Defining Reality

How do you define reality? No, no, not in terms of some philosophical definition. I mean by what means do you determine what is or isn't true?

Simple question. I'm sure it's not a simple answer. First, you've not likely thought about it. More importantly, if you did, you'd likely find lots of answers. "I believe things are true when the science supports it." "I believe things are true when reliable people tell me." "I believe things are true based on intuition." "I believe things are true that coincide with what I already believe is true." (That last one sounds convoluted, but it's not as bad as it seems. That is, if A is true and B would naturally follow A, then you would naturally agree with B.) "I only believe what is provable by evidence or argument." Yeah, that would be a favorite. Not a truthful favorite, to be sure, but a favorite. You see, much of what we believe to be true is without evidence or logic. We believe in love and liberty, free will and the equality of Man, morality, that sort of good stuff ... not based on evidence or logic. The very notion that it is good to believe in things proven by evidence or logic is a belief apart from either. "I only believe what I can touch, see, feel, experience." Now that is a popular one, too, but very dangerous these days. (If you stuck with that one, you'd believe in a planet called Pandora where a guy named Jake Sully could actually inhabit a body of an alien ... well, you get the idea.) (For those of you who haven't been there yet, that was a reference to Avatar.) Given the apparently rampant ability to trick people (con games, magic tricks, computer generated graphics, photoshop, etc.), that might not be a good place to stand.

Here's a not-so-popular place to go. How about this? "I believe what the Bible tells me is true." Now, Christians would shout "Hallelujah!" and give a round of applause, perhaps, but even among those of us who believe the Bible is true it's not a very popular place to stand. We know, for instance, that slavery is bad ... but there is much in the Bible regulating (not forbidding) slavery. (There are answers for that; that's not my point.) In fact, did you know that the New Testament describes believers as slaves? I pointed that out once in a Bible study and was met with outrage. "I'm not a slave! I'm a friend of Christ!" Well, don't tell me; tell Paul. When the Bible describes the creation of the world as a deliberate act of God and science describes the formation of the world as a matter of chance -- and has evidence to prove it -- which are you going to believe? When your senses tell you that babies are innocent human beings and the Bible describes all humans as born sinners, which are you going to believe? When civilization tells you that annihilating an entire race of people (yes, that's called genocide) is an evil thing (and we're all agreed on that) and the Bible describes God commanding Israel to do just that, what are you going to believe?

We like to believe that our Bible is God-breathed. It is, in its original form, inerrant and infallible. We like to believe that. In fact, we need to believe that to give us foundation beyond mere conjecture. If you conclude that is true, how far will you go? Will you allow the Bible to reshape your thinking on other topics it touches, or are you going to shape the Bible to your previous beliefs? Does the Bible have to pass the "evidence" test or is it simply true ... making you wrong more often than you realized? Will logic and evidence form your worldview, or will you allow the Word to form your worldview? Trust me, if you choose the latter, it won't be a pleasant place to be ... but it might just be right.