Our modern day tithe supporters often times use an anecdotal evidence to convince their followers to give monetary tithes.
Anecdotal evidence is using an exception as an example.
For example, we often hear testimonies from modern day tithers that they started prospering or miracles started breaking out in their lives, ever since they started giving 10% of their income to their local church.
While these claims may be true, they should never be used to justify monetary tithes today. Many Christians do prosper and do experience miracles after setting aside a portion to the Lord. This is not because of God opening the windows of heaven according to Malachi 3. A number of Christians, when they decide to tie loose ends in their lives, sincerely repent, reconcile with others and also decide to give 10%. God sees their heart and blesses them. However this has nothing to do with God's approval of monetary tithing today nor establishes a theological truth.
Not all Christians who faithfully set aside 10% to their local church prosper nor experience financial miracles. A vast majority of them live in poverty and in need. Even Pastors (including prosperity preachers, with endless positive confessions) who do collect monetary tithes experience financial hardships.
Unsaved people who donate money to ungodly and evil causes also prosper, their businesses grow exponentially and live longer. Does that mean our Lord approves ungodly activities?
People from other religions also give huge sums of money to their preachers and religious institutions and testify that they have been experiencing financial prosperity. Does that make other so-called gods can also lead to salvation?
There are people who smoke, live longer than some non-smokers. Does that make smoking right, healthy and good for longer life?
If a man jumps from the top floor of a multi-storey building and survives, can that be used to persuade others to do likewise?
Therefore, Christians, do not be overcome by the emotions when you hear anecdotal testimonies. However, all Christians must set aside a portion to help the poor and needy instead of giving money to greedy preachers.
From Wikipedia:
Anecdotal evidence is evidence from anecdotes, i.e., evidence collected in a casual or informal manner and relying heavily or entirely on personal testimony. When compared to other types of evidence, anecdotal evidence is generally regarded as limited in value due to a number of potential weaknesses, but may be considered within the scope of scientific method as some anecdotal evidence can be both empirical and verifiable, e.g. in the use of case studies in medicine. Other anecdotal evidence, however, does not qualify as scientific evidence, because its nature prevents it from being investigated by the scientific method.
Where only one or a few anecdotes are presented, there is a larger chance that they may be unreliable due to cherry-picked or otherwise non-representative samples of typical cases. Similarly, psychologists have found that due to cognitive bias people are more likely to remember notable or unusual examples rather than typical examples.
Thus, even when accurate, anecdotal evidence is not necessarily representative of a typical experience. Accurate determination of whether an anecdote is "typical" requires statistical evidence. Misuse of anecdotal evidence is an informal fallacy and is sometimes referred to as the "person who" fallacy ("I know a person who..."; "I know of a case where..." etc.) which places undue weight on experiences of close peers which may not be typical.
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