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From: dsaker@iuvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Evidence for Christianity
Message-ID: <1700039@iuvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Oct-84 12:24:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: iuvax.1700039
Posted: Wed Oct  3 12:24:00 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Oct-84 10:11:45 EDT
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Nf-ID: #N:iuvax:1700039:000:1978
Nf-From: iuvax!dsaker    Oct  3 11:24:00 1984


[]
There seems to be a fair amount of activity on the net around the issue
of evidence for christianity.

If a christian wants to say that the truth of his beliefs rests on an
experience he has had, but that those aspects of the experience which
guarantee his beliefs as true cannot be communicated by him to others,
then that is all well and good.  I, along with various others, cannot
imagine what sort of an experience he has had, but that does not prove
that he didn't have it.  At the same time, of course, this christian has
given us no grounds to believe that he really has had such an experience.
He CLAIMS he has, that is all.

Given a world full of believers claiming incompatible "truths", and given
lots of evidence for people's capacity to be deluded, we observers can
hardly be blamed for doubting the claims of this christian -- though,as I
said before, we do not know that his claims are false.

If a christian claims that the truth of his beliefs can be derived from
evidence that he can present to all of us, then that is another matter
entirely, for then we can debate the evidence and the arguments from the
evidence.  I personally think it would be great if a christian could
lay good evidence and arguments for the truth of christianity before me.
I personally would be overjoyed.  Unfortunately, however, this has never
happened to me.  I know of no good evidence or arguments for the truth
of christianity.

So why don't you christians out there figure out whether you derive the
truth of your beliefs from personal, incommunicable experiences or from
evidence that can be presented to all of us?  In the first case, you
will grant that we doubters, who have not had a similar experience,
have no basis for believing your claims.  In the second case, you can
present your evidence, and then we can all decide just how good the
evidence is.

Daryel Akerlind
...ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!dsaker
"Your ignorance makes me ill and angry.  This savagery must cease."