Introduction

If all religious texts vanished tonight, what would become of world religions tomorrow?1 Which

religions, if any, could a secular scholar reconstruct using only science and philosophy? Are these

meaningful questions to ask? In this paper we will see why this question has supreme validity, how

some religions would vanish in such a scenario, and how others could be faithfully reconstructed.

Those which vanish would point to, at best, an element of private, un-testable, un-falsifiable

religious knowledge: at worst, a human fabrication. Those which remain least affected by our test

display the greatest correspondence with reality. We will broadly examine, in chronological order,

first the religions of the Eastern tradition, then those of the Western. We will see why the Judeo-

Christian faith remains least affected under our test, and therefore, corresponds best with reality.

A Meaningful Question?

But is this a fair question to ask? And is it even important? Someone may object that an evidence-

based approach shouldn‟t be used on matters of “faith”. Two responses may be made here. First,

when a religious institution makes a truth claim, it is asking us to modify our epistemology – our

basis for knowledge and belief. To suggest we should not weigh evidence when formulating what we

believe is silly. Each of us is in a continuous state of weighing evidence before modifying our beliefs.

Second, this objection commits the fallacy of equivocation, in which the term “faith” is used in

more than one sense in the same argument. The objection equivocates on the term “faith”. Faith, or

trust, is a relational enterprise. Indeed, trust stands outside the realm of evidence. Truth-claims,

however, do not. These are wholly intellectual, and most certainly require evidential tests. Faith –

trust – is logically posterior to knowledge. In other words, one must have knowledge of what one

trusts. We can thus see the utmost importance of the question. Is there 1) good evidence for the core

truth-claims of a religion, so that 2) we are justified in trusting in its promises and commands?

1 Initially noted by Kenneth Samples in Reasons to Believe lecture “Putting the Book of Mormon to the

Test.”

Hindu Texts Vanish

Though Hinduism is the oldest of all religions in our survey, it is notoriously difficult to pin down its

“doctrines”. Unique among world religions, it does not emphasize a particular religious text, though

many exist. Yet, drawing from the Upanishads, Vedas, and Baghavad Gita, we can identify four

recurrent themes which avail themselves to public verification: Maya, Atman/Brahman,

Reincarnation, and Cyclical Cosmology. Let us briefly survey these four themes as they relate to each

other, then examine each.

In Hinduism and Buddhism, what we each take as reality, is illusory - Maya.2 What, then, is

reality? That we are each part of the divine – the Brahman.3 To suppose we are a distinct self,

separate from Brahman, is delusional. Until we realize this, we are stuck in a cycle of birth and

rebirth – Reincarnation. Our goal, then, is enlightenment, when we become one with Brahman

(known as Atman-Brahman), and our “self” is finally extinguished – Nirvana. Supposing, then, the

Upanishads, Vedas, and Baghavad Gita vanish tonight, could science or philosophy reconstruct

these four themes tomorrow?

Atman-Brahman. At the heart of Hinduism seems to be a denial of one of the three classic

laws of logic, The Law of Excluded Middle, which states that for any proposition, either that

proposition is true, or its negation is true. Yet the concept of Atman-Brahman seems to do away

with distinctions altogether. Everything is one (Monism).4 With the philosophical development of

and extreme reliance upon classical logic, it does not seem we would independently arrive at the

concept of Monism. It might be objected that physics supports Monism, such as in M-Theory, yet

even here distinctions are necessary (including the proposition that M-Theory is either true or false).

2 For example, the Shvetashvarata Upanishad, Rigveda and Atharvaveda, and the Baghavad Gita (Ch. 13

verse 29). Also known as “Kleshas” in Buddhism. 3 Baghavad Gita 4.24, etc.

4 Chāndogya Upanishad 3.14.1.

Maya. Quantum mechanics and even modern physics certainly suggest that there is far more

to reality than we experience in our day-to-day lives. Even most world religions suggest that there is

indeed more than meets the eye of reality. But Maya eliminates itself as a viable theory when it

suggests that all is illusory. For if this is true, then Maya, too, is illusory.

