What You Will Learn
How presuppositions shape every argument you make
How circular reasoning may not be a problem after all
The difference between presuppositional and evidential apologetics
How worldview provides the foundation for logic itself
Why evaluating another worldview requires examining your own
Why borrowing tools from an opposing system is problematic
How Presuppositions Shape Every Argument You Make
A presupposition is an assumption one makes prior to reasoning. What this means is that you don’t prove something to be true first, but rather you assume something to be true in order to reason something else to be true. Another way to think about it is foundation. You don’t put your foundation on top of a house, rather you put it on the ground, and build up from there.
Each worldview comes with its own set of presuppositions, which are the things you assume to be true, or take for granted. Atheism presupposes that matter is the essence of reality, Christianity presupposes that God is the creator of all things, and Science presupposes that there are laws which govern the physical universe. It is important to understand that none of these have been proven, and so cannot serve as the foundation for proof.
The thing to understand is that you can’t reason about something if you don’t presuppose it. That is to say, it’s not a matter of if you have presuppositions, it’s a matter of knowing what they are.
Why Circular Reasoning Isn’t Always A Weakness
One criticism of presuppositional apologetics is that it uses circular reasoning to justify itself, for example by appealing to scripture to prove the bible is true. While this is a fair criticism of other forms of argumentation, it’s a bit of a straw man when applied to presuppositional apologetics. This is because circular reasoning occurs at the foundational level of reasoning itself.
If you presuppose that logic works, then you’re going to use logic to prove that logic works. If you presuppose that perception provides true information about reality, you’re going to use perception to prove that perception provides true information about reality. The thing with circular reasoning is that you’re doing it anyway, and at some point down the line, you’ve got to provide a justification for your foundation.
The thing about Christianity is that we have a foundation that supports the type of reasoning that supports Christianity. We know that God exists in part because of scripture, but we also know that scripture is true because God exists. We know God exists because of the universe, and we know the universe is the way it is because God made it that way. There’s a certain level of circular reasoning here, but it’s also completely coherent, and it’s the type of foundation that makes reasoning about anything possible
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The Difference Between Presuppositional And Evidential Apologetics
Evidence based apologetics are all about evidence. The idea is that there’s objective evidence that you can look at, and objectively analyze to reach an objective conclusion. The thing is, that type of reasoning always has a presupposition, and that is that there is an objective standard by which you can judge evidence.
Presuppositional apologists would respond by pointing out that there’s no objective standard by which to even judge the objectivity of evidence in the first place. To the extent that there is objective evidence for things like the beginning of the universe or the existence of consciousness, that evidence is interpreted through the lens of someone’s presuppositions. A materialist looks at the universe and sees matter, while a Christian looks at the universe and sees the handiwork of God.
The way that we know which one is right is by examining the coherence of each worldview as a whole. The problem is that most people aren’t really aware of what they presuppose in the first place, and so aren’t really aware of what it is they believe in the first place.
How Worldviews Provide The Foundation For Logic Itself
Another thing to consider is that logic, maths, and reason require a foundation. Why does maths work? Why is it that things can’t be both true and not true? Why should we trust our reasoning ability? Materialism has a really hard time answering these questions, because if it’s just matter, then you can’t really trust your mind to be reasoning correctly, because it’s just matter.
It’s Christianity’s claim to fame in a way, that we are made in the image of God, and therefore have reason because God has reason.
The Problem Of Borrowing Logical Tools From A System You Reject
The problem with being an atheist is that you can’t really use the tools of thought that Christianity has provided for you. The fact is that we live in a world where Christianity has created systems of thought that make reasoning about things much easier, and if there’s an argument to be made that’s more cogent, it’s by default a better argument to use.
Why Evaluating Another Worldview Requires Examining Your Own First
Before you can go and tear something down, you need a good grasp on why it was built in the first place. If you want to understand Christianity well enough to refute it, you need to know what it is that Christianity presupposes, and what it is that you presuppose.
What You Learned
Presuppositions are the foundation of everything we know
Circular reasoning is inherent to reasoning at a foundational level
Presuppositional apologetics examines the role worldviews play in reasoning
Worldviews must account for logic and reason in order to be coherent
It’s not possible to evaluate one worldview by another without first understanding the presuppositions of each
My Thoughts + Q&A
