Apologetics

What We Learn from Experience

Posted on by Dan Dodds

Lewis QuotesScreen Shot 2015-05-28 at 2.23.51 PM

Most of you are aware that I am a big fan of C.S. Lewis. Oh, I know that Lewis had some theological issues and it’s not my intention to suggest that everything he wrote is spot on. BUT, Lewis was the master of good quotes, and so from time to time I’d like to pass along some of his quotes to you. Here’s the first:

“What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience. It is therefore useless to appeal to experience before we have settled, as well as we can, the philosophical question.” (Miracles, p. 3)

Have you ever heard someone say “well, I have learned from experience that…..” Though we use the phrase regularly we rarely think about what it means. Do you realize that what experience teaches you depends on the philosophy you use to interpret that experience?

Think of it this way. A tornado comes through your town and rips your house apart. What did you learn? If you’re a Hindu you learn that your karma has come to haunt you for past bad deeds. If you are a materialist you learn that impersonal, deterministic nature can wreak havoc on your home. If you are a Buddhist you learn that turning away from your desires mitigates the frustration you would otherwise experience in the loss of your property. In short, you learn what your worldview lets you learn.

Can experiences change someone’s worldview? Not usually. Worldviews are so closely (religiously) held they are usually immune to revision – though it can happen. More likely the experience will expose your worldview rather than change it.

We can substitute the word ‘evidence’ in place of ‘experience’ above and get the same result. So does ‘evidence’ prove Christianity? Sure! If you’re a Christian. Does evidence prove Atheism? Sure, if you’re an atheist. This is why Christians and atheists can (and do) look at the same geological data and come to completely different conclusions.

Never forget, your worldview (how you interpret your world) always precedes the evidence – so in the end (and in the beginning!) the issue and the debate is not about evidence – it’s about which worldview is used to interpret it.

Dan Dodds
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Dan Dodds
Dan is a native of Detroit, Michigan; a graduate of Hillsdale College in Michigan and Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Dan has worked in the financial area as a CPA and controller as well as in international business and sales. In 1995 Dan entered into the ministry in a Florida church as Sr. High and Singles Pastor. In 2001 he was brought on staff at Woodruff Road. Dan and his wife Christy have two daughters, Anna and Jenna and two sons, Will and Wyatt.