William Lane Craig: "Christian belief is not based on the historical evidence."

This is the very last sentence Craig writes that can be read here, which is his conclusion after dealing with the problem of Lessing's Ugly Broad Ditch. This is where I think Christians are impaled on the horns of a dilemma. Let me explain.

First let's see why Dr. Craig believes his faith is not based on the historical evidence. He writes:
[W]hat is the problem with basing religious beliefs on historical proofs? The problem, it seems to me, is the relativity of the historical evidence as well as one’s ability to grasp it...The fact is that the vast majority of people throughout history and in the world today have had neither the training, the time, nor the resources to conduct a historical investigation of the evidence for Jesus. If we insist on a historical, evidential foundation for faith, then we consign most of the world’s population to unbelief and thus deny them the privilege and joy of knowing God in Christ. To me this is unconscionable. This, then, is the ugly, broad ditch which confronts us: the gap between people’s historically conditioned epistemic situation and the evidence required to warrant Christian belief.
Even though Craig believes the historical evidence is good for faith, he cannot say it is sufficient for faith, given Lessing's ditch.

Craig goes on to insist that Christianity is based instead upon the inner witness of the Spirit. It's the only way he can save his faith from refutation and he knows it. For historical knowledge isn't sufficient for faith, per Lessing's ditch, which forced Christians to adopt the existential solution found in Soren Kierkegaard, as Craig goes on to explain.

Christians are therefore impaled on the horns of a dilemma. On the one hand, if they argue their faith is based on the historical evidence, they must deal with the argument(s) of Lessing (and of Craig). This cannot be done. Craig is at least knowledgeable enough to see this. On the other hand, if they adopt an inner witness of the Spirit as the basis of their faith, as Craig has, they have abandoned objective evidence altogether in favor of a subjective experience that carries more weight than all objective evidence.

Christians are impaled on these horns. They cannot give up their faith because they are deluded. So they hang on to their faith no matter how ridiculous it makes them look to the rest of the world.

Historical evidence is poor evidence for a faith, as I argue in a whole chapter in my book, WIBA. Most educated Christians agree and punt to religious experience as the basis for their faith (or to the supposed inner witness of the Spirit).

All that's left is to continue hammering home how that religious experience is POOR (or even non-existent) evidence for a CORRECT faith (if there is one). And I do this repeatedly.

0 comments: