You have learned a lot of amazing things in these lessons. But here is an important question: how do you know if something is true? How do you tell the difference between a real fact and something someone just made up? This lesson gives you the tools.
Three Ways to Know Something Is True
When someone tells you something, how do you decide if it is true? There are three main tools:
1
Evidence. Evidence is anything you can see, touch, measure, or test. Fingerprints at a crime scene. Fossils in a rock. Ancient scrolls in a cave. When there is evidence, you do not have to just take someone's word for it. You can check for yourself.
2
Eyewitnesses. An eyewitness is someone who was actually there when something happened. If ten people all saw the same thing happen and they all tell the same story, that is strong evidence. That is how courts decide what is true.
3
Reasoning. Sometimes you can figure out the truth by thinking carefully. If the sidewalk is wet and there are no sprinklers on, and it was cloudy earlier, you can reason that it probably rained. You did not see the rain, but the clues point that way.
🌟 Wonder of the Day
Here is something cool: the Christian faith uses all three of these tools. There is physical evidence (archaeology, manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls). There are eyewitnesses (the people who saw Jesus alive, including 500 people at one time). And there is reasoning (the cosmological argument, the fine-tuning argument, the moral argument). Christianity does not just ask you to believe. It gives you reasons.
Watch Out for Tricks
Not everything people say is true, even if they sound confident. Here are some tricks to watch for:
1
"Everybody knows that..." Just because a lot of people believe something does not make it true. A long time ago, everybody "knew" the sun went around the earth. They were wrong. Always ask: what is the evidence?
2
"You're stupid if you believe that." Calling someone names is not an argument. It is just being mean. If someone cannot explain why you are wrong and can only make fun of you, they probably do not have a good answer.
3
"Science has proved..." Sometimes people say science has proved something when it actually has not. Always ask: which study? What did they actually find? Science is amazing, but people sometimes exaggerate what it has shown.
🎨 THINK ABOUT IT THIS WAY
The Detective. Imagine you are a detective trying to solve a mystery. You would not just believe the first person who walked in and told you what happened. You would look for evidence. You would talk to witnesses. You would think carefully about what makes sense. That is exactly what we have been doing in these lessons - looking at the evidence, listening to the witnesses, and thinking carefully about what it all means.
The Big Idea
Here is the most important thing: you should never believe something just because someone told you to. Not your friends. Not your teachers. Not even this website.
You should believe something because the evidence supports it. That is what these lessons have been about - giving you evidence so you can see for yourself.
And here is the good news: when you look at the evidence for Christianity - the beginning of the universe, the fine-tuning, the moral compass inside you, the manuscripts, the prophecies, the eyewitnesses, the resurrection - it is strong. Really strong. You are not believing in the dark. You are following the evidence where it leads.
Questions Kids Ask
🤔 QUESTION
"But I can't see God. How can I believe in something I can't see?"
💡 GREAT QUESTION!
You believe in lots of things you cannot see! You cannot see gravity, but you believe in it because you see its effects (things fall down). You cannot see love, but you know it is real because you feel it and see how people act when they love someone. You cannot see God directly, but you can see the effects of God everywhere: a universe that had a beginning, rules that are perfectly tuned, a moral compass inside every person, and a man named Jesus who changed the world.
📝 Quick Check
What are the three main ways to figure out if something is true?
💬 Talk About It With Your Family
Can you think of something you believe in that you cannot see? How do you know it is real?
Has anyone ever told you something that sounded true but turned out to be false? How did you find out?
Of all the evidence you have learned about in these lessons, which piece convinced you the most?