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What to do when the numbers don't add up


Have you ever heard anyone say something like, “I’ve got no time for faith – I deal in facts!”? It’s a great soundbyte, but does it add up?  Let me set you a little challenge …

 

John has 5 coins in his hand.  He puts 1 coin on the table, then 10 seconds later he puts another coin on the table.  How many coins does John have in his hand now? The obvious answer is: 3, but in this case the correct answer is 4!  Yes, I know that 5 take away 2 leaves 3, but what you don’t know is that during the 10 seconds between the coins being put on the table, John’s father put another coin into his hand. I can hear you shouting, “That’s cheating!”, but the fact is that to arrive at an answer of 3, we’ve made a massive assumption, which is that the information we have is complete.

 

When someone claims to deal only in facts, it might be helpful to remember that they’re actually only dealing with limited observations – and this applies to science as much as anything else.

 

Think about yourself.  On the one hand, you are a collection of particles interacting according to predefined rules – a machine incapable of free choice.  But maybe, like me, you feel that the numbers don’t add up.  Maybe you believe that there is something more to you?  Maybe your Father gave you something extra?

 

The Bible tells us that God breathed something special into humankind, so that we can know Him, love Him and choose to live our lives with Him. This certainly fits with my experience and now the numbers add up for me.  What about you?



[written by Hako Catchatoor]



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