Answering a question about which religion has the most evidence, a friend answered: “I don’t understand how logically Christianity can beat Islam. If you consider the amount of supernatural stuff that each religion contains in its dogma Christianity is a strict superset of Islam. All the hokey magic stuff in Islam is in Christianity plus more. So it follows it is less scientifically plausible.”
Like many others, my friend automatically equates ‘scientific evidence’ to ‘evidence’.
The former is a subset of the latter.
Consider all three types of evidence presented to mankind:
- Natural evidence of the natural things (particularly the physical nature). This is also called ‘scientific evidence’.
- Natural evidence for the supernatural; and
- Supernatural evidence for the supernatural itself (the spiritual).
The above 1 is a familiar one, as it constitutes what people usually know as the scientific evidence.
The above 2 is part of a natural history in which the Creator took humility and condescended to reveal the I AM (Exodus 3:14) to mankind, in a peculiar and selective way. It is a bridge between the natural and the supernatural, the physical and the spiritual.
The above 3 is purely spiritual and only given to ones in the spirit to see and fellowship upon.
An atheist may naturally and logically disregard the above 3, namely the supernatural evidence for the Creator, because when there is no revelation there is no responsibility.
But one cannot simply logically swipe away the above 2, the natural evidence for the supernatural. Although it concerns supernatural, the evidence itself is given in a natural form (e.g., actual events in history).
Unfortunately, categorically rejecting the above 2 is exactly what many do when they mistakenly, often unconsciously, assume scientific evidence is the only evidence that exists in the universe or human history.
Three testimonies
The three kinds of evidence correspond to the three kinds of testimonies.
The essence of humanity is that it is a witness of three types of testimonies in the universe. The first testimony is the testimony of the nature, the physical part of the creation (Psalms 19). The second kind is the testimony of the messengers (prophets and the Prophet). The third kind is the testimony of the Spirit.
It is the interaction between mankind and these three kinds of testimonies, in particular the human response to the testimonies, that defines humanity. This is both true to each person as an individual and to a people as a collective.
Don’t be puzzled by the mixed nature of the natural evidence to the supernatural. The fact that the evidence of the supernatural is given in a natural form is a form of grace, for otherwise there would be no way for the natural man to know anything about the Creator who is spiritual. It is a bridge, a necessary one, but not the end.
But the trouble for the mankind is that its enemy Satan also introduces his own evidence.
The enemy’s evidence is not truth. It is either fake evidence or false evidence for the purpose of causing confusion.
Fake evidence is not real, while false evidence itself may be real but points to the Enemy, himself a liar. But both serve the same purpose: to draw people away from the Truth. To the extent that one considers all evidence of the supernatural to be ‘hokey magic stuff’ (because there really is a lot of that), the enemy has succeeded, because the person has received both the noise with the signal but has taken everything as noise due to a lack of discernment.
It is therefore a struggle.
But it is also according to a divine plan, because the real discernment itself needs to be tested.
More important, however, while the earthly human experience is a struggle, the universe is not an eternal struggle as some philosophies purport it to be. It is a temporary struggle that ends with eternal peace and glory.
By design, the above first kind evidence sustains our natural existence, which is meant to prepare us for discovering the second kind (a bridge), which in turn is meant to lead to the above third kind, which is the end.
It is the divine plan. Don’t miss it.