bookslover
Puritan Board Doctor
Which of the following provides man with justified true belief (knowledge):
1) The Bible - God's revelation to man
2) Science - the scientific method
3) Experience - "seeing is believing"
4) Reason - the application of the laws of logic
5) All of the above
6) None of the above
7) Other - I'll explain below
8) I don't know
I voted for #5 because:
1) God's written revelation tells us all we need to know about God, man, and salvation; and, where it touches on such things, the Bible give us accurate information on what we would call scientific questions.
2) The scientific method, when properly practised, agrees with what the Scriptures teach (especially general revelation) because science explores God's creation.
3) Experience, when not twisted by drugs or mental illness or sin, is what we call our encounter with God's world as it objectively exists outside us. Experience can validate and confirm what we have already found in the Word.
4) God is a God of reason and orderly intellection (see Psalm 119, passim), a God of "order, not of confusion" who wants things done (especially in our worship of Him) "decently and in order," which implies a prior commitment to thinking things through.
Just some rough thoughts, but when science, experience, and the intellectual life are all plugged into the Scriptures, and informed by them, they are all legitimate ways we know.