How do you determine what is True?
Most of us would probably answer, “Evidence”.
But what happens when the evidence conflicts with something you already know to be true?
Or perhaps more accurately – something you were taught was settled?
That is where discernment becomes difficult.
We don’t normally begin by examining the evidence. We begin with what we already believe, and then we interpret the evidence through it.
Scientists do it.
Theologians do it.
I do it.
You do it.
The problem isn’t that we have assumptions. We couldn’t function without them.
The problem begins when we forget that they are assumptions.
That is one of the reasons I use the word forensic.
Forensic investigation doesn’t begin by asking, What am I supposed to believe happened?
It asks:
What is the evidence?
What does the evidence actually establish?
What have I added to it?
And perhaps the uncomfortable one:
What evidence would cause me to reconsider what I already believe?
That is the territory we’re going to explore here.
Not simply theology, Not simply science, Not simply History.
We are going to examine how we know what we think we know.
Sometimes we’ll confirm what we believed
Sometimes we’ll discover that the evidence is stronger than we realized.
And occasionally we may have to say:
Wait. Backup.
What was that?