THE ABSURDITY OF UNBELIEF

A Worldview Apologetic of the Christian Faith

Jeffrey D. Johnson

Agnostics and atheists have been making a lot of noise in recent years, in spite of the fact that
their belief systems are flawed. To counter their propaganda we need a flow of books exposing just how
flimsy their arguments are. Jeffrey Johnson has chosen the word absurdity to characterise these, and he
has chosen well. Chapter by chapter he strips unbelief of any vestige of credibility, then shows with
crystal clarity why the biblical case for God stands supreme when contrasted with all other philosophical
and religious belief systems. I predict that this book will be as great a help to many of its readers as it
has been to me, and I commend it warmly.
John Blanchard
Author of Does God Believe in Atheists?
*

The Bible doesnt merely state the atheists creed, it provides us with an assessment of that
creed: The fool has said in his heart, There is no God (Psalm 14:1). In his new book The Absurdity of
Unbelief, Jeffrey Johnson ably demonstrates that the Scripture writer isnt hurling insults or engaging in
ad hominem. Rather, as Johnson shows, the Bible is simply telling the truth. To reject the triune God of
Scripture and to replace him with a non-biblical worldview is self-defeating. How does Johnson defend
this thesis (and biblical claim)? First, he argues that human beliefs are not neutral but are in certain
ways biased and preconditioned. Next, Johnson proceeds, by means of reductio ad absurdum, to expose
the irrationality of the worlds major non-biblical philosophies and unbiblical religions. Finally, Johnson
carefully sets forth the arguments and lays out the evidence for the veracity of Christianity, and he
concludes with an earnest and humble appeal to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ, which alone can
restore true meaning to the world and wherein is found true wisdom from God. The Absurdity of Unbelief
will challenge the unbelievers skepticism and will confirm the believers faith. I highly recommend it!
Robert R. Gonzales Jr.
Author of Where Sin Abounds
*

Jeffrey Johnsons new book, The Absurdity of Unbelief, demonstrates the absurdity of most of the
worldviews which parade themselves as truth naturalism, relativism, atheism, existentialism,
pantheism, materialism, and the rest. He clearly examines the premises of each system of thought and
demonstrates their many contradictions. His scholarship and historical understanding of the entire field
of philosophy and the other so-called religions is evident throughout the book. He has done a masterful
job in showing that the Christian worldview is the only system that will meet all the tests of logic and
ethics. He concludes this excellent work with a passionate call to submit ourselves to the God of the
Scriptures who has given us His son, Jesus Christ, who will remove all of our sin and guilt. To trust in any
of the other philosophical or religious positions while refusing to accept Gods gracious offer of salvation
is indeed absurd!
Curtis C. Thomas
Author of Practical Wisdom for Pastors
*

A major strength of Jeffrey Johnsons Absurdity of Unbelief is its step-by-step systematic

approach. He explains what faith is (and is not), what factors drive us to adopt our beliefs, how to test

them, fatal difficulties on all systems of thought not built on the foundation of Christ, grounds for holding
to Christian theism, and a passionate call to faith in Jesus. Along the way he examines Christian and
non-Christian thinkers and movements both ancient and contemporary, demonstrating that the principles
underlying a biblical apologetic equally apply to all forms of unbelief. I plan on coming back to this book
again and again.
Joseph E. Torres
Editor and coauthor with John M. Frame, Apologetics: A Justification of Christian Belief, and blogger at
KINGDOMVIEW
*

As Christians struggle to hold onto a semblance of sanity in the midst of the collapse of Western
morality and thought, a sound foundation upon which to stand in explaining our unwillingness to bow the
knee to Caesar is a must. In The Absurdity of Unbelief, Jeffrey Johnson provides a clear and compelling
case for the Christian faith, readable and usable for believer and unbeliever alike.
James R. White
Director of Alpha and Omega Ministries

Copyright 2016 Jeffrey D. Johnson

All Rights Reserved.
All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the author to use or reproduce any part of
this book, except for brief quotations in critical review or articles.
Published by Free Grace Press, FreeGracePress.com
Cover design by Scott Schaller, ScottSchallerDesigns.com
eBook formatting by Jon J. Cardwell, EclecticCattleProds.com
Scripture is taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a
division of Good News Publishers. Used by Permission. All rights reserved.

To my brothers
James & Jason Johnson

Table of Contents
Preface
PART I. The Nature of Unbelief
1. Faith is Not Blind
Separating Reason from Faith
Conclusion
2. Faith is Not Subjectivity
Sren Kierkegaard
Immanuel Kant
Friedrich Schleiermacher
Karl Barth
Rudolf Bultmann
Paul Tillich
Gordon Kaufman
Conclusion
3. Faith is Not Irrational
Faith is Not Irrational
Faith Trusts God
Conclusion

PART II. What Shapes Beliefs

4. Shaped by Self-Interest
Man is Not Neutral
Mans Nature Controls His Values
Mans Nature Controls His Behavior
Mans Nature Controls His Emotions
Mans Nature Controls His Beliefs
Mans Nature Must Change or Beliefs Will Not Change
5. Shaped by Self-Evident Truths
Fair Play is Self-Evident
Logic is Self-Evident
God is Self-Evident
Conclusion
6. Shaped by Conscience
Why Knowledge is Possible
At War with God and Ourselves
Conclusion
7. Shaped by Our Worldview
Everyone Has a Worldview
Beliefs are Interconnected
Conclusion
8. Shaped by Three Ultimate Questions
Every System is Shaped by Three Fundamental Questions
1. What is Real?
2. How Do We Know?
3. Who Determines What is Right?
Conclusion
9. Shaped by Our Presuppositions
The Relationship between God, Knowledge, and Ethics
The Necessity of Presuppositions
The System Controls the Verdict
The Controlling Presupposition
Conclusion

PART III. How to Test Beliefs

10. Cohesiveness is Mandatory
The Veracity of Any System is Cohesiveness

We Must All Start Somewhere

Required to Remain Faithful
Conclusion

PART IV. The Irrationality of Unbelief

11. The Irrationality of Naturalism
The Irrationality of Materialism
The Irrationality of the Big Bang
Conclusion
12. The Irrationality of Evolution
Contrary to the Law of Biogenesis
Contrary to the Reproductive Principle
Contrary to the Irreducibly Complex Principle
Cannot Give Account for Consciousness
Not Supported by the Fossil Records
Evolution is Based in a Naturalistic Worldview, Not Science
Conclusion
13. The Irrationality of Empiricism & Determinism
The Irrationality of Empiricism
The Irrationality of Determinism
Conclusion
14. The Irrationality of Relativism & Nihilism
The Irrationality of Relativism
The Irrationality of Nihilism
Conclusion
15. The Irrationality of Existentialism
The Absurdity of Jaspers & Sartre
The Absurdity of Friedrich Nietzsche
The Absurdity of Existentialism
Conclusion
16. The Irrationality of Postmodernism
The Rise of Postmodernism
The Arrival of Postmodernism
The Despair of Postmodernism
Conclusion
17. The Irrationality of All Nontheistic Religions
The Absurdity of Impersonal-Supernaturalism
The Inconsistency of an Unknowable God
The Inconsistency of Confusing God with Nature
A Blind Unintelligent Force
Confounding Transcendence and Immanence
Conclusion
18. The Irrationality of Islam & Judaism
The Inconsistency of an Unjust God
The Inconsistency of a Monistic God
Conclusion
19. The Irrationality of Non-Trinitarian Religions
The Problem of the One and the Many
The Problem of Differentiation
The Problem of Movement
The Problem of Thought & Emotions
The Problem of Consciousness
The Problem of Divine Revelation
The Problem of Creation
The Problem of Transcendence and Immanence
Conclusion
20. The Irrationality of Unitarian Monotheism
The Solution for Differentiations

The Solution for Divine Revelation

The Solution for Thoughts & Emotions
The Solution for Relationships
The Solution for a Separate Universe
The Solution for God and Time
The Solution for Gods Transcendence and Immanence
Conclusion

PART V. The Grounds for Belief

21. Supported by Presuppositionalism
The Transcendental Argument
Conclusion
22. Supported by Cohesiveness
God is Good
God is All-Powerful
Compatibility
Conclusion
23. Supported by Reason & Evidence
Supported by Reason
Supported by Scientific Evidence
Conclusion
24. Supported by Historical Record
Conclusion
25. Supported by Experience
The Practicality of the Christian Worldview
Impossibility of a Total Rejection of the Christian Worldview
Conclusion
26. Supported by Revelation
Divine Works
Divine Words
Conclusion
27. Supported by Illumination
Divine Light
Divine Faith
Divine Love
Divine Knowledge
Conclusion

PART VI. The Call to Believe

28. The Gracious Call to Surrender
Guilt: A Universal Problem
Justice: A Universal Certainty
Forgiveness: A Universal Offer

Thank You For Reading!

