Can You Prove it False?

 

While the storyline of There and Back is full of memorable characters, suspense, conflict, love, life, and growth... George MacDonald never fails to weave in thought-provoking conversations.

[Please never take his word for ultimate truth, but rather check it against the Bible, as MacDonald was a fallible man with some unorthodox beliefs. That said, his works contain many gems that draw me closer to the Saviour.]

A God that could be proved, 

would not be worth proving.

There and Back by George MacDonald

"That the unprovable is necessarily the unknowable, a thousand beliefs deny. 'You cannot prove to me that you have a father!' says the blind sage, reasoning with the little child. 'Why should I prove it?' answers the child. 'I am sitting on his knee! If I could prove it, that would not make you see him; that would not make you happy like me! You do not care about my father, or you would not stand there disputing; you would feel about until you found him!'...

"If a man say, 'I cannot believe; I was not made to believe what I could not prove;' I reply, Do you really say, 'It is not true,' because you have no proof? Ask yourself whether you do not turn from the idea because you prefer it should not be true. You accept a thousand things without proof, and a thousand things may be perfectly true, and have no proof. But if you cannot be sure, why therefore do you turn away? Is the thing assuredly false? Then you ought of course to turn away. Can you prove it false? You cannot. Again, why do you turn away? That a thing is not assuredly true, cannot be reason for turning from it, else farewell to all theory and all scientific research!...

"But," said Barbara, "perhaps the man would say that we see such suffering in the world, that the being who made it, if there be one, cannot possibly be both strong and good, otherwise he would not allow it." 

"Say then, that he might be both strong and good, and have some reason for allowing, or even causing it, which those who suffer will themselves one day justify, ready for the sake of it to go through all the suffering again. Less than that would not satisfy me."

There and Back by George MacDonald

The entire audiobook can be downloaded for free at https://librivox.org/there-and-back-by-george-macdonald/