Science and Skepticism in the Bible (Judges 6, 1Kings 18)

Believers sometimes claim there’s no word for religion in the Bible, that in the Hebrew Bible, faith was part of the everyday. This is true, especially in the first books of the Bible where God is shown as an undeniable part of reality, as a regular character in the plotline. It is only when he starts to retreat that faith comes in.

Since God was part of the everyday, in many cases the act of putting God to a skeptical test is seen as meritorious. Here are three of the most famous examples:

In Judges 6, Gideon is commanded to lead Israel up against the umpteenth oppression. But he’s not sure if God really means to deliver the Israelites so he asks God to make a fleece he dried wet whilst the ground around it is dry. When that happens, he even dares to ask God to reverse the test and make the fleece dry and the ground all around it wet. More here.

However, he asks for the second test apologetically (Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece) which means even to him it might have been wrong to try put the fleece to such a rigorous test. Also, he is not enquiring about whether God exists but only whether he will help Gideon deliver Israel, so this is semi-skepticism.

For full skepticism, we have to wait to Elijah’s show trial (1 Kings 18). Here, Elijah really does seek to prove who is the “true” God: YHWH or Baal. On the side of YHWH: Elijah. On the side of Baal: 450 priests of Baal. He sets up two altars, one for each side and asks that each side sacrifice an animal to see which one gets consumed by a heavenly fire. He lets the Baal priests perform their incantations whilst mocking them. He then douses the altar with water three times, just to exclude any naturalistic explanation for the fire. He prays, the altar is consumed, Israel is brought back to YHWH worship. And, in true biblical fashion, Elijah kills the 450 priests. More here.

Now this is as proper a test that could be. He understands the importance of at least following the protocol of open-mindedness (he says to Israel “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”) He understands that you need a control. He understands Occam’s Razor and excludes the simplest explanations using the water. The only thing missing is blinding, but it’s not too clear how to blind this experiment and we can forgive him anyhow.

The third example is from Bel and the Dragon, an apocryphal section of the Book of Daniel. Daniel makes fun of the Persian idol Bel, who is supposed to be real because he consumes the food that the priests of Bel lay out. He then shows to King Cyrus that this is a trick: by spreading ashes on the temple’s floor, he captures overnight the footprints of the priests as they (along with their wives and children) come back through a secret passage to finish off the food. The king is convinced and once again in biblical fashion, the priests of Bel, their wives and their kids are put to death for this fraud. More here.

So, the Hebrew Bible seems often not to mind putting the truth of YHWH to the test. Especially examples 2 and 3, which are all about exposing the hoaxes of false religions. It is only over time that YHWH became associated with unfalsifiability, with the type of god that wouldn’t consume the wet altar in front of everyone. Soon, it would be a New Testament god who doesn’t like testing: “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

It’s a real shame. The YHWH of the Hebrew Bible might be a bastard, but at least he has the decency to understand that your belief on him is contingent on him actually showing up. I prefer this to a god who fails the very same tests but demands belief.