Endnotes
1. Faith is Not Blind Endnotes
2. Faith is Not Subjectivity Endnotes
3. Faith is Not Irrational Endnotes
4. Shaped by Self-Interest Endnotes
5. Shaped by Self-Evident Truths Endnotes
6. Shaped by Conscience Endnotes
7. Shaped by Our Worldview Endnotes
8. Shaped by Three Ultimate Questions Endnotes
9. Shaped by Our Presuppositions Endnotes
10. Cohesiveness is Mandatory Endnotes
11. The Irrationality of Naturalism Endnotes
12. The Irrationality of Evolution Endnotes
13. The Irrationality of Empiricism & Determinism Endnotes

14. The Irrationality of Relativism & Nihilism Endnotes

15. The Irrationality of Existentialism Endnotes
16. The Irrationality of Postmodernism Endnotes
17. The Irrationality of All Nontheistic Religions Endnotes
18. The Irrationality of Islam & Judaism Endnotes
19. The Irrationality of Non-Trinitarian Religions Endnotes
20. The Irrationality of Unitarian Monotheism Endnotes
22. Supported by Cohesiveness Endnotes
23. Supported by Reason & Evidence Endnotes
24. Supported by Historical Record Endnotes
25. Supported by Experience Endnotes
26. Supported by Revelation Endnotes
27. Supported by Illumination Endnotes

Bibliography
Index of Names
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
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I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
V
W
Y
Z

Preface
One cannot deny logical and ethical absolutes without the use of the laws of logic and ethics in
the process. If some say they dont care about logic, then they might as well say that they are okay with
sounding absurd. Why would anyone want to take them seriously? If some do not care about being
ethical, then why would anyone want to trust them when they admit that lying is okay?
Without God, there is no meaning, no truth, no rationality, and no ethical standard. Because
without God and specifically the God of the Bible there is no foundation for logic or ethics to be
utilized in argumentation at all (as we shall see).
In other words, I dont believe in intellectual atheists anymore than I believe in relativists who
take relativism seriously. Sure, there are plenty who call themselves atheists, but deep down, they are
lying to themselves. Sure, there are plenty who hold to relativistic thinking, but this does not mean that
they truly think it is okay for others to cheat, defraud, exploit, or kill them. No matter how postmodern
and open-minded many may think they are, they cannot help but get incensed when others take
advantage of them. So, no, I dont believe in atheists or relativists.
Knowing this is a bold way to introduce a book on Christian apologetics, I would only challenge
you to try to remain honest with yourself as you read this book. If you happen to be a self-proclaimed
atheist, agnostic, or skeptic, see if you can be honest with your conscience and continue to deny the
existence of God.
I hope that all skeptics of Christianity read this book, not because I feel I have written the best
book on the subject, but because I am persuaded by the coherency of the Christian worldview that
Christianity is true. It is the only worldview that is intellectually and practically defensible, for it is the
only worldview that can give a coherent answer to why there are logical and ethical absolutes.
I write with certainty, but that does not mean this book is certain to bring any unbeliever away
from his or her unbelief. Even though I am convinced that Christianity is both right and defensible, I am
not convinced that this is enough to convince unbelieving skeptics.
The problem with unbelief, as I explain in PART 2, is not a lack of evidence or rational warrant;
unbelief is due to a lack of appreciation for the truth. Faith in Christ requires more than just intellectual
knowledge of Christ; it requires a love for Christ that comes only by the illumination of the Spirit (as we
shall see in chapter 26). This is something that goes beyond the reach of apologetics, for only God can
reveal Himself to us in such a way for us to be willing to sell all that we have and follow Him.
Though I cannot be certain this book will be of any eternal value for unbelievers, I can write with
the knowledge that apologetics is a great value to those who already love the Lord Jesus. In some ways,
apologetics is more helpful for believers than for non-believers. This may sound odd, since believers
already have faith in Christ, but just as the gospel is continuously beneficial for believers, Christian
apologetics is helpful in strengthening and encouraging the faith of those who already believe
especially if we have a biblical apologetic, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God
(Rom. 10:17).
My aim, though, is not to instruct the reader on how to carry out apologetics, or to discuss the
differences between the various apologetical approaches, but to carry out an apologetic. I am not simply
seeking to defend the Christian worldview from outside criticism, but to provide an offensive attack on

all forms of unbelief.

Because the Christian worldview is the only system of thought that is cohesively consistent with
itself, all other possible worldviews are inherently incoherent. It is not sufficient for an atheist or any
other skeptic to simply attack the walls of the Christian worldview. They must also defend their own
ground. They must protect their own presuppositions and belief systems.
My aim is to show that the castle of unbelief rests on quicksand, and the more unbelievers
struggle to defend their worldview, the more they sink under the weight of it. Atheism, deism,
naturalism, relativism, existentialism, pantheism, polytheism, and any other non-Christian ism, along
with Judaism and Islam, are incoherent and, thus, rationally indefensible.
So let us prepare to defend our own castles and see which worldview ultimately ends victorious.
Before we head into the battlefield though, I need to thank some very important people for their
assistance. None of us fight alone, and this book has definitely not been the effort of a single person.
I would like to begin by thanking Nathan Berry for his encouragement to remain in the battle.
Without his kind words the manuscript may have not made it out of the first draft. Thank you!
I would also like to thank Brandon Burks and Mike Cantrell for providing additional fortification
for this defense. With their background in theology and philosophy respectively, they were able to give
helpful feedback, which, no doubt, has improved the overall presentation of this work.
Robert Gonzales Jr. not only gave an endorsement, he took the time to read the manuscript
closely with editorial corrections. He went beyond being helpful. Thank you, brother.
Thom Cole has become a good friend through the process of writing this book. Thom, thank you
for all your help, but most of all, thank you for your genuine kindness and friendship. May our covenant
God bless you richly.
My blog partner and friend, Keith Throop, has been a major encouragement and blessing to me.
This book would not be in its present form without his sacrificial labors. Thank you!
Telling Kathy Bland thank you doesnt seem sufficient. She labored over this manuscript as if it
was her own. Not just running through it once, but she carefully worked through multiple drafts. Only
love could motivate someone to give so much. From my heart I would like to say, thank you Kathy!
I appreciate the keen eyes of my longtime friend, Greg Stevens. Thank you for proofreading this
work. I cant fully explain what your faithful testimony means to me. I am also blessed to be friends with
Nina Baker. Thank you, Nina, for your kindness and sweet disposition. May God bless you for helping me.
And though Jeffrey Homstad is a new friend, he is already a close friend. God has given you an amazing
gift thank you for using it to help improve the readability of this book.
Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude to Matt Millsap. I appreciate your wisdom and your
willingness to invest a bit of your time into this project. Thank you for allowing me to wear your ears out
on the subject. I am thankful to have been your pastor, and I pray the Lords continual blessing on you
and your wife, Katie.
My prayer is that this book would be used by God to challenge all forms of unbelief in the
believer and unbeliever alike. To Him be the glory!

