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 The website of good reasons for why you can be a Christian

The following analogy describes what it means to decide holistically.

IS HE GUILTY ?

The TV show Law and Order depicts how the police and prosecutors work together to build a legal case in the court room.  The jury hears both sides of the argument and then must decide what is the case.   The reason the whole process is needed, is because pure reason alone is incapable of determining the truth of the matter.  If complete and absolute information was available the case would be automatically determined and there would be no need for a Jury.  But this is never the case for several reasons.

First, we are dealing with historical events.  By definition, a historical event can never be repeated in a laboratory so that arguing sides can observe and draw common conclusions.  Scientific evidence can be used but it is only part of the puzzle.  DNA testing may help, but it wont point to the actual motives of the person in question.  Each person and witness has only partial evidence of the total event.  There is both the external history of collaborated facts and the internal history of the event as experienced by human beings.

Second, as noted above we are not just dealing with objects - like a rock that does not change, but also with subjects - people with motives, ambitions and wills.  Selves and their actions can never be fully described by scientific parameters.  There is a degree of unpredictability in people.

So, in a court case, all kinds of evidence is brought forward - historical records, scientific analysis, personal evaluations and interpretations - any legitimate source of knowledge.   This is done because no field of knowledge will fully supply the answer, and in the end the Jury must take in all the evidence and form a holistic interpretation.  They must make the best judgment they can on incomplete information. 

THE STORY OF OUR LIVES

In fact much of what is most important to us comes not from the world of detached science but the world of selfhood .  Science has little guidance to offer in questions such as "Should I marry her ?", "How should I raise my children ?","What's important in life ?","Should I forgive my father ?" - in short, what it means to be a human being instead of a computer.   In each of these cases we must take in the whole picture as best we can from the pieces of reason, experience, and authority available to us.  Most often we must make decisions based on what is technically incomplete information, but that does not mean we cannot make reasonable decisions.  It is clear in many areas of society (such as the existence of hospitals that heal people, colleges that educate people, and  happy, long lasting marriages and friendships)  that we are capable of doing exactly that at least some of the time. 

THE SKINNY

 In fact, the Crux of this website is this: If you are looking for one drop-dead proof that the resurrection ever happened you wont find it.  You also wont find it for any other historical event.  If you want one drop-dead proof that someone has a real relationship with God you wont find it.  You also won't find it for any other kind of relationship people have.  It is not that they are not true, but that human knowledge of the certainty of things has limits.  But you can build a very strong reasonable case for the existence of God and the ability to know him.  A case that many thinking people have been willing to bank their life on.  Further, many would claim that once you experience this relationship, it is so beyond the categories of reason as to be sure knowledge of another kind.