What Counts as Evidence?

I'm diving into an occasional series here on evidences for the Christian faith. If this is going to be at all useful, it should start from some common point of departure, which is, what counts as evidence?

So I'm putting the question to you here, to see what you would consider evidence for a belief system like Christianity.

Christian evidences fall into a number of categories. There are a handful of historic philosophic arguments for God, with variations on each. There are historical facts supporting the validity of the Scriptures, the reality of fulfilled prophecy, and so on. There are signs of God's work in the lives of believers. There are arguments based on the Christian faith's ability to answer questions of meaning and value in a supposedly mechanistic universe.

There may be questions and/or indicators for faith on your mind that I didn't list here. And some people like Sam Harris dogmatically say there is nothing whatsoever that could count as evidence for religious propositions.

So the floor is open to you--especially those who do not subscribe to Christian belief, in whole or in part. Remember, this is not about religion in general, because I agree there are aspects of many religions that are unsupportable. Also, the question here is not whether there are evidences for Christianity, or whether such evidences are sufficient. The question is, what would count to you as evidence for the Christian faith, at least hypothetically? What kinds of things, if somehow you were to see them credibly displayed, might cause you to think more favorably about the truth of Christianity?

Feel free to pass this question around by email. Thanks!

Posted: Mon - August 15, 2005 at 07:45 AM |

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson getCategoryName("<$CategoryUUID$>");

What Counts as Evidence?

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson