{"id":3141,"date":"2012-04-20T09:00:35","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T14:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/?p=3141"},"modified":"2012-04-16T21:09:10","modified_gmt":"2012-04-17T02:09:10","slug":"philosophy-fridays-considering-god-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/philosophy-fridays-considering-god-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Philosophy Fridays: Considering God in History?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-center\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/featured-images\/philosophy.png?w=580\" alt=\"philosophy\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Every now and then, on a Friday, I\u2019ll step into the deep waters of Philosophy, ramble away on some idea and maybe even interact with it. Most of the time, a real philosopher could probably read my drivel and speak into it offering a corrective\u2014but for now I\u2019ll speak from ignorance. After all, it\u2019s Friday; what better way to have fun than with philosophy. In this post I\u2019ll answer the question \u201cShould we consider God\u2019s actions in historical discussions?\u201d in under 700 words. Heh.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>History, by its nature, is un-testable.<\/strong> We can\u2019t put it under a microscope. Whenever we in the present study anything in the past we\u2019re necessarily a step removed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>History, as it occurs, reports.<\/strong> In other words, anyone in the future depends on the report of what occurred in the past. That\u2019s not to say that a person reports event-X but it is to say that if event-X occurs, it necessarily affects the future. Imagine being at the edge of a pond. You didn\u2019t hear the splash, nor did you see the fish, but you see the ripple.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We can\u2019t limit conclusions to <em>only<\/em> what is scientifically observable.<\/strong> If so, we couldn\u2019t even offer natural explanations for common historical motivators: like fear, love, or courage.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine someone studies my today. Sure, I\u2019m not God, but I am a Mind who acts in history. They\u2019d find a bag (near the front door) that has a container (bits of food), keys (they jangle and open things), a parked vehicle (warm to the touch), and a badge with a picture.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>P concludes: the badge owner enjoys eating scraps of food from a container that it stores near doors; he enjoyed the music of the keys; and turns on the vehicle for warmth or to heat up small scraps of food currently stored in the container.<\/p>\n<p>R posits: the badge owner works at an office and it uses the car keys to drive the vehicle to and from work; the badge gives access into work; the container holds the remaining scraps of a meal; and the individual has forgotten to take those things out of his bag.<\/p>\n<p>J concludes that: the badge is worn to ward off evil spirits; the keys and the vehicle have absolutely no bearing; the container holds the remaining scraps of a propitiatory sacrifice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You can\u2019t decide which account is right with 100% precision so you must come up with an argument for what makes <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0521318300\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=biblearchive-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0521318300\" target=\"_blank\">the most sense of the evidence<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><strong>One:<\/strong> <em>Does the offered account explain the data?<\/em> J ignores some data.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Two:<\/strong> <em>Does the offered account powerfully support the data?<\/em> P brings up some information that is not supportable by any data (the enjoyment of music). Likewise J (ie: evil spirits; ignores the keys and vehicle).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Three:<\/strong> <em>Is the offered account plausible?<\/em> \u00a0A largely empty container to store scraps of food while owning a vehicle seems implausible.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Four:<\/strong> <em>How made up is the explanation?<\/em> It\u2019s hard to decide which one is more made up than the other. I we separated this discovery by several thousand years R would be guilty of reading current experience back onto the evidence.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Five:<\/strong> <em>Do any facts come up that disproves any of these offered accounts?<\/em> So far, nothing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Six:<\/strong> <em>Which account best explains the most aspects of the evidence?<\/em> Or which explanation covers the most data? So if you look at J, the explanatory scope is narrow: it covers only a few bits of the evidence. P needs evidential support for the enjoyment of music. R\u2019s explanatory scope is also broad.<\/p>\n<p>True intellectuals should be able to weigh <em>any<\/em> proposed account, even ones including God, according to all six criterions without denying it simply because of a naturalistic bias or personal preference. The only way to deny it is to say that (1) it is <em>impossible<\/em> for God to exist or (2) it is <em>impossible<\/em> for God\u2019s activity to work in this or that way. Both are outside of man\u2019s ken.<\/p>\n<p>If a proffered historical explanation which includes God powerfully handles the widest range of data then decrying it is historiographically na\u00efve and ultimately mere pseudo-intellectual silliness.<\/p>\n<p>Should we consider God\u2019s actions in historical discussions? <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leaderu.com\/offices\/billcraig\/docs\/visions.html\" target=\"_blank\">Yes<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every now and then, on a Friday, I\u2019ll step into the deep waters of Philosophy, ramble away on some idea and maybe even interact with it. Most of the time, a real philosopher could probably read my drivel and speak into it offering a corrective\u2014but for now I\u2019ll speak from ignorance. After all, it\u2019s Friday; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[339],"tags":[760,759,758,906,761,660],"class_list":["post-3141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy","tag-explanatory-power","tag-explanatory-scope","tag-gods-activity","tag-history","tag-justifying-historical-descriptions","tag-philsophy-fridays"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Philosophy Fridays: Considering God in History? - Rey Reynoso&#039;s Bible Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/philosophy-fridays-considering-god-in-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philosophy Fridays: Considering God in History? - Rey Reynoso&#039;s Bible Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every now and then, on a Friday, I\u2019ll step into the deep waters of Philosophy, ramble away on some idea and maybe even interact with it. Most of the time, a real philosopher could probably read my drivel and speak into it offering a corrective\u2014but for now I\u2019ll speak from ignorance. 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