My sociology professor raised a very interesting question today while comparing the social sciences to the physical sciences.

He says that the physical sciences rely upon a strict method of observation, one that must be repeated before its conclusions are accepted. So given than, he says...can science ever prove that George Washington existed? No, it can't, he contends.

We have evidence that shows with *near certainty* that there once was a man named George Washington, but the problem with that evidence is that it could have been faked. COULD. Not was. And the only way to prove, using the scientific method, that George Washington once existed is to observe him, which is, of course, impossible.

So why do we believe there ever was such a man? Because we've been told so. We've been told that these documents were written by him, that these pictures are of him, and the chances that this was all one big ruse put on by late 18th century America seems just a tad preposterous. And we've come to believe that.

I wonder whether this applies to the question of whether man has free will. To prove that man has free will, or doesn't, one would have to observe and study decisions being made. But once a decision has been made, you cannot go back and repeat it, as per the scientific process. There really is no way to test either hypothesis, scientifically. You can study a decision, and everything about it, but once it's happened, you can't repeat that same exact decision. And doing something just once is not good enough.

Any other studying after the fact is equivalent to studying the life of George Washington after the fact. You've got a lot of things that are screaming a certain conclusion, but, again, to prove something scientifically, it must be repeated. And we can't repeat the life of George Washington so as to say "Yup. That's him. Well, run it a few more times, then we'll have someone else duplicate this a few times, and we'll know for sure this was George Washington." We know he existed because we've been told so.

So to free will. We've been told that we have the ability to make decisions on our own, freely, and by no less an authority by God. At least, I think so. And that's all we have to go off of, just like all we have to go off of Washington is a bunch of records telling us he existed. We've just got a bunch of records telling us "Yeah, you're free to accept/reject God, sin, etc." Likewise, once a decision is made, we can't run it a few more times and produce the exact same results.

*shrug* I dunno. Just thought I'd throw this out there. Frankly, I'm not sure what to make of it, and I'd like to hear what you think.

The Other Matthew