The purpose of the Thomas Project is to
reach out to the scientific community and to the
community of faith in order to find common ground. Let's
see if the following sounds familiar:
"Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails,
and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put
my hand into His side, I will not believe."
John 20:25 NASB
Thus spoke Thomas the Apostle, one of
the twelve who had accompanied Jesus of Nazareth during
Jesus' public ministry. And what was Jesus' response?
Did he call Thomas names, and insult him, and call him
faithless? No, let's read what Jesus did say to
him.
"After eight days His disciples were
again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the
doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and
said ' Peace be with you.' Then He said to Thomas,
'Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and
reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not
be unbelieving, but believing.'" John
20:26-27 NASB
So Jesus did not
belittle Thomas at all, but rather gave him the
evidence that Thomas needed in order to believe.
Thomas saw, and touched, and became convinced. And
Thomas was a hard case indeed, because the Bible records
that he had witnessed many of the miracles that Jesus
had performed. So if anyone deserved a chewing-out for
being faithless, it was Thomas. But did he really
deserve one? In reality, none of the disciples
believed that Jesus had risen, until they had seen him
with their own eyes. Thomas was no different than the
rest, indeed, he was only asking for what the other
apostles had already been given -- the chance to see the
risen Jesus for himself. So Jesus apparently was no more
angry with Thomas than he was with the rest of the
disciples, for Jesus gave to each of them the
evidence each needed to be convinced.
Not a "Blind Faith"
In fact, Jesus was not angry with any of them at all,
for Jesus did not ask them for a
blind faith (defined as
'faith without evidence') , but for a
knowing faith. Further, and contrary to some
teachings,
the Bible actually requires that evidence precede
belief , for if this were not so, how otherwise
could one test the truthfulness of what one is
being told. With regard to Thomas, we like to think of
him as a man with a scientific mind, for he demanded
scientific (i.e. empirical) evidence of a claim
before committing himself to that claim. And
should we be any different today? We think not. And we
suspect that many who are reading this would agree,
whether or not they are Christians. We view Thomas as an
example of a biblically-approved practitioner of
evidence-based faith, which we define as faith in
God inspired partially by observation and
experimentation. For biblical faith is not a blind
faith, but a faith based at least partly on empirical,
and testable,
evidence.
And thus we have arrived at the purpose of the Thomas
Project, to determine if biblically defined faith is
reconcilable with modern scientific thinking, without
any compromising of either. We believe the evidence
points solidly in the direction that it is. If you have
your doubts, however, you have come to just the right
place, for the just like its namesake, the Thomas
Project is all about investigating
doubts (under construction).
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