PART I. The Nature of Unbelief

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of God.
Romans 10:17

1. Faith is Not Blind

In the name of Jesus! This was the declaration that darted out of the mouth of the misguided
driver as he closed his eyes and pulled out into heavy traffic. Some call this, taking a blind leap of
faith, which may partly be true the cab driver, while operating in his faith that no harm will come to
him, took an irrational and blind leap into traffic. What happens from here though, is that many then
go on to think faith, in general, requires a mindless leap into darkness. It is unfortunate that so many
believe this, when in fact, the opposite is true.
There are so many unbiblical views of faith that it has become hard to discern what real faith
looks like. One of the more common misconceptions is to think that faith is a knowledge that exists
between certainty and doubt. That faith is not full-fledged doubt, but it is not certainty either. If we were
certain, we wouldnt need faith to believe. In the words of Paul Tillich (1886-1965), one of the more
influential liberal theologians, Faith comprises both itself and the doubt of itself. [1.1]
Faith, as it goes, may not be completely irrational, but neither is it always supported by reason. In
the same way children are prone to believe in superstitions, such as UFOs, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness
monster, faith in God requires that we become like children and suspend our own better judgment. How
else could we be able to believe in the supernatural miracles of Christ if we dont take a leap of faith?
Are not the deity and resurrection of Christ a bit far-fetched? Its as if to say, I have no rational or
empirical reason to believe that this chair exists, and I am even less certain that this chair will be able to
hold up my weight; by faith, nevertheless, I am able to take a leap in the darkness and sit down.
Faith, according to this way of thinking, is blind. According to the atheist Richard Dawkins, faith is
blind trust in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence. [1.2] Or, if evidence or rationale
were needed, as some would say, then there would be no need to have faith. Faith is a leap into the
darkness, for this is what it means to walk by faith and not by sight.

Separating Reason from Faith

Much of the confusion, so it seems, centers on the relationship between faith and reason. From
those who preach that faith goes against reason to those who claim that faith is independent of reason,
there is a push to separate reason from faith.
An example of one who separated reason from faith is Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.
Dionysius was the most influential Christian mystic of the fifth century and likely throughout the Middle
Ages.
Dionysius built his mystical theology on the idea that God is ineffable (i.e., completely
unknowable). He claimed that God transcends all thought and is beyond any human comparisons: For if
all the branches of knowledge belong to things that have being, and if their limits have reference to the
existing world, then that which is beyond all Being must also be transcendent above all knowledge.
[1.3]
Dionysius went on to claim that there was no knowable concept that could properly describe
God. We must not then dare to speak, or indeed to form any conception, of the hidden super-essential
Godhead. Again, he said, The One which is beyond thought surpasses the apprehension of thought,
and the God which is beyond utterance surpasses the reach of words. [1.4]

Since God cannot be described using any meaningful language, it is best to understand God by
the things that He is not (Via Negativa, also known as apophatic theology). What is God not?
First, according to Dionysius, God is not a person. Man is a personal being; man is personal
because he can be distinguished from other persons. Personhood, therefore, is something that is finite,
something that is separate from the whole, and something that is distinguishable. God, however, is
infinite, simple, and absolute. God transcends all forms of separation; God is Unity. Thus, God is beyond
personhood; He is Super-Personal, as Dionysus often stated.
Second, according to Dionysus, since God is Unity, He is not even a conscious being. Why?
Because consciousness implies a state of thinking, and thinking implies self-awareness. Self-awareness
cannot happen without a thinking object making a distinction between His thoughts and that which is
being thought upon. Thus, there is a separation, at least in the mind, between the thinking subject and
the object of thought. With God, however, there can be no differentiation or divisions.
Third, as we move down the chain of nonsense, God does not even exist. In the words of
Dionysius: He neither was, nor will be, nor hath entered the life-process, nor is doing so, nor ever will,
or rather He doth not even exist.[1.5] Why? According to Dionysius the word existence implies a
distinction between that which exists and that which does not exist. God is beyond all distinctions. God
is Unity.
Fourth, Dionysius went so far as to undermine the foundation of his whole argument. The reason
why God is not a person, a conscious being, or even a being that exists, is that He is absolute Unity.
According to Dionysius, Unity is the one word that best depicted God. God is one, because He is simple,
He is without divisions or limitations. God transcends all boundaries.
According to Dionysius, even the word Unity comes infinitely short in defining God. Although the
word Unity might be the best human term to understand God, it remains inadequate in bringing us to any
true knowledge of the Unknowable. The term Unity fails in that it implies a distinction and separation
from that which is plural or divided. God is neither one nor many He transcends them both. Thus, God
(if He even can be called God at this point) is not even Unity. He is, as Dionysius claimed, Super-Unity.
So, in the end, God is beyond essence, consciousness, life, existence, and unity because He is absolute
and infinite. Yet, because God is ineffable, He is also beyond being absolute and infinite. God transcends
all human words, even the word transcendence.
If Dionysius is correct, what is left? Nothing. Dionysius, in an absurd way, would have us believe
in an unknowable God that does not even exist. Dionysius mystical negation greatly influenced the
medieval mystics, such as Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), and
Bonaventure (1221-1274). For instance, Bonaventure, in his book The Journey of the Mind to God, leaned
heavily on the writings of Dionysius. He began his book with these words:
Wherefore, Dionysius in his Mystical Theology, wishing to instruct us in these
transcendent workings of the soul, sets down prayer as the first conditionBy so praying we are
led to discern the degrees of the souls ascent to God. For, inasmuch as, in our present condition,
this universe of things is a ladder whereby we may ascend to God.[1.6]
How does one ascend to God? After contemplating what is revealed, one must begin
contemplating that which is not revealed:
Do thou, O friend, push on boldly to the mystic vision, abandon the work of the senses and

the operations of the reasoning faculty, leave aside all things visible and invisible, being and
nonbeing, and cleave as far as possible, and imperceptibly, to the unity of Him who transcends all
essences and all knowledge. [1.7]
A few years later, Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) explained the practical way of entering into
mystical experiences of mindless activity. He declared: Should [we] not pray, or read, or hear a
sermon? No!, answered Eckhart, You may be sure that perfect quiet and idleness is the best you can
do. Is it my place to be in the darkness? Eckhart responded, Yes, truly. You could do no better than to
go where it is dark, that is, unconsciousness. [1.8]

Conclusion
Dionysius and the mystics who followed him would have us place our faith in nothing. Mystical
theology removes our need to have faith in the God of the Bible. Faith in the truth claims of the Bible is
not needed. Why? Because God cannot be known by truth claims. The only thing that can connect us with
God, if He can be called God, is an unconscious, mystical experience. This is mysticism, and this is truly
a blind leap into the darkness.

2. Faith is Not Subjectivity

Rather than faith being a blind leap into the darkness, for others it is more of a subjective
experience that causes a person to embrace that which would otherwise be unbelievable. They believe
faith must either be the cause or effect of a supernatural encounter with the Divine, and that God may be
real, but you can only know for sure if you experience Him in some otherwise unbelievable way.

Sren Kierkegaard
We can see traces of such a notion of faith in the writings of Sren Kierkegaard (1813-1855).
Kierkegaard, the father of existentialism, had become outraged with the formalism of the Danish
National Church. The Church of Denmark was plagued with two problems. The first problem was that the
church was largely made up of nominal Christians. To receive a birth certificate, to receive a marriage
license, and to receive a burial plot in the church graveyard, a person had to be registered and baptized
in the church. This union between state and church may have enlarged the membership of the church,
but it also filled it with a roster of unbelievers. Though the Bible may have been preached and Luthers
catechism may have been memorized, personal and experiential faith in Christ was no longer required to
be a Christian. Kierkegaard was alarmed at the lack of experiential faith within the membership of the
church.
The second concern for Kierkegaard was the wave of rationalism that had swept across Germany
and Denmark. Rationalism had flooded the universities, and as the wave descended, it ended up seeping
into the church through the back door. The aftermath of the storm robbed the biblical text of all its
supernatural elements. From a rejection of Divine inspiration to a rejection of the recorded miracles, the
rationalism of German higher criticism had neutered the supernatural from the Bible altogether.
The concern for Kierkegaard was that without a supernatural religion, Christians were no longer
required to have a supernatural faith in a supernatural God. Non-believers were added to the state
church without faith, and they were never called to believe in a supernatural God thereafter. The church
seemed to have lost its faith altogether.

