" Powerless to penetrate beyond the conceptual surface, they aim at disproving the profoundest experiences o f the human soul”
by TIMOTHY FETLER
Reality &Christ
W hat is the reason for the skep tical attitude toward Chris tian Revelation one encoun ters so often, especially in circles of higher education? U n d o u b t e d ly , much of it is the result of the scien tific temper, which guided by a healthy skepticism tends to discard all unverifiable types of knowledge. Mankind has abounded in beliefs, superstitions and false ideas, and it is only with the advent of experi mental science that most of these have fallen by the wayside. This is particularly emphasized by the positivist who feels that man should leave behind primitive theological and metaphysical stages of his de velopment and discard all knowl edge not strictly scientific. Science involves the experimental method and the experimental method is based on sense-experience, since it is this experience alone which is universal. Granting that all that we know does arise in some form in experi ence, it is also true that not even sense-experience is completely uni versal, depending, as it does, in part on receptive powers. And the higher a certain type of experience, aes thetic experience for example, the less universal it is. While millions may enjoy “ Home on the Range,” a much more limited group finds meaning in Shakespeare or Beetho- ven, though the experiences stimu lated by the works of these giants are certainly as real, if not more so, than the more common ones. Not even the positivist can at this
point escape the necessity of ac knowledging the reality of values, since he himself is committed at least to the truth-value of his own viewpoint, quite apart from the fact that in his everyday life all types of values govern his life and sur vive all disbelief. The scientific temper demands that all experience be considered, that we neither accept nor reject any data uncriti cally. Any evaluation would have to he based on actual experience which in turn presupposes recep tivity, for only such opinions would have any meaning. Thus, a man not receptive to music would be least capable of judging its value, and the religious opinions of the unreligious would be no more val uable than the scientific opinions of the unscientific. Now, of all the significant exper iences of man, the religious experi ence is one of the most outstanding. About the Author Tim othy Fetler is head of the philoso phy department at the Biola Bible College in Los Angeles and minister of music at the First Baptist Church in Fullerton. The son of an exiled Russian missionary, he is a composer, conductor and linguist, speaking five languages fluently. He holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern Univ., is working on a second Ph.D. at USC and has taught at both of these universities. Other articles by Dr. Fetler include: “ C h r is tia n A p o l o g e t ic s and Modern Thought” ( T h e K in g ’ s B u s in e s s , Septem ber 1953), “ Tozer, A Prophet for our Times” (His, December 1954), “ The Agnostic and Christ” ( T h e K in g ’ s B u s i n e s s , August 1955).
Throughout the centuries, millions of men have reported that they have known God with a great de gree of directness and intimacy. It is only now that the scientific tem per is becoming somewhat aware of this empirical situation. As D. Elton Trueblood has expressed it in his The Logic of Belief: “ One of the most amazing failures of historic theology has been the failure to employ, in the substantiation of re ligious belief, the same kind of empirical evidence which has long been used in support of scientific belief. The failure to make use of empirical evidence in religion is the more amazing when we begin to realize how abundant the evidence is, and how truly it has been the real basis of belief in actual prac tice. ‘I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee,’ is echoed in every generation.” All men may possess, in varying degrees, a sense of being alienated from God. In many men it may not be sufficiently powerful or dis tinct to be recognized. Sometimes this religious intuition may be cam ouflaged or forced into other spheres of reality, as in the case of the atheist who displayed a suspicious interest in mathematical infinity and who insisted on an infinity of the corporeal universe. But as we look back and examine the testi monies of those who have been able to resolve this alienation, who have been powerfully moved and used by God and restored to fellowship, CONTINUED 19
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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