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Must You Have Experience to Truly Know?
It is very common in today’s culture to argue that experience is the ultimate authority. However, as I have written before, not only is it foolish, but it is dangerous to elevate experience as the determiner of truth. Additionally, Christians need to be adamant that lack of experience does not prohibit one from having an opinion or even speaking authoritatively on an issue. The idea that experience is not the decisive argument is counter cultural. It is extremely common to hear arguments like, “You don’t know what it is like,” “You have not been there,” or “You are not like me, so you don’t know.” Whether it is a culturally sensitive issue, like the racial minority decrying whites for not understanding their oppression, or whether it is an individual issue, like someone describing his or her depression or anger; the belief that experience is what ultimately leads to understanding is…
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A Christian Critique of Personal Experience
Personal experience is currently regarded as the primary means of knowledge and truth in our culture. Whether it is the current issues of racism or LGBT rights, or it is something like biblical interpretation; personal experience is regularly elevated as the controlling determiner of truth. Take for example the following claims of experience: “Systemic racism must exist because I have experienced it.” “You cannot judge a transgender individual because you don’t have his experience. You don’t know what it’s like for him.” “I have had the experience of speaking in tongues; therefore, Scripture has to be interpreted to allow for speaking in tongues.” Now at the outset, I freely acknowledge the value of personal experience. Scripture clearly expects wisdom to be possessed by the mature because of their many days of experience (Job 12:12). Also, many of the Psalms are based on a response to personal experience. Further, our personal…