Immanuel Kant
How did this happen? In the generation that preceded Kierkegaard, theological professors and
pastors had been greatly influenced by the writings of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).
Kant believed that all knowledge begins with experience.
That all our knowledge begins with experience there can be no doubt. For how is it
possible that the faculty of cognition should be awakened into exercise otherwise than by means
of objects which affect our senses, and partly of themselves produce representations, partly
rouse our powers of understanding into activity, to compare, to connect, or to separate these, and
so to convert the raw material of our sensuous impressions into a knowledge of objects, which is
called experience? In respect of time, therefore, no knowledge of ours is antecedent to
experience, but begins with it. [2.1]
Knowledge begins with experience, but experience is restricted by the limitations of the senses.
For instance, our eyes can only see what they are capable of seeing; our ears can only hear the sound

waves that our ear drums are capable of detecting; our tongue can only taste that which the taste buds
are able to sense; our fingers can only feel the textures that our mechanoreceptors and muscle nerves
are capable of perceiving; and, our nose can only smell the aromas that can be sensed by our olfactory
receptors. What if there are other aromas, sights, and sounds that existed that we are incapable of
perceiving? Who is to say that reality does not consist of other dimensions and properties? Who is to say
that if we had a sixth sense, we would not ascertain additional knowledge of the universe? Each of the
five senses can only perceive according to their abilities, so who is to say that our senses are properly
and fully ascertaining what is real?
In addition to the limitations of the senses, before the incoming sensations are processed, sorted,
and cataloged by the mind, they are merely unorganized and indiscernible bits of stimuli. Like observing
the confusion of a 500-piece puzzle before its put together, bare sensations coming from the external
world make no sense without the mind processing and putting these disorderly pieces together.
Sensations need to be arranged and processed if knowledge is to be obtained. Though knowledge
begins by experience, experience alone does not supply us with knowledge. To construct knowledge, the
mind must supply the priori concepts of space and time to the incoming sensations. As modes of
perception, space and time are not observed by the senses, for they are not properties of the external
world. Space and time are concepts supplied by the mind to sense experiences. Only afterwards, when
the concepts of space and time are applied to sensations, do sensations become perceptions.
Yet, perceptions still do not classify as knowledge, for they still need additional processing.
Disjointed perceptions must be filtered and properly filed through the 12 categories of the understanding
(such as ideas of cause, unity, reciprocal relation, necessity, contingency, etc.) before they form
knowledge.
In short, only after sensations have been processed through the mental concepts of space and
time do they become perceptions, and only after perceptions are filtered through the categories of the
mind do they form knowledge. [2.2]
This implies that the mind is not a passive wax tablet that is waiting to be molded and shaped by
experience, but rather the mind is an active organ that coordinates and constructs the chaotic sensations
(that are gathered by sense experiences from the external world) into ideas. According to Kant, without
the mind thus supplying these priori concepts to experience, knowledge is impossible. [2.3]
But this has its consequences. This means that order and structure are concepts of the mind and
not of the world. The world, as far as we know, is without any order or structure. More importantly, this
means that the laws of nature (such as causality) are merely the laws of thought. The mind supplies
order to the world. In other words, the laws of nature are not in nature but are supplied by the mind.
Though knowledge originates from the external world, knowledge of the external world (as it is
in-and-of-itself) is unknowable. We cannot know the world as it is, but only as our minds interpret the
world. According to Kant, it is impossible to know reality as it really is; all we know for certain is our
perception of reality. Seeing that our internal perceptions are shaped and organized by the priori
categories, the external world remains locked behind an unassailable wall. We can only know, according
to Kant, the things as they appear to us, not as they are things-in-themselves. [2.4]
If Kant was right, then this wall (known as the transcendental wall) separating subjective
perception from objective reality changes everything. If objective objects of the universe, as things-in-

themselves, lie behind the transcendental wall, how much more does an invisible and immaterial God
remain unknowable?
Kant, oddly enough, remained religious, for he claimed that he found it necessary to deny the
knowledge of God in order to make room for faith in God. But faith in God is not based on any objective
knowledge. As Bryan Magee, in his book, The Story of Philosophy, concluded: he [Kant] demolished so
called proofs of the existence of God, and in doing so reduced to rubble much of the philosophizing of
centuriesSince Kant it has been accepted almost universally by serious thinkers that the existence of
God is not something that can be proved. [2.5]

Friedrich Schleiermacher
As you can imagine, the philosophy of Kant had a devastating effect on the church. One such
person who was influenced by Kant was Friedrich Schleiermacher (17681834), the father of Modern
Liberal Theology.
After Schleiermacher left his pietistic home and enrolled in the University of Halle, he began to
study the philosophy of Kant. In the process, Schleiermacher became increasingly skeptical of the
supernatural claims of Christianity. He eventually wrote home to his concerned father with these words:
Faith is the regalia of the Godhead, you say. Alas! dearest father, if you believe that
without this faith no one can attain to salvation in the next world, nor to tranquility in this and
such, I know, is your belief oh! then pray to God to grant it to me, for to me it is now lost. I
cannot believe that he who called himself the Son of Man was the true, eternal God; I cannot
believe that his death was a vicarious atonement. [2.6]
Schleiermacher, in part, bought into the philosophy of Kant. If God and ultimate reality, as thingsin-themselves, are locked behind a transcendental wall, then there can be no absolute knowledge of the
Divine. This means that the Bible could not have had a divine or supernatural origin. Consequently, once
the supernatural is removed from the pages of the Scriptures, then miracles, the deity of Christ, and
every other supernatural element must be removed as well.
Christianity can still operate without the supernatural because, according to Schleiermacher, the
heart of religion is a subjective experience. [2.7] The Bible is still important, not because it is
authoritative in what it says, but because it is a reliable expression of the religious experience(s) of the
ancient church. [2.8] On this humanistic foundation, Modern Liberal Theology flourished. Strangely,
however, Schleiermacher remained a professing Christian and even became an influential pastor. In the
process, he became one of the major contributors to Biblical Higher Criticism, which has had damaging
effects on the Church.
And this brings us back to the life of Kierkegaard. How was Kierkegaard to save Christianity from
a lack of belief in the supernatural? Is not Christianity destroyed when the supernatural is eliminated?
What good is a religion without a supernatural God? Kierkegaard knew that Christianity was supposed to
be more than a name; it was supposed to be a passionate faith. And with the idea that Christianity is
foremost an exercise of passionate faith, Kierkegaard devised a solution that could leap believers over
Kants transcendental wall. [2.9] His solution was not to defend the objective certainty of the historicity
of the Christian faith, but to stress the inwardness of a passionate faith.
According to Kierkegaard, God is the absolute paradox. He cannot be comprehended by human

