I find these kinds of stories fascinating and illustrative of the power of worldviews.
If you read Drudge, you probably saw the "lights over Phoenix" story a week ago and like me, thought, huh?
Turns out that this story goes back over 10 years when an alleged UFO was sighted over Phoenix. Even the governor of Arizona was in on the sighting. The lights returned on April 21, 2008. Was E.T. paying another visit?
Alas, a prankster confessed to floating road flares over Phoenix with helium filled weather balloons. The UFO explanation was far more exciting if you ask me.
Phoenix Police helicopter pilot Bruce Bates, who saw the lights, said the balloons explanation makes sense.
``People say they saw different shapes -- a square, a diamond, an arrow, all these different shapes. Well, that's just the balloons moving around in the wind currents," he said.
Some people will always think the lights were UFOs, Bates said.
``I think people want to believe what they want to believe."
That's the part that fascinates me. People believe what they want to believe. That is a self-refuting statement obviously :) Bates believes what he wants to believe too so it does not get him very far. Still, I know what he means to say. People are affected by their view of reality, and their view of reality affects their interpretation of facts.
This is true of everyone. That is why I continue to bang the drum about truth. The question shouldn't be, what do I want to believe is true. The question should be, what really happened. Truth is what corresponds to reality.
Bates comment about the UFO believers is the same tactic used by philosophical materialists against Christian belief. That is, "Christians believe Jesus was raised from the dead because they want to believe it."
Are you prepared to respond?
Bates comment about the UFO believers is the same tactic used by philosophical materialists against Christian belief. That is, "Christians believe Jesus was raised from the dead because they want to believe it."
In a sense, isn't that true? Christians have faith because of the prompting of the Holy Spirit. In the absence of that prompting, we won't believe. Being dead in sin, we don't want to believe, and there could never be enough evidence to convince us otherwise.
Posted by: Nick | April 30, 2008 at 08:50
That sounds mighty Calvnisitic which surprises me knowing you come from a Mennonite background (iirc).
I agree that without the intervention of the Holy Spirit, evidence is pointless. We don't start out as clean slates capable of objectively interpreting evidence and coming to conclusions on our own. We start out as fallen. Total depravity is true.
So how do you respond when a skeptic tells you, you just believe that stuff because you want to believe it?
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | April 30, 2008 at 09:44
That sounds mighty Calvinisitic which surprises me knowing you come from a Mennonite background (iirc).
Good memory. Actually, though, my background is Anglican and Southern Baptist with an injection of calvinism (which mostly didn't stick) from Intervarsity staff workers at college. My current church home is Mennonite. I'm not comfortable with all the implications of Calvinism and usually lean towards something vaguely Arminian, but most days I'll just say that all systems of theology that grapple with this issue are flawed attempts to explain something we are incapable of understanding.
So how do you respond when a skeptic tells you, you just believe that stuff because you want to believe it?
I guess I'd argue that there's nothing about my faith which is demonstrably untrue and then suggest that we focus on the Gospels. After all, Jesus is the way that we can encounter and comprehend the incomprehensible God. Perhaps after studying Jesus' teachings, the skeptic will want to believe it, too.
Posted by: Nick | April 30, 2008 at 10:52
So how do you respond when a skeptic tells you, you just believe that stuff because you want to believe it?
Usually, I start by turning the boat around. I say, "Well, are you saying that you only disbelieve that Jesus rose from the dead because you don't want to believe it? If not, then let's get past this nonsense and talk about our reasons why we each hold our respective views to see if they can hold up to scrutiny."
Posted by: BK | April 30, 2008 at 18:44
UFO's?Yeah,right!TheBaloonsmakemuch moresense.The'lights'maybethehelium havingachemicalreaction.Suchasthe NothernLights.Aliensmaybeoutthere, buttheyprobablyhaven'treallybeen noticed.Ithinktheyarecoloredblackand appearonlyatnight.
Posted by: Wario clone 1 | May 11, 2008 at 13:13