything, is going on around him, one is naturally led to a sort ofpractical empiricism. We find thatconsistent, repeatable results are obtained by empirical methods, which resultswe will optimistically call "knowledge." Empirical methods seem to be the only means we have of confirming the validity of this knowledge, althoughindividually we obtain most of our knowledge on the authority of others.

Let us define the empirical method as a sort of proceduralthree-step: (1) collectinformation (oberve what is going on); (2) construct a hypothesis which (a)fits the data, (b) is as simple a hypothesis as we can think of, consistentwith (a), and (c) it would be nice if our hypothesis also predicted whatcertain as yet uncollected (but collectable) information would look like; (3)don't change hypotheses until required by (a) conflicting data, or (b) asimpler suggested hypothesis. Also, one should be on the lookout for alternative hypotheses whichmight be more amenable to predicting the nature of future data.

As we venture forth armed only with our practicalempiricism, we make what seems in this day of naturalism an astoundingdiscovery. Lo and behold, a bookwritten more than 1800 years ago makes statements consistent with the latestscientific knowledge, and even more strikingly, delivers the goods promised byits claim (e.g., Isa 48:5-6) to predict events in advance of their occurrence!  Furthermore, this book (commonly knownas the Bible) claims to be infallible in the area of prophecy.  And this claim (though necessarilyunprovable) seems to be consistent with the data. Some of this data is presented in S. I. McMillen, None ofThese Diseases (Revell, 1963) and Peter W.Stone, Science Speaks (Moody,1958), and John Urquhart, The Wonders of Prophecy (Christian Publiscaitons, n.d.).

As described in the Bible, the men who made these recordedprophecies were chosen by the Israelites on the bases of having made no mistakesin their short-range prophecies, of consistency with previous revelation, andof their emphasis on the God revealed to the Israelites (Deuteronomy chapters13 and 18). Yet the inerrancy oftheir long-range predictions is astonishing, and no other serious explanationfor these phenomena has appeared which fits our present knowledge as well asthe straight-forward one adduced by the prophets themselves:  that there is a God who revealed tothem these things which otherwise man could not have known in advance.

The method of authority should be mentioned here.  Practical empiricism, as oppposed tomore dogmatic forms of empiricism, does not deny the possibility that there maybe knowledge which cannot be obtained by empirical methods, but only that empiricismseems to be the only way of confirming the validity of a hypothesis.  If in some situation we have to takeone's words for the accuracy of certain statements, it would be well to haveevidence that this person is in a position to obtain that information which wecannot, and that he has no reason to deceive. The Bible presents a great deal of information which is, byits nature, not subject to empirical test, accompanied by empiricallyverifiable statements of a prophetic nature which, as far as I know, are notmatched elsewhere. Having beenunable to discover any evidence for deceit herein, I have been led to acceptthe Bible for what it claims to be, an infallible record of God's revelation toman, presenting necessary information obtainable in no other way (Matthew 5:18,Luke 24:25, 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:16-21, John 14;6).

At this point, one has his ethics and philosophy (and goalin life, depending on his reaction to the situation) handed to him on a silverplatter, so to speak. One uses thesame empirical method described above to interpret the scriptures and findsthat the resulting picture obtained from the bible is in marked agreement withthat of others using the same approach – a rather surprising result inview of the diversity of positions found in historic and present-dayChristendom.

My personal experience also confirms the accuracy andrelevance of the Bible's picture of God and his dealings with men, which is anencouragement in my own search for the meaning of reality.  However, as nearly everyone finds thattheir personal experience supports (or even determines) their religionsconvictions, it doesn't appear that this has much evidential significance.

Probably written about 1967