People are going to believe whatever they choose to believe. And yes, what they believe is a choice.
even when evidence shows the opposite.
Whether you believe Scripture or not, there are myriads of truths that can be gleaned there. I present one case here.
Passage quoted at the bottom.
One Sabbath, Jesus healed a blind man by spitting on the dirt and rubbing it on the blind man's eyes. He told the man to go wash his eyes in the Pool of Siloam. He did and then could see. He went home.
His neighbors began talking about him.
"Isn't that the blind beggar?"
"I think it is."
"No. It just looks like him."
"I am the man," said the previously blind man.
They pressed him and he told them the story of how Jesus had healed him. They wanted to know where Jesus was. The man had no idea.
This apparently caused some controversy so they took him to see the local religious leaders.
He told them the story and this caused a division between the leaders. Some said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." Others said, "How can a sinner perform such signs?"
They wanted to know what the man thought. "He is a prophet."
They didn't believe what he was saying so they sent for his parents.
When questioned, they verified that this was, in fact, their son who had been born blind but they did not know how he had come to be healed.
They were afraid of being excommunicated so when pressed further they said, "Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself."
They asked him about it again.
The rest of the story is quite interesting so be sure to read it toward the bottom.
From a non-religious point of view, these guys were presented with evidence that the man could now see. He had somehow been healed.
In the 1st century, there was no way to heal someone who had been blind from birth. This was clearly something spectacular. These guys, however, hated Jesus and all that he spoke on. They would not accept that he had healed the man.
They were stuck in their bias.
We all have our biases. Are we so adamant about any of our beliefs that we would defend it tooth and nail even though they are false or incomplete?
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.
He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
“Where is this man?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”
But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.
Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
“We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
John 9 NIV
For the record, I do not subscribe to the beliefs at the top.
