The title of a recent article in the paper caught my eye. “We tried to reproduce 100 published psychological studies — the results were abysmal.”
Researchers, including Dr. Nina Strohminger at Yale University, tried to reproduce previous studies about “How We Think.” They realized that once any research is published in a journal, it often acquires an unassailable authority. It will then be quoted with unquestioning confidence by others.
But they found such unquestioning confidence is often undeserved. The article explains that only one-third of the re-run studies produced the same conclusions. And she reports that in other fields of study — for example, cancer biology — replication rates are as low as one-fifth or less.
I know that in my own field of study, eye care, we realize that about half of the things we are being taught today will be proven wrong in a few years. So what should we believe?
I think the point is to take new studies with some cautious doubt or, as they say, “with a grain of salt.” But I want to make a much more important point, a spiritual point.
What can we believe about spiritual things? It seems that everybody has their opinion, their point of view about God. So I encourage you to go to the Bible itself. It has been hammered and kicked around for centuries. And yet it remains, having been proven reliable, unaltered, factually correct and with a message that keeps changing lives in every part of the world.
The message of God in the Bible can be believed and counted on. It won’t disappoint us. The Bible’s diagnosis of our problem is simple and right on. Sin! We have broken God’s laws and in turn experienced broken lives, broken bodies, broken minds and more. Here is the simple explanation for the tangled mess we find ourselves in.
Thankfully God also presents the cure for our sorry state of affairs. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).
We know from history that Jesus came, and history also records His death. But it is the Bible that records the reason why He came. He came to save sinners. Just a brief reflection on your own life should bring you to the realization that you qualify. You are a sinner.
God hates your sin. But He tells us, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)). He died bearing God’s wrath against my sin. That’s why I call Him my Saviour. Is He your Saviour?
Here is something you can believe or, better still, Somebody you can trust and love.