reasoning, and is completely different from us, so any attempt to understand Him ends in failure.
When trying to explain God, Kierkegaard would augured, we cannot help but make Him in our own image
by erroneously ascribing human qualities to His nature.
God being paradoxical to human reasoning, according to Kierkegaard, does not mean that it is
irrational to believe in God. God being paradoxical, however, does mean that any human conception of
God leads to apparent absurdities or contradictions. This is especially true when we try to make sense of
the incarnation. From our finite perspective, it seems absurd that an infinite and timeless God can be
united to time and space in a human body. Though this may not be a formal contradiction, it goes beyond
the reach of reason.
But where reason comes short, Kierkegaard said, faith takes a leap. Faith transcends reason
and sense perception by providing an existential experience of God. Though reason and sense perception
are incapable of giving objective evidence of the supernatural, faith (as it is supernaturally wrought by
the Spirit) does not need logical reason or empirical proof to believe.
Though objective certainty is unobtainable, objective certainty is not needed for faith. For faith to
take a passionate leap, reason must set itself aside. According to Ronald Green, professor of religion
at Dartmouth, faith for Kierkegaard is a leap beyond knowledge, a leap into the absurd. [2.10]
However, Stephen Evans, a professor of philosophy at Baylor, reminds us that belief in the absurd is not
belief in a logical contraction, but belief in an apparent contradiction a paradox.[2.11] For instance, by
faith Abraham was willing to do something that, humanly speaking, appeared to be completely opposed
to reason all together. He was willing to follow God and sacrifice his son. But Abraham had faith,
Kierkegaard argued, and did not doubt. He believed the absurd.[2.12]
According to Kierkegaard, truth is subjectivity.[2.13] Only in subjectivity is there
decision.[2.14] Only in subjectivity can faith operate. Kierkegaard defined truth as an objective
uncertainty, held fast through appropriation with the most passionate inwardness.[2.15] Objective
uncertainty is what fuels faith: Without risk, no faith. Faith is the contradiction between the infinite
passion of the inwardness and the objective uncertainty. If I am able to apprehend God objectively, I do
not have faith; but because I cannot do this, I must have faith.[2.16] In other words, without doubt, faith
is non-existent. According to Kierkegaard, objectivity destroys faith.[2.17] But this is why faith is needed.
By passionate faith, believers can leap over the wall of rational doubt and firmly take hold of apparent
absurdities.

Karl Barth
Karl Barth (1886-1968), arguably the most influential theological thinker of the twentieth century,
agreed with Kierkegaard that the heart of faith is a subjective grasping hold of Christ. For Barth, Christ is
the objective Word of God. But what about the Bible? According to Barth, the Bible is authoritative not
because it is without human error, but because it gives testimony of Christ and the Holy Spirit may
choose to illuminate that testimony to our hearts. Barth claimed: Scripture is holy and the Word of God,
because by the Holy Spirit it became and will become to the Church a witness to divine revelation.[2.18]
In this sense, The Bible is Gods Word so far as God lets it be His Word, so far as God speaks through
it.[2.19]
Therefore, Barth did not view the historicity of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ as a
relevant question. Not that he denied the historicity of Christ, but that the answer was not germane to
faith. According to Barth, what is germane and important is for the Spirit to reveal Christ, who is the

Word of God, to our hearts.

It is not faith in a document but faith in a living person that saves. It is the moment that we
believe through the power of the Holy Spirit that the life, death, and resurrection of Christ effectually
means something to us. Thus, according to Barth, knowledge of God comes by experiencing a personal
relationship with Christ Jesus through faith.

Rudolf Bultmann
Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976) was even more radical in his attempt to separate faith from reality.
He agreed with Kierkegaard and Barth that the main concern in Christianity is faith in Christ, yet belief in
the historical Jesus was optional. In his demythology, Bultmann attempted to remove the apparent myths
from within the pages of Scripture.[2.20] It is the spiritual truth behind the story that matters, not the
historicity of the story. For Bultmann, the story of the resurrection is not a historical fact as much as it is
a symbolic story that captures the new life and hope believers have in Christ. He promotes that it is
existential faith in the message of the gospel (not belief in the historicity of the gospel) that saves
believers from a life of hopelessness and despair.

Paul Tillich
The theologian Paul Tillich (1886-1965), though, finally took existentialism to its logical
conclusion atheism. Like the mysticism of Dionysius, the existentialism of Tillich claimed that God (in
Himself) is unknowable. In his assessment of Tillichs theology, Carl Armbruster claimed that the most
fundamental statement Tillich makes about God is that he is being-itself.[2.21] Armbruster,
nevertheless, went on to say, Negatively, this means that God is not a being, not even the highest
being, alongside other beings.He is beyond essence and existence because as being-itself he does not
participate in nonbeing and finitude. He does not exist. That is, God goes beyond every possible
conception about God.
Though Tillich did not believe that God existed as an independent reality, the term God is still
useful. It is useful not because the term God communicates something real about this ultimate,
unknowable being, but that it symbolizes our ultimate concern. God is the fundamental symbol for what
concerns us ultimately.[2.22] In other words, the term God does not speak of some external reality, but
rather symbolizes that which internally controls us subjectively. If we dont like the term God, then Tillich
said we are free to exchange that term with any other term that expresses the depth of heart or the
ultimate concern of our life:
The name of this infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being is God. That
depth is what the word God means. And if that word has not much meaning for you, translate it,
and speak of the depths of your life, of what you take seriously without any reservation. Perhaps,
in order to do so, you must forget everything traditional that you have learned about God, perhaps
even that word itself. For if you know that God means depth, you know much about Him. You
cannot then call yourself an atheist or unbeliever.[2.23]
Therefore, as this quote above indicates, Tillich did not believe in atheists, for even atheists have
some concern that is ultimate for them. Faith in God consists of this ultimate concern. This ultimate
concern is not based on the reality of the existence of God, but on the fact that all men have an ultimate
concern.

Because our God is our ultimate concern, God has no ontological existence. He only exists within
our subjective thoughts. God is the name for mans ultimate concern. However, this is not to say that
there is first a supreme being who then obliges man to render the homage of ultimate concern.[2.24]
But according to Tillich, It means that whatever concerns a man ultimately becomes god for him, and
conversely, it means that man can be concerned ultimately only about that which is god for him.[2.25]
In other words, God does not demand faith, but our faith, according to Tillich, is a total and
centered act of the personal self, the act of unconditional, infinite, and ultimate concern.[2.26] In the
end, religion exists only because man exists. Therefore, even though Tillich argued against atheism, he
did not believe in a God that existed outside of the human mind.
In this sense, David Hume (1711-1776) was right when he said: Or how do you MYSTICS, [and I
would add existentialists] who maintain the absolute incomprehensibility of Deity, differ from sceptics or
atheists, who assert, that the first cause of ALL is unknown and unintelligible?[2.27]

Gordon Kaufman
The professor of divinity at Harvard Divinity School, Gordon Kaufman (1925-2011), weirdly enough
agreed with Hume:
The central problem of theological discourse, not shared with any other language game,
is the meaning of the term God. God raises special problems of meaning because it is a noun
which by definition refers to a reality transcendent of, and thus not locatable within, experience.
A new convert may wish to refer to the warm feeling in the heart to God, but God is hardly to be
identified with this emotion; the biblicists may regard the Bible as Gods Word; the moralist may
believe God speaks through mens consciences; the churchman may believe God is present
among his people but each of these would agree that God himself transcends the locus referred
to. As the Creator or Source of all that is, God is not to be identified with any particular finite
reality; as the proper object of ultimate loyalty or faith, God is to be distinguished from every
proximate or penultimate value or being. But if absolutely nothing within our experience can be
directly identified as that to which the term God properly refers, what meaning does or can the
word have?[2.28]
It is amazing that there are theologians who dont believe in God. Alvin Plantinga, former
president of the American Philosophical Association, spoke of his own bewilderment concerning this
phenomenon when he said that a theologian who does not believe in God is like a mountaineer for
whom it is an open question whether there are any mountains or a plumber agnostic about pipes: a
beguiling spectacle, but hard to take seriously.[2.29] Atheism, nevertheless, is the logical conclusion of
existentialism. If there is no objective and external reality for belief to attach itself to, then there ceases
to be any concrete warrant for belief.

