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“He’s a lover, not a train.’

“He’s a lover, not a train.’

Last updated on: August 12, 2026 at 5:56 pm by Dan Peterson

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“He’s a lover, not a train.’ 2026-08-12T17:56:06-06:00 Dan Peterson

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At the entrance to Fort Meade, Maryland (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Back on 8 July, I posted an entry on this blog — really, a guest entry — entitled “Remote Viewing 1.” It was written by Paul Smith, a retired Major in the United States Army who holds a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science and who is a veteran of the Army’s (and then the Defense Intelligence Agency’s) remote viewing program. That blog entry was the first of what I hope will be a number of guest posts from him on the subject, which I find quite interesting. In the meanwhile, Paul has now, just today, posted a number of answers to the comments that were made in response to that blog entry more than a month ago. I hope that those who are interested in the topic will click on the link above and have a look at his replies.

From a 2005 performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Tulane University (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

On Monday night, my wife and I took two second-generation units and two third-generation units to a performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Hale Centre Theatre (HCT) in Sandy. The 3GUs absolutely loved it. The HCT pulled out all the stops, with gymnasts dropping from the ceiling and all the rest, and with all of the natural show-stopping exuberance of the musical itself. I confess that I’ve never really been able to discern a point to the play beyond showing off the composer’s musical versatility and his gift for catchy melodies, but there’s no question that it provides its audiences a rollicking good time. And its tunes lodge themselves mercilessly in one’s mind. Today, for example, I find myself humming “I look handsome, I look smart. I am a walking work of art.” Which, of course, in my case anyway, is literally true. But it’s still maddening to have that melody coming back over and over and over again.

A view across part of Boston College toward the city’s center (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I’m often informed, not only by religious skeptics but, much more surprisingly, by Christian believers, that the Latter-day Saint notion of praying for a “testimony” of the truth or of receiving a “witness” from the Spirit of God is completely misguided. It is, some say, an appeal to merely subjective “feelings,” totally irrational, quite unbiblical, and so forth. (Latter-day Saints, for the record, don’t believe that a witness from the Spirit reflects merely one’s own internal feelings. But who cares what they have to say?)

At some point, I might jot down a few thoughts on the parallels between the Latter-day Saint way of thinking on this matter and that of, say, Alvin Plantinga with his “Reformed epistemology.” In the meanwhile, though, I was browsing the other day in Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2003). At the time that the Pocket Handbook was published, Peter Kreeft was a professor of philosophy at Boston College, and Ronald Tacelli was an associate professor of philosophy at the same school. That should perhaps suggest to you that, although they are expressly confining themselves in this particular book to what C. S. labelled “mere Christianity” (see page 12), both of the authors are Catholic, as in fact they are. Indeed, Ronald K. Tacelli, S. J., is a Jesuit priest.

Here are the concluding paragraphs of their little book:

This claim — that all seekers find — is testable by experience, by experiment. If you are an honest scientist, here is a way to find out whether Christianity is true or not. Perform the relevant experiment. To test the hypothesis that someone is behind the door, knock. To test the Christian hypothesis that Christ is behind the door, knock.

How do you knock? Pray! Tell Christ you are seeing the truth — seeking him, if he is the truth. Ask him to fulfill his promise that all who seek him will find him — in his own time, of course. He promised that you would find, but he didn’t promise a schedule. He’s a lover, not a train.

But, you may reply, I don’t know whether Christ is God; I don’t even know whether there is a God. That’s all right you can pray this prayer of the skeptic:

“God, I don’t know whether you even exist. I’m a skeptic. I doubt. I think you may be only a myth. But I’m not certain (at least not when I’m completely honest with myself). So if you do exist, and if you really did promise to reward all seekers, you must be hearing me now. So I hereby declare myself a seeker, a seeker of the truth, whatever it is and wherever it is. I want to know the truth and live the truth. If you are the truth, please help me.”

If Christianity is true, he will. Such a prayer constitutes a scientifically fair test of the Christian “hypothesis” — that is, if you do not put unfair restrictions on God, like demanding a miracle (your way, not his) or certainty by tomorrow (your time, not his). The demand that God act like your servant is hardly a scientifically fair test of the hypothesis that there is a God who is your King.

But all this King asks for at first is honesty, not faking a faith you do not have. Honesty is a choice of the will — the choice to seek the truth no matter what or where. This is the most momentous choice you can make. It is the choice of light over darkness, ultimately heaven over hell.

Honesty is infinitely more momentous than we often think. It is also much harder than we think. Our culture trivializes honesty into merely “sharing your feelings,” telling others about the state of your nerve endings . That’s not the opposite of dishonesty, it’s just the opposite of shame, or shyness. Shallow honesty seeks “sharing”; deep honesty seeks truth. Shallow honesty stands in the presence of others; deep honesty stands in the presence of God. (140-141)

Kreeft’s and Tacelli’s words seem to me a pretty good commentary on the promise given at the end of the Book of Mormon, with its notable insistence on sincerity and “real intent”:

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. (Moroni 10:4-5)

It also seems quite compatible with the methodology that is set out in Alma 32, where the prophet invites his audience to “experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe” (Alma 32:27).

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