How Much Proof Do I Need to Believe?

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We encourage you to ask tough questions about your faith. Questions are legitimate, and they have legitimate answers. Questions like:

• Can I trust the Bible?
• How can I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
• How do I know God is real?

But as you seek answers to such important questions, think about how high the bar needs to be set in order to accept an answer as legitimate. How much proof do we really need? Some people set the bar unreasonably high compared to any other kind of knowledge in life.

Can We Know Anything with Absolute Certainty?

As human beings, we have limited perception and intellect. We don’t have access to all the facts in the universe. As a result, it’s impossible for us to know anything with absolute certainty. This is true even of ordinary events that seem obvious. For example, we can’t know with absolute certainty that the sun will rise tomorrow. That is, no one can prove that it will happen. If you eat cereal for breakfast, there is no way that you can be absolutely certain that any box of cereal you open is not poisoned. You don’t know who handled that food at every point in the process or what their intentions were. You trust that the sun will rise because you’ve never seen it not rise. You trust that the cereal isn’t poisoned because you’ve never been poisoned by cereal. These are acts of faith.

We Can Know Truth Adequately, if Not Absolutely

But we’re not completely in the dark. We can have adequate knowledge sufficient to make reasonable decisions. This is based on probability, not on absolute certainty. While we cannot prove that the sun will rise tomorrow, there is a high probability that it will based on observed patterns from the past and an understanding of the laws of astronomy. You cannot prove that the breakfast cereal you eat every morning is safe, but there is a high probability of it being safe based on repeated patterns from the past, an understanding of how cereal is produced, plus some level of trust in cereal manufacturers and the regulatory powers of the government.

What Is a Reasonable Standard of Proof?

What is the standard of proof when it comes to spiritual knowledge?  Some would argue that we must have absolute certainty to believe things about God or the Bible. However, the standard of proof for these questions is no different than it is for any other question of life. Think about a courtroom. When jurors are sent out to reach a verdict, they don’t have to have one-hundred percent certainty – even to give someone the death penalty. That would be an impossible standard. Jurors are asked to weigh the evidence and come to the best possible conclusion. In a criminal case, the standard of proof is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” So it’s fair to ask, lacking absolute proof about anything, whether there is enough evidence about spiritual questions to make a belief reasonable.

Keep in mind that contrary assertions must also meet a standard of proof. If we say the Bible is reliable, we must demonstrate adequate reasons to support that claim. If someone else claims that the Bible is not reliable, they must also demonstrate adequate reasons to support their claim. Neither claim should be given priority without evidence to determine which case is more probable.

Every Conclusion Requires Faith

Sometimes Christians are accused of having blind faith. But faith is not believing something in the absence of facts or contrary to the facts. Faith is a reasonable response to trust based on the adequacy of the facts. Everybody makes decisions of life based on degrees of faith. People who eat breakfast cereal have decided that there is sufficient reason to trust cereal manufacturers. Every morning they exercise faith. Likewise, all life decisions are based on a combination of faith related to fact.

Religious truth is no different. To believe in God demands an act of faith. But so does a decision not to believe in God. As we have seen, neither position can be based on absolute certainty. Both rest on faith, because nobody can prove absolutely that God exists or that he does not. Christians believe that Christianity rests on strong evidence and has a high degree of probability for its truth claims. In other words, there is adequate evidence to believe.