Conclusion
In all this, we see the various attempts to separate faith from reality. Though there may not be
any objective evidence for the existence of God, this is definitely not a problem for those who think that
a subjective experience is all you need. I dont need evidence to believe, so they say. And if you ask
me why I believe in Christ, I would answer with the words of the hymn I Serve a Risen Savior. I believe
because He lives within my heart.[2.30] In this subjectivity, it is only a religious experience that can
bring faith a religious experience that, unfortunately, can simply not be understood by those who do

not believe. As Blaise Pascal claims: The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.[2.31]
Although Kierkegaard, Barth, Bultmann, and others have sought to divide, to at least some
degree, faith from reason, this is not what the Bible seeks to do. As we will see in the next chapter, faith
and reason are not at war with each other; faith in Christ Jesus is not detached from the logical truth
claims of the Bible. Rather, it is rooted in these objective and historical certainties.

3. Faith is Not Irrational

Scripture never separates faith from reality. Faith may believe in spiritual realities that transcend
our empirical senses, but God is not asking us to suspend logic or for us to believe in something that is
either irrational or unsubstantiated. He is not asking us to take a leap of faith into the darkness. If
anything, we are called to run to the light and build our life on the most solid foundation possible His
Word.

Faith is Not Irrational

Moreover, faith in Christ is not blind and irrational. We should not believe because it is absurd.
Faith is not a mixture of certainty and doubt. Faith is also not merely an existential and subjective
experience of the Divine.
The renowned French atheist Franois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), better known as Voltaire, was
mistaken when he said, Faith consists in believing not what seems true, but what seems false.[3.1]
And he was also wrong when he claimed, Faith consists in believing what reason does not believe.[3.2]
Faith is not, as Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) claimed, a desire to avoid knowing what is true.[3.3]
Richard Robinson (1902-1996) in An Atheists Values incorrectly described faith as belief reckless of
evidence and probability.[3.4] And George H. Smith could not have been more wrong when he bifurcated
reason and faith in his bestselling book Atheism: The Case Against God:
The conflict between reason and faith may be viewed as a struggle to control spheres of
influence. Since reason and faith cannot simultaneously reside over any given sphere, the dominance of
one requires the exclusion of the other. Once we see that a sphere for faith can be manufactured only at
the expense of reason, we can appreciate why the unknowable is a central tenant of theism and why
Christianity has found it necessary to declare war on reason.[3.5]
Though Voltaire, Nietzsche, Robinson, and Smith have declared war on faith, Christianity does not
declare war on reason. In fact, according to the Scriptures, to reject the God of Bible is an act of
irrationality and absurdity (Ps. 14:1). Faith is the only reasonable response to the truth. For instance, the
Apostle Paul asked for prayer to be protected from the irrationality of those who opposed the gospel,
Finally, brethren, pray for us that we may be delivered from unreasonable (, atopon)[3.6] and
wicked men. And the reason for their irrational behavior, Paul explains, is their lack of faith in Christ,
for all men have not faith (2 Thess. 3:1-2, KJV).
We are called to think rationally about the promises of God: Come now, let us reason together,
says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like
crimson, they shall become like wool (Isa. 1:18).[3.7] Rather than telling others that it is impossible for
them to know God until they take a leap of faith into the darkness, we are called to give a rational
defense to those who ask for a reason for the hope we have in Christ (1 Pet. 3:15). The object of faith,
according to Paul, is objectively true and rational (Acts 26:25).
It is true that we are often irrational. And because of the awareness of our own fallibility, we
should never elevate our human reason above divine revelation. The grounds of belief is not fallible
reason but Gods infallible Word. But even so, revealed truth is not and cannot be illogical.
Because faith is reasonable, the Reformed scholastic theologian Francis Turretin (1623-1687)
explained, though reason is not the principle upon which faith rests, it is the instrument of faith.[3.8]

Princeton theologian Charles Hodge (1797-1878) rightly stated: The assumption that reason and faith
are incompatible; that we must become irrational in order to become believers is, however it may be
intended, the language of infidelity; for faith in the irrational is of necessity itself irrational.[3.9]

Faith Trusts God

Though faith is not illogical, it trusts God even when it cannot fully make sense of all the data at
hand. When we seek the wisdom and expertise of a physician, it is not necessary for the doctor to
explain all the scientific details behind his diagnosis. Though an abbreviated explanation can be helpful,
were usually satisfied to take the physicians word for it. In this case, faith is not a leap into the
darkness, but a confidence in the wisdom and expertise of the physician. It is true that doctors are
occasionally wrong and second opinions are often warranted because the best of doctors are just mere
men; yet, if it is evident that God is God (perfect, all-knowing, all-wise, and all-powerful), then it would
be foolish and illogical for us not to trust His Word.
If we have faith in certain people, it is because we trust their wisdom and character. There are
certain people in my life that I trust my wife being one of them. I trust her. I dont need her to provide
evidence for everything she says; her proven fidelity is enough for me to trust her.
In the same way, God has given ample evidence for His faithfulness. In fact, if the evidence is
overwhelming, it becomes foolish on our part to continue to question Him. In this way, it was not a blind
leap of faith for Abraham and Sarah to believe God over the empirical evidence that they were too old to
have children. They trusted Gods Word because they were fully convinced that God was able to do
what he had promised (Rom. 4:21). God had already sufficiently proven Himself to them. Yes, humanly
speaking, it was impossible. Yet, the One who made the promise was God. And God, by definition, is able
to suspend the laws of nature.
In the same way, By faith, the Bible says, we understand that the universe was created by the
word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible (Heb. 11:3). Again, if there
is good reason to believe the God of the Bible, then it is reasonable to believe that He created the
universe out of nothing. In fact, as I hope to show in this book, a personal God creating everything out of
nothing is the only logical and self-consistent explanation of the origins of the universe.
If God is God, and if the Bible is His Word, then trusting the Bible is the only reasonable thing to
do. Trusting Gods Word is trusting in the veracity and trustworthiness of God. I, personally, have never
trusted in green leprechauns or in their silly promises. Not only is there no evidence of their existence, I
have no reason to believe, even if they did exist, that they would be trustworthy. Conversely, if the
evidence is overwhelming that the Bible is Gods Word and that God is fully trustworthy, as this book will
seek to demonstrate, then those who trust God will never be disappointed (Rom. 10:11).
Trusting God is the essence of saving faith. I have proven myself fallible. Since its common for
me to have errors in judgment, why then would I trust my own judgment over and above the judgment of
God? If God has proven Himself to be God, it is absurd for me not to trust Him.
It is self-verifying that every man-made philosophy has its origin in fallible and finite men.
Because of this faulty foundation, the philosophies of men cannot help but be inconsistent and everchanging. Moreover, as we shall see, the various explanations that man has sought to give for the origin,
nature, and purpose of the universe do not hold up under their own weight. Only Gods Word does not
contradict itself. As the following chapters will show, it is the only self-verifying testimony that is

cohesively consistent with itself. Why then would I trust in the wisdom of men over the wisdom of God?
If Gods Word proves itself faithful over and over, and if it provides us with the only consistent and
cohesive system of thought, then it is only rational to trust the God of the Bible.

Conclusion
Though Dionysius and Kierkegaard have (to one degree or another) separated faith from reason
(as we saw in chapters 1 and 2), the Bible never disjoins these two things. If rationality is impossible
without the truth claims of Christianity, then we must submit ourselves to them, or otherwise we are the
ones who become irrational. As we shall see, the Christian worldview is the only worldview that is
rationally consistent with itself. Unbelief, in all of its forms, is what is irrational.
All truth, if worked out to its logical end, leads to the God of the Bible. Though this sounds like a
huge leap of logic, its not. Something as seemingly simple as mathematics even, can only be cohesively
reasoned with presupposing the God of the Bible. In fact, all truth, wherever its found, only makes sense
in the Christian worldview. Only the Christian worldview can make sense of logic, mathematics, ethical
values, and our sensory experiences. Therefore, as I seek to show in this book, if we do not believe and
submit ourselves to the God of the Bible, then we will be knowingly and foolishly rejecting the truth in
order to hang onto a life of selfishness and the foolish notion of our own self-autonomy.