Reincarnation. We are then caught in a cycle of birth and rebirth, some lives as human and

some as lower forms of life,5 with the law of Karma ensuring we reap the rights and wrongs from

previous lives.6 While powerful in its application to Theodicy, reincarnation and karma suffer again

from logical issues. For example, if I am reincarnated in a lower life form, am I not reincarnated in

without free will? How then can I be responsible for my actions under such a life? Worse still, as my

colleague Brian Collins points out, “In a person's first life, what can account for the good and bad

things which happen to them?”7 While popular and admittedly alluring concepts, Reincarnation and

Karma do not seem to be scientifically, philosophically, or ultimately logically based.

Cyclical Cosmology. According to Vedic and Purana texts, “revolutions of creation, continuance

and dissolution unintermittingly succeed.”8 The universe is in an eternal process of birth,

continuance, and destruction. This would mean that there have been an infinite number of past

events. But this cannot be the case. Otherwise, as William Lane Craig points out, “the series of past

events would have to come to an end in the present – but the infinite cannot come to an end.”9

Further, Vedic/Puranic cosmology advocates a cyclical universe, which has been supplanted by Big

Bang cosmology, and for good reason. In contrast to Hindu cosmology, in which the universe

comes to being, expands, then contracts upon itself in destruction, modern cosmology has

5 Rig Veda, 10.2.16; Baghavad Gita, 2.22.

6 See Karma in Bhagavad Gita, 4.23-24.

7 Formulated in RTB’s World Religions and Science course.

8 Vishnu Purana, 1.2.18.

9 William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), 122.

sufficiently determined the mass density of the universe as too small to reverse its expansion.10 The

universe is accelerating, will not contract upon itself, and will ultimately die out in a heat death in

which elementary particles cease to exist. For some time, science supported a “Big Crunch”

described by Hinduism, but with recent observations of supernovae and cosmic microwave

background radiation show otherwise. The data do not seem to fit with Hindu cosmology.

We may therefore conclude that while Hinduism is to be commended on some points, it

would be extremely difficult to reconstruct Hinduism independent of its religious texts. Let us

therefore continue with Buddhism, a sort of “reformation” of Hinduism.

Buddhist Texts Vanish

Philosopher and psychologist William James, in commenting on a recurrent theme in world

religions, wrote in 1902, “Here is the real core of the religious problem: Help! help!”11 And possibly

the central-most teaching within Buddhism echoes just this notion: life is suffering.12 Buddhism grew

out of the teachings of Siddartha Gautama from modern-day Nepal, who taught during the 6th

century BCE. As Huston Smith describes it, his was “a religion of reaction against Hindu

perversions – an Indian protestantism.”13

Gautama therefore believed in much of his Hindu backdrop, such as Karma, Reincarnation,

and Cyclical Cosmology, of which we have already noted as tenuous. However Gautama differed on

the point of Atman-Brahman; namely, on the existence of the soul. This concept of Anatta, the

“non-self”, or the illusion of “self”, Gautama said, is a primary source of suffering.14 When one

10

Announced at the 1998 American Astronomical Society by groups from Princeton, Yale, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Institute. See http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200901/physicshistory.cfm, accessed December 2, 2013.

11 William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2002), 162.

12 Dukkha, The first of the “Four noble truths”.

13 Huston Smith, The World’s Religions (New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1991), 93.

14 Dhammapada, Ch 20, v277-279.

realizes he is not a “self”, he awakens (Sanskrit “budh”). Thus, Buddha: one who awoke. I contend

that this purely physical explanation of the self/mind/soul suffers in three primary areas.15

First is the classical law of identity: physical brain states are not identical with mental states.

