Job 1:8-12
New International Version (NIV)
8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
12 The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
What does this passage have to do with research methods? Plenty! This is about an EXPERIMENT which the devil conducts upon Job, an upright man – with God’s agreement that he be allowed to do so.
First, God proposes a hypothesis (defined as:
1. a proposition, or set of propositions, set forth as an explanation for the occurrence of some specified group of phenomena, either asserted merely as a provisional conjecture to guide investigation (working hypothesis) or accepted as highly probable in the light of established facts.
2.
a proposition assumed as a premise in an argument.)
The hypothesis is:
H1: There are those who praise God in all situations. (Job is an example of this phenomenon).
Satan then offers a counter argument, based on an ALTERNATIVE THEORY:
Let’s call his theory the “good fortune school of belief.”
(Here, a theory is defined as: : a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena <the wave theory of light>
Satan proposes to explain RELIGIOUS BELIEF in the following way:
H2: As people’s GOOD FORTUNES increase, people’s propensity to PRAISE GOD increases also.
(Here, the related hypothesis states that:
H3: As people’s GOOD FORTUNES decrease, people’s propensity to PRAISE GOD also decreases.
In other words, there is a LINEAR, POSITIVE relationship between good fortune and praise. (We can graph this on an axis.)
Satan believes that he has identified a principle which is:L
1. Generalizable: true about people EVERYWHERE at every time in the world
2. EMPIRICALLY OBSERVABLE (we’ll get to that)
3. Falsifiable
4. Parsimonious (explains a lot with very few variables)
AN ASIDE: the Bible contains many generalizable observations about human behavior -- across time and cultures (particularly in Proverbs).
God then proposes that Job’s existence serves to FALSIFY the devil’s hypothesis.
When one makes a statement that “all people do X”, one only needs ONE data point showing that ‘this person doesn’t do x’ to falsify the general law. (i.e. all birds fly. If I can identify ONE species of bird that can’t fly, then I have proven that the law does not hold categorically). This has been referred to as the ‘black swan’ principle.
Here, Satan posits that:
All people will praise God when their fortunes are good.
All people will forsake God when their fortunes are NOT good.
Then, Satan is given permission to TEST Job by afflicting him. Job will then serve as a data point in an experiment.
NOTICE, how after Satan is initially proven wrong (Job loses his wealth and does not forsake God), Satan MODIFIES his hypothesis, NARROWING it in scope. He goes from:
People who suffer bad fortune will forsake God to:
People who suffer from bodily affliction will forsake God.
In the final analysis, Satan’s hypothesis is DISPROVEN by Job, who is blameless and upright. He notes in Job 16:16 “My face is red with weeping, deep shadows ring my eyes yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.”
Faith makes us do UNEXPECTED things. Everyone EXPECTED Job to give up and lose hope. They saw that as a rule – this is what people do.
Yet he defied expectations and proved the devil wrong.
Research methods can be powerful tools in seeking after righteousness, particularly when God is on our side.
As many times as I have read this story of Job, I never thought about the scientific process/hypotheses of the testing. This devotional opens my perspective of applying a systematic approach to analyzing an experience.
ReplyDeleteI believe the last statement on this post is a profound statement. "Research Methods can be a powerful tool in seeking after righteousness particularly when God is on our side." What a new way to consider Research Methods.In today's society people are searching for truth and understanding. The thought of using Research Methods to assist the community with understanding righteous and truth is invigorating! The more I understand Research Methods the more excited I become.
ReplyDeleteI find this devotional particularly refreshing in light of our relativistic culture. The scientific method allows us to hopefully get at the root of a question and find truth. In our society, it seems we have neglected the scientific method in order to acheive instant gratification or a certain non-empirical feeling. I have never looked at Job in light of the scientific method, but after reading this, my belief in scripture as ultimate truth is re-affirmed once again!
ReplyDeleteOf course, the Satan was not doing research into the ways of men but rather conducting a presumptive criminal investigation. That is, he proposes a "trial by ordeal" and presumes to know the outcome beforehand. This is hardly a good example of research!
ReplyDeleteBut I would call your attention to the fact that "trial by ordeal" is a scriptural method of judgment. That is, God does not "take your word for it" that you have faith but rather will bring suffering on you in order to *determine* if you have faith. If you fail the test, you are rejected, but if you pass the test you gain a crown.
People today are wont to say "I'm going through a trial; I lost my job." By this they mean that "I'm having a hard time." But a "trial" is a forensic proceeding. In the scriptures, when one goes through a "trial" then their fate rests on their proper response to the ordeal to which they are being subjected.