PART II. What Shapes Beliefs

When a mans folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD.
Proverbs 19:3

4. Shaped by Self-Interest
Lets buy it, dad! These words darted out of my mouth as soon as I saw the yellow truck with its
custom rims and ground effects. Immediately I could proudly see myself driving it to school. Not only was
it cool, but I couldnt believe it was in my price range. This could be mine, or so I thought.
My father responded with the dreaded but predictable words, We need to test drive it first.
Though this sounds only reasonable, you must realize that I was young and poor. My parents promised to
help me buy my first vehicle by doubling all the money I earned over the summer. I worked hard, but only
saved $900.00. And even back in the early nineties, you could not expect much for $1,800.00. The last
thing I wanted was some grandma wagon.
So when I saw this customized truck, I was ready to pull the trigger without any investigation. In
fact, I didnt want to test drive it, for deep down I knew it was too good to be true. If we happened to
discover its mechanical problems, I knew my father would stand in the way of me being cool.
You see, I thought if we bought it before we learned it needed repairs, though more money would
be needed to get the thing running, the most important thing would be accomplished I would have a
respectable looking ride to show off to all my friends.
The truth is, I didnt want to know the truth, for I assumed the truth would stand in the way of my
happiness.
As you can imagine, when we opened the hood, it was missing half of its engine. Yep, too good to
be true. I ended up with my dads old, brown, farm truck dependable but no ground effects.
I realize now that I was willing to overlook all the glaring red flags and knowingly do something
foolish because of my imprudent pride. My emotions, my pride, and my inverted values hindered my
judgment. I was not objective or rational because I did not want to be objective or rational.
Foolishness is living in opposition to what we know to be true. I am afraid this irrational condition
and manner of thinking is universally prevalent in all of us. We are not merely irrational every now and
then. Without God, we live in a state of irrationality.
Only irrational fools would consistently and practically deny that 2 + 2 = 4. Not only is the answer
to this equation a part of common sense, it is easily demonstrable and highly useful. If a postmodern
thinker practically rejects the absolute and universal principles of mathematics, he may applaud himself
for being consistent with his relativistic worldview, but in the process, his checkbook will be a total
mess. Regardless of what we claim we believe about the laws of math, we cannot live practically without
consistently submitting ourselves to them. For this and many other reasons, it is intellectually difficult to
deny the absolute and universal nature of mathematics.
The same is true concerning the truth of Scripture. Scripture does not merely provide a few
isolated, unrelated, and discounted truths; it gives us the only complete and cohesive worldview that
provides meaning and rationale to the universe. As this book seeks to demonstrate in PART 5, only by
presupposing the God of the Bible is ultimate truth possible.
Postmodern thinkers question 2 + 2 = 4. This is because without presupposing the God of the
Bible, there is no basis for universal or absolute truth. 2 + 2 = 4 is only true (universally and absolutely)

because God is true and has convincingly revealed Himself to all of us. Without the knowledge of God,
which we all have, we have no warrant for knowledge at all, such as 2 + 2 = 4. God is ultimate reality,
and God is ultimate truth. Because God is ultimate, rather than seeking to justify knowledge based
merely on human reason or human experiences, we must have knowledge of God to justify knowledge of
everything else. Without knowledge of God, knowledge itself is impossible. In other words, without the
God of the Bible, nothing makes sense in the grand scheme of things. As the Psalmist says, In your light
we see light (Ps. 36:9).
If the Bible provides us with the only cohesive system of thought that allows us to properly
interpret all of reality, why is it so hated and rejected by so many? If the truth claims of the Bible are
logically demonstrable, why is it so despised and ridiculed by some of the brightest and smartest minds?
The truth is, that if people loved the truth, they wouldnt reject the truth. Or, as British historian Malcolm
Muggeridge famously said: People do not believe lies because they have to, but because they want to.
The problem is not that the truth is irrational; the problem is that fallen man is not without his
personal biases and foolish pride. As we shall see in this chapter, people are self-centered by nature,
and their self-centeredness is the controlling influence in how they feel, think, and behave (Rom. 1:18,
25).

Man is Not Neutral

The Bible describes this as depravity. Depravity is an inner heart condition that prevents us from
loving any truth that is in opposition to our internal desire to be independent, free, and self-governing.
Because we are born depraved, with a fallen nature, we hate the God of the Bible. We can, though, love
a god of our own imagination a god we can control. If we want to go to heaven, then we can work our
way there. If we want to go to hell and hang out with our drinking buddies, then that is fine too. But to
lovingly submit every detail of our lives, including our aspirations, thoughts, and beliefs to the absolute,
sovereign God is not enticing in the least.
The Bible claims, however, that the entire universe and every individual person within it are made
for the glory of God. This design not only determines our intended purpose, but it demands how we
should think, feel, and live. In other words, we are not made for ourselves. Yet, we do not naturally want
to be confined to such a sacrificial lifestyle, and even less do we want our sin, shame, and guilt to be
fully exposed. This is what the Bible does, however. The Bible defines our lives and exposes our sin and
guilt. This personal rebuke and criticism is too much to accept by those of us who love ourselves. Those
of us who desire to cover up our sins to establish our own purpose and control our own dreams will reject
any truth that endangers these objectives. It is not that we are incapable of understanding the truth;
without the grace of God, we simply do not appreciate it.
For this reason, it is a false notion to think that our beliefs, opinions, and judgments are
determined merely by the facts. When the facts oppose us, we will oppose the facts. Absolute objectivity
is impossible for sinful and self-loving individuals. Only computers and machines are completely neutral.
This is because computers do not care one way or another about the truth. As much as I like my new
iMac, it could care less about me. As smart as it may be, it is void of any emotions and feelings. If I do
a web search for Adolf Hitler or for Jesus Christ, my computer remains indifferent. It simply does not
have a judgment or opinion on such things.
This is not true, however, with emotional people. People have an opinion on almost everything,
especially on those things that relate to and affect their personal lives. Most people could care less
about the fact that George Washington was the first President of the United States of America. Most

people will accept this historical fact with little to no evidence. Who cares, for how does that affect my
day to day life? Yet, when something touches us directly or indirectly, all of a sudden we will show great
interest and concern. Bring up religion, politics, gun control, abortion, sexual orientation, George Bush,
Obama, and other such heated topics, and all of a sudden people get testy. If there is one subject we all
have a heavy and emotional investment in, it would be the grand subject of me, myself, and I.
Just as we naturally seek to avoid physical pain and gravitate towards physical pleasure, we all
hate to be criticized, rebuked, and shamed. We love to be recognized, praised, and honored. This
tendency makes it easier to embrace that which is personally beneficial and harder to accept that which
is personally detrimental. If you tell me I am brilliant, I will not put up an argument, even if there is no
supporting evidence. But if you tell me I am not the sharpest tool in the woodshed, I will become angry,
even if it is evident to all.
Richard Swinburne, emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford, recognizes that
humans, such as ourselves, are creatures of limited intelligence and notoriously liable to hide from
themselves conclusions which seem to stare them in the face when those conclusions are
unwelcome.[4.1]
I have sadly seen this first hand. In High School, one of my friends committed suicide. No one saw
this coming, especially the boys mother. I knew denial was one of the steps of grieving, but
I didnt realize how strong this emotion could be. At the graveside, the mother of this boy threw herself
on top of the casket and began to shake it rapidly while crying out, Wake up, wake up, wake up!
Everyone else stood silent. Reality was bitter, and in that moment it was too hard for this mother to
accept. She, for the time being, would not allow herself to believe her only child was about to be buried.
Though the evidence was overwhelming, it was not enough to convince her of something she did not
want to believe. Because she loved her son, she did not love the truth. In this way, none of us are
neutral.