Were they identical, I could think of a pink elephant, see that pink elephant in my „mind‟s eye‟, and

theoretically, a neurophysiologist could locate that pink elephant in a definite location of my brain.

Yet this is clearly absurd. My mental states are therefore not identical with my physical brain states,

suggesting a non-physical component to my thoughts.

Second is the problem of the “enduring self”. Though I am constantly physically changing,

the “I” that I refer to in the past is the same “I” that I refer to today, or in the future. Yet if I am

solely physical, with no soul, and am in continual physical flux, I cannot speak of an “I” that endures

from one moment to another. Yet this seems absurd. What is it then that I refer to as my “self”?

Something seems to survive my physical body from moment to moment. Further, in the absence of

an immaterial, unchanging, over-arching “self”, I have no way to properly apprehend any argument.

For “I” am unable to fully hear a proposition: rather, momentary physical versions of “me” hear a

proposition, and momentary physical versions of “me” respond to them. However, without an

immaterial “self”, there is no “me” which apprehends the whole of an argument. On this view, I am

not warranted in accepting, for example, an argument for the Buddhist concept of Anatta.

And finally is determinism: if no immaterial substance contributes to my thoughts, then

each of my thoughts is causally determined. That is to say, each thought could theoretically be traced

to a prior cause. And Buddhist thought admits this.16 Yet if this is the case, I am already causally

determined to accept or deny a purely physical view of “self”, and therefore have no ground for

holding my illusory opinion as valid.

15

For a fuller description of the dualist position, see J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2003), 228-284.

16 See Smith, 110. Lew Ayres, Altars of the East (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1956), 90-91.

We may conclude by admitting yet again that Buddhism nails the human predicament of

suffering with precision. Yet it does not prescribe an adequate answer. We may also admit that in the

absence of Buddhist texts, historical and archaeological studies could locate the person of Siddartha

Gautama in 6th century (modern-day) Nepal. We can even admit that in the absence of Buddha‟s

teachings, some branches of modern philosophy (materialist) could reconstruct some portions of

Buddhist thought. Yet we must conclude that even these reconstructions are untenable, and as they

stand, seem to suffer from fatal objections.

The Tanakh Vanishes

When we examine the historic17 Abrahamic faiths, we note a striking difference from Eastern

religions: these are religions based on historical events. Beliefs are then interpretations of historical

events; particularly when the God acts in the stage of world history. In its early stages, Judaism was a

polemic against polytheistic religions which proposed a bevy of gods to explain natural phenomena.

Regarding this latter point, Judaism established itself as unique among its contemporary

worldviews. For the ancient Israelites, natural phenomena were not the result of whimsical gods, but

of the regularity of natural laws set in place by God at the moment of creation.18 Among the many

claims Judaism avails to public verification, Judaic texts suggest a single point of universal creation19

followed by an expansion of the universe.20 As astrophysicist Hugh Ross notes,21 from the viewpoint

of an earthbound observer, Genesis 1 then proposes a universal chronological history: the creation

of stars (v3), followed by planets (v4), earth atmosphere (v6-8), earth water (v9), emergence of land

17

As opposed to modern versions. Judaism, for example, placed major emphasis on monotheism in its early stages, while in modernity, emphasis is placed less on doctrine and more on relationships.

18 Jeremiah 33:25; Psalm 119:89-90; Wisdom of Solomon 11:20; Psalm 19:1.

19 Genesis 1:1; 2:3; 2:4; Psalm 148:5; Isaiah 40:26; 42:5; 45:18.

20 Job 9:8; Psalm 104:2; Isaiah 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; 48:13; 51:13; Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15; and

Zechariah 12:1. 21

See Hugh Ross, Genesis One: A Scientific Perspective (Pasadena, CA: Reasons to Believe, 2006).

(v10), plant life (v11-12), dissipation of thick atmosphere (v14-19), water life (v20-22), land produces

animals (v24-25), and finally, humans appear (v26).

