Exploration 109 – Faulty Interpretations

The conclusions we draw from our interpretations of facts sometimes turn out to be wrong. When that happens we wonder: If we are rational human beings, how could we have strayed so far from the truth? Furthermore, accepting faulty interpretations may have resulted in more than some intellectual mistake. It may have negatively impacted our lives.

Having experienced the debilitating dead ends of faulty opinions and interpretations we look for ways to avoid such traps. However, the most we get from philosophy are reminders of the limits of reasoning and of science itself. For example, a mathematician may come up with a correctly reasoned proof, but that proof is only as good as the assumptions and the laws of inference he used. These are not proven. A real scientist (as opposed to a pseudo-scientist) knows enough not to even claim to “prove” something. The next experiment may falsify what he previously thought was true. The problem of uncertainty increases when one is trying to understand what happened in the past which cannot be repeated in an experiment.

Ultimately, the only ground we can reliably stand on is the Bible. That does require belief, but the belief is not arbitrary. It also provides a coherent explanation for why we are here faced with such problems as faulty opinions and interpretations.

Calvin Smith from Answers In Genesis Canada goes into these issues in more detail illustrating how negative the consequences can be for those accepting the faulty interpretations offered by evolutionists about our place in the world.

Author: Frank Hubeny

I enjoy walking, poetry and short prose as well as taking pictures with my phone. View all posts by Frank Hubeny