Let me tell you a true story. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there was star wars. First there was a massive clone war and then there was a rebellion against a galactic empire. Just because I have no evidence for this, doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. In fact, you can’t prove that it didn’t happen. I derived this knowledge from revelation, which is an alternative means of knowledge to science, which requires objective evidence. But it is equally valid, right?
Let me tell you another one. I won the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge last night in a poker game. The problem is that I live in Pennsylvania and have no desire to move to New York right now and I need some quick cash to put a new roof on my house so I’m selling the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge dirt cheap. I’ll sell it to you for a fraction of what it’s worth. I’ll sell it to you for $5000 right now. It is worth 5 million easy. You’d be a fool to pass this deal up. You don’t believe me? This is the truth, why won’t you buy it? Oh, you want evidence? Just take my truth on faith. That is a different kind of knowledge, equally as valuable as scientific evidence?
The fact is that revelation and faith aren’t different ways of deriving truth; it is just a way of asserting truth. Anyone can claim something is true, but being able to demonstrate that it actually is true requires evidence. Just because there is no evidence don’t mean that something isn’t true. You can’t prove that Star Wars didn’t happen in a galaxy far, far away. But we can’t call it knowledge. We can only claim knowledge when we have sufficiently valid evidence for a claim and can objectively show that something actually is true with relative certainty.
Isn’t it interesting that religious believers don’t believe anything on faith alone except for their particular religious claims. Don’t take my word for it; try to sell them the Brooklyn Bridge. Why are religious believers just as skeptical about other people’s religions and about matters involving money and the world we live in, but when it comes to their own religion, faith suddenly becomes an alternative and equally valid way of deriving truth?
The real truth here is that religion is just as much of a scam as my deed to the Brooklyn Bridge. Until religious believers can back up their faith based assertions, there is no reason why anyone should believe anything they have to say.