While these texts are certainly not “scientific” in nature (the discipline of science of course

did not yet exist), but rather are polemic and poetic, neither are they empty statements. This

worldview was responsible for the abandonment of Aristotelian thought and the emergence of

science.22 To state the obvious, these 31 cited verses describe modern cosmology (not to mention a

hint of evolution in v24-25) astonishingly well, suggesting they were not simply human fabrications.

And what of the historical sciences? Biblical archaeology is a science in itself, and the field of

Biblical discoveries is simply too large to list here.23 Yet if one of Judaism‟s most celebrated beliefs is

God‟s covenant with Israel, one of history‟s most incredible stories is the continuance of the ethnic

Jews. A minority population since their beginnings,24 they have rarely lived amongst peaceful

nations. “The Jewish people,” writes Theologian Frederick Alfred Aston, “present a striking

exception to the usual course of national development and decline.”25 This small race has

surprisingly survived numerous wars and even attempted genocides. But even more remarkable in

our generation is their return to their original homeland, their creation of one of the largest

technology markets in the world, and the impact of their contribution to humanity in general (for

example, while making up only 0.2% of the world‟s population,26 Jews make up 22% of Nobel Peace

Prize winners27).

22

https://www.academia.edu/3530611/How_Religion_Halts_the_Progress_of_Science_and_Other_Modern_Tales_ for a fuller treatment.

23 See Biblical Archaeology Review for an introduction.

24 “The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than

other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.” (Deuteronomy 7:7) 25

Frederick Alfred Aston, The Challenge of the Ages (Scarsdale, NY: Research Press, 1970). 26

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4291987,00.html, accessed 12/4/2013. 27

193 out of 855. See http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/nobels.html, accessed 12/4/2013.

In conclusion, were the Tanakh to vanish, secular scholars would find Judaic thought

running through scientific theories such as Big Bang cosmology, inflationary models, scientific

philosophies such as natural law regularity and constants, and perhaps even evolution. Secular

historians would find a continued chain of existence of a small group of ethnic people over

thousands of years in the most unlikely of areas, and this small ethnic group‟s disproportionate

contribution to humanity. Judaism holds up exceptionally well to our test in the absence of the

Tanakh. Yet their story is far from over. In the spirit of science, they made many predictions. Yet

not of natural phenomena, but of historical.

The New Testament Vanishes

Amid their many persecutions, the Jews cried out for a righteous king. As extra-biblical literature

attests,28 the Jews longed for their Mashiach (messiah) to lead the country to freedom from their

enemies. And in first-century Palestine, something horribly odd happens among the Jewish people.

Reports of one man‟s life not only by eye-witnesses, but detractors as well, move one modern

historian to call this man‟s life “among the oddest stories ever written.”29 Of course, the life of a

man avails itself to the most public of verification. We can reconstruct the following story using only

non-biblical, critical (even atheist) sources, from both antiquity and modernity.

Jesus of Nazareth is born in Roman Palestine sometime between 7BC and 2BC. 30 He begins

a ministry of “wonders”31 after being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.32 Considered

28

For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls’ “War Scroll”, 4Q458, 4Q521, etc. 29

NT Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 587. 30

Based on events related by Ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 18.5.2 31

Josephus, ibid 32

Nearly all modern secular scholars, including detractors, of Christianity, strongly agree Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. For example, (post)modern historian and critic John Dominic

Crossan, Who Is Jesus? (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999), 31-32. James D. G. Dunn, Jesus Remembered (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub., 2003), 339, et al.

a “wise man”, “messiah”,33 and “Wise King”,34 he enacts a new set of Jewish laws.35 At 33 years of

age he is crucified by Pontius Pilate.36 A number of men and women claim to see and experience

him after his death,37 including some who doubted his claims prior to his death.38 This “most

mischievous superstition”39 attracts a large number of followers who undergo “exquisite tortures”40

and executions41 in order to illegally worship Jesus as deity42.

