A power point and notes by Dr. John Oakes from a presentation at the 2011 ICEC Christianity and the Paranormal.

1. John Oakes
2011 ICEC
Christianity and the Paranormal

2.  Rationalism
 Empiricism
 Biblicism
A class I have taught:
Induction, Deduction, Revelation

3.  What is true must be logical. It must make
sense.
“I cannot accept that. It does not make sense
to me.”
Is this a good argument?
This is rational Christianity.

4.  What is true is what can be demonstrated to
be true by observation or experience.
Until we have actual physical evidence that
ghosts, demons, etc. are real, the default position
is that they are not real.
Flip side: I experienced this, therefore it is real.
This is experiential Christianity.

5.  Biblical statements (or at least my
interpretation of them) trumps all other
arguments.
If the Bible said that Jonah swallowed the
whale, I would believe that.
This can be irrational Christianity.

6.  Eclectic, Skeptical No-particular-ism
The Problem of Philosophy….
Augustine: We know in order to believe.
Aquinas: We believe in order to know.
William of Ockham and Nominalism

7.  Philosophy is a useful tool but truth should
not be a tool of philosophy.

8.  The truth is not [always] rational.
 The truth is not irrational.
 The truth is always biblical.
 If the Bible were irrational, then it would not
true.

9.  Can one commit to being rational and to the
authority of the teaching of Manes?
 Is Manichaean cosmology irrational?
 Side note: Is Hindu or Buddhist cosmology
irrational?

10.  We can learn from and use philosophy and
reason.
 We can learn from and be informed by
science and experience.
 We can rely on biblical authority.
 But none of these gets to trump the others.

11.  I lean toward biblicism.
 I am skeptical of skepticism.
 Skepticism needs to work both ways.

12.  Biblical warrant weak at best. 1 Sam 28?
 Rational warrant weak at best.
 Empirical warrant weak (based on anecdote)
 Alternative rational and biblical explanations
exist.
 I say it is very likely ghosts are not real.

13.  Biblical warrant very strong.
 Rational warrant somewhat weak. Is evil
real?
 Empirical warrant weaker. Again, based on
anecdotes.
 I believe demons are real, demon possession
in the past was real, and likely it is real today.

14.  A weaker biblical warrant. Perhaps related to
demonology.
 Many will say that belief in such things is
irrational.
 Empirical evidence is weak (anecdotal).
 Conclusion: I do not know, but I am VERY
skeptical.

15.  Zero biblical warrant.
 Zero rational warrant.
 Zero empirical warrant.
 These things are not real.

16.  We need to learn how to accept a fairly wide range of
thought on some of these things.
 The role of the teacher is to help people learn how to
think about these things rather than tell them what to
think about these things.