Faith on Trial by Pamela Binnings Ewen Page A

primordial black holes, cold dark matter, and quantum particles. In computer science philosophers and scientists continue to attempt to recreate the ability of human consciousness to understand and reason, to capture through artificial intelligence the elusive intuition and essence of human nature that is not yet understood.
    In the arts we have the paradox of sublime music and pictures created by people who cannot, of themselves, provide explanation for the creation. Take for example the paradox of Mozart and his music. Mozart was perhaps the greatest composer who ever lived, but the clarity and brilliance of his music are completely contradicted by the disorder of his life and personality. Much of his sense of form and structure was clearly learned, but much of it appears to have been almost instinctive, reflecting an insight into beauty and human nature that was never apparent in his own personal life in any manner. The question that must be asked of Mozart is this: Can this music have arrived from a source other than the physical mind of the musician, a source that transcends our physical limitations?
    In nature mysteries abound. Consider one illustration, the dance of the honeybee. Scientists have discovered that when a honeybee locates a particular flower that contains a source of honey, it will return to report the discovery to the hive. The information is communicated through a strange but stylized geometric dance performed by the honeybee, which evidently traces a pattern providing exact directions to the source. The pattern implies the existence of more dimensions in space than we have experienced. How and why this happens is not understood; we just know that the dance is performed and the flower is identified by the swarm. 2
    These things provide the mystery—hints that there is more to the universe than we understand. They give us hints, but they don’t really satisfy. After sifting through the evidence presented by science, the arts, nature, and the study of human consciousness in my search for truth, I have found that one source does exist to provide direct evidence for the existence of God and life after death—if the evidence sustains the assertions.
    That source is the testimony of four witnesses as set forth in the four books referred to as the Gospels of the New Testament. The core facts of the Gospel narratives are that two thousand years ago a man named Jesus lived, died, and returned to life. It is not necessary to examine each story in the Gospel narratives to find evidence of the existence of God and life after death. If only that testimony pertaining to the actual existence of Jesus, his death, and resurrection can be shown to be credible and believable under objective standards and the details can be corroborated, then proof of those unique events will necessarily provide a rational foundation for belief. The remainder of the message of the Gospels attains credibility from the truth of the resurrection.
    In law the key to proof of a case is the evidence—the stronger it is, the better the case. Direct testimony of an eyewitness is not required to prove a case; evidence of circumstances that combine to lead to a conclusion can also be convincing. But testimony of an eyewitness who is found to be credible is extremely convincing, and the statements of two credible eyewitnesses that are consistent in material respects, if not expressly controverted, require belief. If the testimony of the Gospels represents credible eyewitness testimony, under the standards of the law, it constitutes the strongest possible evidence.
    In order to assure the integrity, or believability, of the evidence, however, it must meet certain tests of objectivity and verifiability. The same standards by which evidence is measured in a court of law can be applied to test the evidence offered in support of the truth of the Gospel testimony. Courts in the Western world have accepted the basic premise of the necessity for an