With literacy rates at a maximum of 10% in the first century Roman world,43 we would

expect considerably less literary evidence for the New Testament. Yet what we find is just the

opposite. In conclusion, if the New Testament were to vanish tonight, a secular scholar could

reconstruct Christianity‟s central claims tomorrow with surprising precision. As with Judaism, and

contra Eastern mysticism, the pivotal premises of Christianity do not hinge on religious texts, and

therefore, suggest they are not fabrications.

The Qur’an Vanishes

It should be admitted up front that our litmus test puts Islam at an immediate disadvantage. Like

Mormonism, it claims that its validity and religious superiority come from the beauty and perfection

of its religious text – which we are excluding! Yet at the same time, this claim of textual perfection

only adds a new element to our test: falsifiability. The Qur‟an44 and Islamic tradition45 hold that a

33

Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3, 3. Once controversial, the Testimonium Flavianum is now considered authentic by the majority of historians.

34 Mara bar Serapion, A Letter of Mara, Son of Serapion, 19

35 Serapion, ibid

36 Josephus, 20.9.1

37 Agnostic, secular historian Bart Ehrman notes “we can say with some confidence that some of his

disciples claimed to have seen Jesus alive.” Bart Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 200

38 (James). Josephus, ibid.

39 Related by one of Rome’s most celebrated historians, Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, Annals, 15:44

40 Tacitus, ibid

41 Josephus, ibid

42 Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96-97

43 W.V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), 272

44 Sura 2:23; 10:36-38; 17:88, etc.

45 See Yusuf Ali commentary on Sura 5:15.

person is compelled to the truth of the Qur‟an, and its claims, based on its self-evident perfection.46

Qur‟anic commendation therefore crumbles if a single error is found within it. For not only will it

lose its strongest argument, but it will betray its own corruption – of which it is particularly averse.

More interesting in this Qur‟anic litmus test is that our own Christian litmus test renders a

definitive answer. The Qur‟an was written as a kind of polemic against Judaism and Christianity in

particular. A single, recurrent claim flows through the Qur‟an: the Hebrew and Christian texts are

corrupt.47 Leaving aside this tenuous claim,48 a subset of this claim challenges Christianity‟s

unequivocal falsifiability test: Jesus‟ crucifixion. “They killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it

was made to appear to them… of a surety they killed him not… Nay, Allah raised him up unto

Himself.”49 If this is true, then Christianity “is futile; you are still in your sins,” says Paul, and “we are

of all people most to be pitied.”50 Either the Qur‟an remains perfect and Jesus did not die, or Jesus

did in fact die and the Qur‟an‟s divine origin – and commendation – fails.

But as we have already seen, in the absence of both the Qur‟an and the New Testament,

history itself conclusively shows that, at the very least, a historical figure named Jesus did in fact live

and die. The Qur‟an grasps at empty air for independent evidence to the contrary. Even more telling

is St. John of Damascus‟s (born 40 years after Muhammad‟s death) report that Muhammad‟s

education of Christianity came by a monk of the heretical Nestorian and Arian sects.51 We therefore

have good reason to believe at least a portion of the Qur‟an‟s was misinformed by, ironically,

corrupt, human agents.

46

It is for this reason that many hold invalid any Qur’anic translation from Arabic to another language: its verbal perfection is lost.

47 Suras 2:59; 2:78-79; 4:46; 4:157; 5:15; 5:41; 5:44;

48 One need look no further than the modern discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls, dating more than 2,000

years old, which confirm the faithfulness of modern Hebrew texts with ancient. 49

Sura 4:157-158. 50

1 Corinthians 15:17-19. 51

Likely Bahira. Consequently, Nestorians deny the Theotokos (Mary as mother of the human enfleshment of the Logos). This might explain Muhammad’s bizarre assumptions about the Trinity in the Qur’an (ie Sura 5.116, 4.171, 9.31, etc.)

