And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 1 Corinthians 15:49

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Conflicting Evidence

For those of you who have been following my blog posts, you already know that I am a licensed sport pilot. A sport pilot is sort of a step below a private pilot, in that there are certain limitations with the gross weight and performance of the airplane, and some limits to the airspace I can fly in; also I can only carry one passenger. Anyway, my reason for bringing this up is to explain why I was reading a recent flying magazine article which caught my attention; and how the factors presented in an article related in my mind to a spiritual application, which I thought I would share in this post.

A brief synopsis of the article is about an accident that took place in Alaska with a high time experienced pilot who was familiar with the area he was flying. He had flown the route many times before, and on this particular day, he mistakenly entered the wrong destination into two GPS tracking devices in his plane. Not knowing this, he followed the GPS route at an altitude which was safe enough for his intended destination, but not so for the route he was mistakenly taking. The weather was obscured, and he crashed his plane into the side of a mountain that would not have been there if he was on the right course.

The writer of the article warns that pilots must maintain "situational awareness, unfortunately you can be highly aware of your situation,...and yet be operating in some mistaken conception about what that situation actually is." He goes on to say (and the point that I want to emphasise is) : "Something built into our brains inclines us to ignore evidence that conflicts with expectation." This truism was evident in this pilot's accident, and it also applies to many other areas of our lives, including that which is spiritual.

We all have an expectation of believing the truth, and once we are convinced of that, we are prime candidates to ignore conflicting evidence to what we believe. An atheist believes that there is no God. He expects that he or she is right in that belief. Therefore, any contrary evidence that conflicts with what he believes will be ignored. It is possible to "win the argument" with enough facts to contradict their belief, and to show them they are wrong beyond reason, and yet they still will ignore those facts to continue in their belief or unbelief so to speak.  Another way of saying the same basic idea is the axiom, "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still."

 Such a thing will continue until God intervenes with a revelation of Himself! And it must be so! To become a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is a spiritual accomplishment! One is not to be  convinced by reason, for if someone convinces you to believe with reasoning words , then someone else with more eloquent reasoning words can convince you otherwise!

Of course words are often what is used to convey the truth, whether written such as this or spoken, such as preaching or witnessing. "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I Cor. 1:21 So we see that it is always the Spirit of God acting in concert with the words being spoken. However we must understand that it is not the natural man that is being acted upon, nor convinced of Truth, but rather the seed of God is being germinated within, thus the "born again" or "born from above" experience.
"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." I Cor. 2:14

I am always in wondrous awe at the creative ways in which God will act upon a person to reveal the truth of Himself to them. One such story that I want to share came to my attention in a newspaper interview of a Dr. Eben Alexander who wrote a best selling book called "A Proof of Heaven; A Neurosurgeon's Jouney into the Afterlife."

He describes that while doctors will sometimes explain near death experiences (NDE) as an experience of a dying brain, in his case his brain for all intents and purposes was completely dead! He describes his NDE experience, with more spiritual truth than I have heard from many Christians. Perhaps because most Christians relate what they have been told rather than experienced for themselves.

One part stands out to me in particular where he says he "now believes the brain is similar to a reducing valve that dumbs down consciousness to what we need to function in the here and now. And that when the valve is removed by death, our consciousness is freed to expand to its full capacity." I suggest that what he calls a reducing valve might be better termed the Adamic man.

The article continues to say that "his NDE has changed everything about him. He now sees everyone as eternal spiritual beings who are in their present forms only for this act of an incredible play... I now see the hardships, difficulties and hurdles in life... as opportunities for growth,... and that has everything to do with our purpose for being here."

While I do not agree with some of the conclusions he comes to, I think that some of it is a result of his trying to make sense of the reasoning for what he experienced, not from the experience itself. In other words, he believes "the evil in the world is necessary in order for humans to have free will." I think that is a conclusion he formed based on his experience, not something that was explained to him during his experience. I am convinced that we do not have free will. And for more of an explanation on that, you can read earlier posts.

Anyway, this doctor, like all of us have a tendency to ignore evidence that conflicts with expectation. As a medical doctor, he could explain away many of the NDE of other people, and until his own experience that went beyond any medical explanation. Funny thing is that even the truth of this doctor's experience is not enough for most people to resist ignoring the evidence that conflicts with their own expectation of truth which they have come to believe.

The great part of our dealing with an Infinite and Sovereign, Loving and Merciful God is that our experience with having a born again spiritual relationship with Him, far exceeds any conflicting reasonable explanations or other so called contrary-  Conflicting Evidence!