A favored area for Christian apologists is history. Christian theologians prefer a biblical logic which has its base in history and the nature of God. These are, for strict scientists (holding nature’s boundaries for their methodology), too unwieldy to carry the point, for faith in God. Spiritual conclusions do not emerge from controlled experiments. If the presupposition holds that the scientific method only, working with the elements of nature, provide the exclusive way to truth then the person of faith and the person of controlled and strictly replicated study are passing each other in the night. Both work with mystery, but the strict scientific person has an attractive benefit in the limitations of nature. It is easier to unlock nature’s mysteries (although it is becoming more difficult than formerly). That person tackles what seems possible to earthlings. The person of faith puts great store in mystery related to God, and evidenced through some factors invisible, unheard, and untouched. Even the most devout persons of faith must ask for aid to shore up their faith. The most devout also admit to doubt that drives them to humility – or despair on occasion. The only recourse is to flee to the mercy of God and rely on his provision to shore up whatever is needed to press on to objectives. Some persons can’t do that, or won’t.
Even admitting all this, the closure of minds to God can sometimes be traced to poor use of the scientific method in depreciating faith. In his biography of George Washington, Billback provided more than two hundred pages of documentation sources – many of which are quoted throughout his book of 1179 pages. The evidence of the claims is well documented. It includes the number of times Washington referred to Christ and God in his writings and letters. On his own Washington added the words: So help me God – to his oath of office as President of the United States. He insisted on Chaplains for the military, and from his general approach created a spiritual dimension to national affairs which remains today, and which many persons are attempting to abolish. Part of the effort is related to the shift of American life to a pluralistic society, and part of the effort is related to diminishing the faith orientations of some founding fathers. The documentation suggests that many researchers of eminence didn’t do their homework. Some Christian historians are rising to challenge long held views, and statements that do not stand up under the careful scrutiny of the various documents in good supply. The faith of Christians is not muffled in history.
Disappointed with the lack of serious scholarship in a spate of books on eminent navigators, a reviewer rightly points out the failures, the personal agendas, the distortions, and even wrongly reported facts of writers he was reviewing. He implied in his review the part of the problem related to post-modernism, by which some factors of history have been assigned lesser importance and attention to scholarship than once they did. One of these would be religion, which is currently gaining something of a comeback in the annals of academia as an important influence in history. The reviewer believes some writers are going too far. For example, referring to one author who wrote about Columbus as though the Columbus voyages were a Christian Crusade, the reviewer wrote: There is no evidence that Columbus was particularly religious until – like so many people – he turned to God following the failure of his worldly ambitions. Some of the reviewer’s own agenda may fall in his remarks, as I admit my life agenda interprets what I read. Despite the human faults of Columbus, especially in his standard uses of the culture of his time, there must be given some attention to his journals, where Christianity is a meaningful feature. Part of the arrogance of many moderns is revealed in applying current standards to the various eras of history formed by the knowns and unknowns, the experiences, the politics, the flights of human beings trying to find means for survival in a world that seems to be a paradox/contradiction to its human citizenry. Future generations will likely admire the advances of some nations during the twentieth and twenty first centuries, but also find the oddities, the distortions, the self-defeat of individuals and nations in much of what was done in the name of education, freedom, democracy, activism, and the perception of the good life. We are on our way, no matter what the direction may be. Like the desert wanderer we may be going in circles. The only rescue is in a map that suggests what makes the good and effective person and environment for life. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020