The Book of Mormon Vanishes

Let us first summarize six core truth-claims of Mormonism which avail themselves to public

verification. Mormonism began in the early 19th century when Joseph Smith, Jr., then a teenager, had

a series of angelic visitations from the angel Moroni. Ultimately Moroni directed Smith to a book in

upstate New York, of golden pages, written in “Reformed Egyptian”.52 The Book of Mormon

(BoM)53 details multiple migrations of Jews from the Ancient Near East to the Americas, beginning

2500BC. The second wave, beginning in 600BC, chronicles Lehi and his family‟s migration to the

Americas. Lehi‟s sons, Nephi and Laman‟s descendents grow to large nations. In the 4th century AD,

the Lamanites defeat the Nephites in a climactic battle on the “Hill Cumorah” in upstate New York,

in which around 230,000 people are killed. God darkened the skin color of the Lamanites,54 and they

are the ancestors of at least some (if not all) native American Indians.55 Over 30 cities are mentioned

in the book‟s accounts of ancient American inhabitants.

While only a cursory and partial study of Mormon doctrine, let us first examine our six

markers, then summarize our findings. First, Joseph Smith returned the golden plates to the angel

Moroni after translation, so we have no evidence of them.56 Second, no non-Mormon scholar

acknowledges the existence of a “reformed Egyptian” language. Of course, scholars have no original

“reformed Egyptian” document to analyze.57 Third, there is no evidence – archaeological, genetic,

literary, or other – of a Semitic, or even Western Asian people occupying the Americas prior to

52

Mormon 9:32 53

Named after the narrator Mormon, a prophet living in the Americas in the 4th

century AD. 54

2 Nephi 5:21 55

Introduction to the Book of Mormon. 56

Joseph Smith Interview with Peter Bauder, October 1830, EMD, 1: 17 57

A photograph of a so-called “Caractors Document” exists, which may or may not be Joseph Smiths’ transcribed “reformed Egyptian” characters. Analyses of this document range from Mormon-sponsored BYU Egyptologist John Gee not finding the document large enough “to render decipherment feasible”, to mainstream ridicule that reformed Egyptian looks more like “deformed English” (Charles A. Shook, Cumorah Revisited or, "The Book of Mormon" and the Claims of the Mormons Reexamined from the Viewpoint of American Archaeology and Ethnology (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Company, 1910), 538).

Columbus. Fourth, there is no evidence of a battle on or near the traditional site of Hill Cumorah in

New York. Fifth, Native American ancestry models point to eastern Asia, not Palestine. Recent

genetic tests have confirmed this hypothesis.58 Sixth, the cities and events in the BoM have not been

identified, and the Mormon Church has no official position on an exact location for them.

In each of our markers, either no evidence, or negative evidence is found. Therefore, if the

Book of Mormon vanished tonight, a secular scholar would find Native Americans related to eastern

Asians, would find none of the cities listed in the BoM, would find no archaeological evidence for

the battles listed in the BoM, and remarkably, would not reconstruct, in its original vernacular, the

Book of Mormon itself.

Conclusion

Our study has been only a cursory one. Each of the world‟s religions ought to be studied for their

own merits. And in full disclosure, each surveyed religion does contain edifying insights. Yet our

litmus test suggests where, approximately, each religion lies on a scale from heavy-textual-

dependence, to virtual-textual-independence. Were all religious texts to vanish tonight, it seems one

could draw astonishingly close to the “religious” Jewish and Christian stories using only science,

philosophy, ancient literature, and archaeology. Judaism provides a worldview of regular, natural

processes devoid of a pantheon of warring gods, and building upon this, Christianity avails the

historian with possibly the most incredible entry in historical record. The remainder find themselves

silent among an orchestra of modern sciences. One is therefore warranted in exploring the Judeo-

Christian story with confidence, while exploring others with a dose of skepticism.

58

Spencer Wells and Mark Read, The Journey of Man - A Genetic Odyssey (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002), 138–140.