Imagine a conversation like this:
Skeptic: I don’t believe in Christianity.
Christian: Why not?
Skeptic: Because science can prove some of the stuff in the Bible isn’t possible. There’s no way it could have happened.
Christian: So science is what you use to determine what is true?
Skeptic: Yes.
Christian: How did you decide science is what you would use to determine what is true? How did you go about making that decision?
Skeptic: I don’t know. I guess I found it compelling. It offers concrete solutions. It works with unassailable math.
Christian: So you decided you would use science to determine what is true?
Skeptic: Correct.
Christian: Am I permitted the same privilege?
Skeptic: What privilege?
Christian: The privilege of, like you, deciding for myself what I will use to determine what is true?
Skeptic: I guess so. I don’t want refuse you something that I grant to myself.
Christian: Great! I choose Scripture. Scripture is what I’ll use to determine what is true. Scripture says Jesus died on the cross and was raised three days later.
Skeptic: Not possible!
Christian: Why not?
Skeptic: Science can prove it.
Christian: Wait a minute. You’re using your self-declared highest authority to critique my self-declared highest authority. Is that a privilege you will grant to me also?
Skeptic: What privilege?
Christian: You just used your highest authority, science, to critique my highest authority, Scripture. Am I permitted that privilege as well?
Skeptic: I guess so. I don’t want to refuse you something that I grant to myself.
Christian: Great! Jesus died on the cross and was raised three days later because my highest authority clearly says so.
I hope you see what’s happening in this conversation. Someone who disbelieves the Bible is giving themselves the freedom to decide for themselves what they will use to determine what is and isn’t true. I’m not trying to convince them Christianity is true. As a Christian, all I’m trying to do is get this skeptic to grant me the same privilege they’ve given themselves. The conversation may end in a stalemate, but the skeptic will walk away realizing that if he’s going to give science a chair at the table, he has to give the Bible a chair at the table as well.
For more on this subject, The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel is a great read.
