Evidence for belief

This week I took a quiz (as clergy do when doomscrolling through Facebook on their week off post-Easter). It was a quiz ‘How humanist are you?’

Unsurprisingly they concluded I was only 34% humanist - which will probably reassure my bishop somewhat - but some of the questions did give me pause for thought.

One of them was on the question of evidence. It asked you to select an option to complete the statement:

‘I am most likely to believe something is true if…

A. Trustworthy people tell me they’ve seen evidence which they judge to be valid

B. It is told to me by a religious authority

C. I personally see evidence which I judge to be valid

D. I feel it in my gut

E. It is written in a sacred text’

I imagine that they are expecting a religious person to select either ‘B’ (It is told to me by a religious authority) or ‘E’ (It is written in a sacred text) which, for your interest, were neither of the options I selected.

There is, of course strong weighting and appropriate authority given to both Scripture and Tradition in the life of faith. The central truths which have been handed down; tested, contested, interpreted and applied throughout millennia. The Resurrection is the most central of them - the foundation of our faith and the truth over which many of Jesus’ closest contemporary companions would be martyred rather than refute it.

But, within the range of resources available to us in the life of faith we do not only have Scripture (even if we consider it to be primary) or Tradition (even if the church have carefully and corporately discerned it) … we also have the capacity to Reason. To think carefully for ourselves (informed by the scholarly work of others) looking at the available evidence and bringing our thoughts and other disciplines into conversation with what we have read in the Bible and through church teaching.

So let us for a moment consider Thomas.

Was he wrong to doubt? Did his questioning make him any less of a good disciple?

How highly would he have scored on that question on the humanism quiz I wonder?

Thomas approach to truth is definitely the ‘I believe something is true if I personally see evidence which I judge to be valid’ approach.

Trustworthy people (the other disciples) had told him they’d seen evidence of Jesus’ resurrection which they judged to be valid. And Jesus, their ultimate religious authority, had told them all of his forthcoming death and resurrection before it happened. Mary in the garden was perhaps the closest to a ‘feel it on your gut’ truth-response when Jesus called her name and she just knew it was him.

But Thomas wanted what we all secretly, or not so secretly want in the life of faith. He wanted concrete evidence that it was true… He wanted to reach out and touch Jesus and know he (and his promises) were true.

I am jealous of Thomas. I want that answer of certainty in my moments of doubt. I want that opportunity to put my hand to flesh and see love that, though battle-scared, is alive and breathing in front of me. I want to see with my eyes and know with my mind that I am not crazy to believe that nothing is impossible for God.

I want to say ‘blessed is Thomas because he got to see and so he believed’ because it would make grief so much clearer to navigate and doubts so much less anxiety-inducing if I were simply presented with the irrefutable evidence before my own eyes. 

But Jesus answers my want, with the same words he spoke in response to Thomas:

‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe’.

Thomas wants experiential evidence through the eyes of the world.

Jesus gives us experiential evidence through the eyes of faith.

For us ultimately, it will come down not to Scripture alone, not to Tradition, not even to Reason but to faith.  To believing that we too can experience the Resurrected Jesus and know the power of his unconquerable love in our lives both now and as we also look forward to resurrection with him.

There is no percentage which can quantify your faith. Of course we all doubt like Thomas did, and like him, we must heed Christ’s invitation to ‘Reach out your hand… do not doubt but believe’.

Today, in this sacred house as it was in that house where the disciples gathered two millennia ago, that is exactly what we are invited to today. As Christ makes present his body to you; invites you to reach out your hand to him, and to take within you his life which gives you eternal life.

Faith is not about certainty it is about trust. Whatever resources we may draw on to aid us in our understanding - ultimately all it requires, is a heart and mind open-enough to entertain the possibility of encounter with unconquerable Love itself as we reach out our hands and trust that the Risen Christ will touch our lives too.

‘Blessed are those who have not seen but yet still believe’.
Amen.