Mans Nature Controls His Values

We cannot help but have something we love the most. And whatever we love the most will, in
turn, determine what we hate and loathe. If we love darkness, then we will hate the light. If we love
pleasure, then we will hate pain. If we love ourselves, then we will hate our enemies. This dichotomy is
unavoidable. With this in mind, everything falls into a sliding scale from the object of our greatest
affection to the object of our deepest hatred, with everything else in between. This scale is our value
system. The things we appreciate and love form our values, and this value system determines our morals
and ethical behavior.
This is because the object we love the most becomes our god what we serve and worship.
Whatever we love the most will control our thinking, emotions, and behavior. It will control us, and we
will willingly bow down to it. For instance, lets say you loved baseball more than life itself. Your love for
baseball would not only shape your opinion about baseball, it would control your life. If baseball was
your greatest love, then it would shape how you spent your time and money, it would influence your
friendships, and it would shape almost everything else in your life. This does not mean
you wouldnt enjoy other things unrelated to baseball, but it does mean those unrelated things would be
subjugated to your principle concern baseball. Your love for baseball would be the ruling principle
behind everything you thought and did. No doubt it would be a willing enslavement, but an enslavement
it would be.

Mans Nature Controls His Behavior

With this in mind, as I have already pointed out, the Bible authoritatively teaches that which is
clearly evident from our own personal observation and inward experience, namely that our chief object of
affection is self. Without Gods grace, we make ourselves the center of our thoughts and activities.
It is hard to deny that human nature is selfish. Infants are born not thinking about their mothers
but themselves. Children do not have to be taught to covet and fight over toys. The history of the world is
full of strife, bloodshed, and exploitation. Man may give himself to various pleasures and hobbies (such
as baseball), materialism, and the pursuit of power and fame, but all these things are rooted in a love for
self. When laws, restraints, oversight, and accountability are removed, our hearts do not naturally move
upward. As dumbbells naturally fall to the ground, we also naturally place our own needs and happiness
above the needs and happiness of others.
Thankfully, not all of us want to be as bad as Hitler, but without the power of God, none of us will
love God more than we love ourselves. We may have a desire to be good, but this love of self will always
control the motive behind our seemingly good actions. We may have a love for God, but not a love for
God that is greater than our love for ourselves. And whatever appears to be good, if done for selfish
reasons, falls short of the glory of God and is classified as sinful.
Thus, selfishness is the controlling influence behind mans behavior. In other words, the problem
behind sinful behavior and irrational thinking is mans depraved, selfish heart. As the Scripture claims:
Because of the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life
of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart (Eph. 4:17-18). As a
result, the sinful heart is the heart of mans problem.

Mans Nature Controls His Emotions

This sinful heart also controls fallen mans emotions. It is a false but common notion to think that
we are not responsible for our emotions. We often speak as if our emotions are alien creatures that
attack us from the outside, as if they are outside of our control. I cant help the way I feel. You would
feel the same way if this had happened to you. I couldnt help that I fell in love with her. You cant
help who you love. How could my emotions not be affected if I learn something bad had happened to
my mother, or if I hear that my rich uncle was about to give me a million dollars? Of course my
emotional ups and downs are a result of factors outside of my control. I am a victim of my own
emotions. I am a victim of my circumstances. I am an emotional person. I cant help it. With such
common statements as these, people would have us believe their emotions are not derived from within
themselves but from their external circumstances.
Such excuses eliminate the responsibility to control our emotions. Emotional problems are not
like cancer; they are not diseases that attack us without our permission. We are not innocent victims of
our own emotions. Emotions are not alien forces that are caused by our ever-changing circumstances.
Rather, we are responsible for our emotions. We are responsible for loving that which is good and hating
that which is bad. Jesus Christ made it clear in the Sermon on the Mount that we are not only responsible
for how we outwardly behave, but also for how we inwardly feel.
It is true that our emotions are connected to our circumstances. It is not true, however, that our
emotions are controlled by our circumstances. Rather, our emotions are controlled by our values (i.e., the
things that we love and hate). Because I love my mom, it would deeply sadden me if I learned something

bad had happened to her. How distressed would I feel? It all depends on the level and degree of love
that I have for my mother. Because I value money, I would naturally rejoice to learn that my rich uncle
was going to endow me with a million dollars. It is not that our emotions are controlled by the
uncontrolled changes in our environment, but rather it is our pre-established values that control how we
emotionally respond to the uncontrolled changes in our circumstances. This means our ever-changing
circumstances expose our true nature and our personal values.
If we have emotional problems and all of fallen humanity does it is because we have our
priorities and values out of place. Emotional problems are a direct result of a heart problem. As a bad
tree always produces bad fruit, so a wicked heart will always produce wicked thoughts, feelings, and
behavior. A selfish lifestyle that is consumed with satisfying felt needs and gratifying moment-tomoment expectations will no doubt result in an unstable emotional life. Our emotions are a reflection of
our values and of our nature.

Mans Nature Controls His Beliefs

This heart problem, which produces various emotional problems, is the reason why sinners do not
believe the truth. It is not that the Bible lacks credibility or is incomprehensible; it is that man values
himself more than he values the Word of God. That is, fallen man has a fallen and inverted value system.
Rather than God being mans chief affection, fallen man has placed himself in that spot. To believe the
truth, man must warmly embrace the truth, and this requires submitting to God. Submitting to God is hard
because it requires the dethroning of self. But this brings us back to the heart of the problem man is
willingly enslaved to his own selfishness.
Selfishness is blinding. What people do not love, people will not willingly embrace. If they do not
have ears to hear, it is because they do not want to hear. By nature, unbelievers are enslaved to their
own fleshly passions. Because of this, unbelievers love darkness rather than the light (John 3:19). They
will naturally resist and suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18) because they take pleasure
in unrighteousness (2 Thess. 2:12).
Thus, the knowledge of God is viewed as a threat to their desire to live for themselves. As R. C.
Sproul, the chairman of Ligonier Ministries, remarked: God manifests a threat to mans moral standards,
a threat to his quest for autonomy, and a threat to his desire for concealment.[4.2]
A lack of faith does not come from a lack of rational and credible evidence, it comes from a fallen
heart that is enslaved to its own selfish desires. The French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
understood this when he stated: Those who do not love the truth take as a pretext that it is disputed,
and that a multitude deny it. And so their error arises only from this, that they do not love either truth or
charity.[4.3]

Mans Nature Must Change or Beliefs Will Not Change

For this reason, neither logic nor evidence can change our hearts. Denial and hatred of Gods
Word will cause even the most intellectual and brilliant people to become fools. As the Scriptures say,
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became
futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools
(Rom. 1:21-22). And the fool has said in his heart, there is no God (Ps. 53:1).
It is not as if unbelievers need more empirical evidence to convince them of the truth, for even if

they saw a man raised from the dead, the Bible says they would still stubbornly hold on to their sins and
reject the truth (Luke 16:31). The only thing that can produce faith in Christ is a heart transplant. Sinners
must be born again. They must have the love of God poured into their dead hearts before they will
willingly repent of their sins and run to Christ Jesus for forgiveness. Sin must be hated and Christ must be
loved before sinners will embrace the gospel. Pascal understood this as well:
Do not wonder to see simple people believe without reasoning. God imparts to them love
of Him and hatred of self. He inclines their hearts to believe. Men will never believe with a saving
and real faith, unless God inclines their heart; and they will believe as soon as He inclines it.[4.4]
Though faith in Christ is not blind, illogical, or without empirical evidences, it does go against
ones self-centeredness. You must bow in submission to accept Christ as Lord (Rom. 14:11); and this is
the difficulty. Your rejection and denial of the truth is not because you lack evidence, it is because you
love yourselves and your sins more than you love the Christ who came to die for sinners such as you.

5. Shaped by Self-Evident Truths

Why did Esau sell his birthright for a bowl of soup? What a foolish thing to do. Esaus father,
Isaac, was likely the richest man alive, and as his firstborn, Esau was in line to inherit everything. The
problem, however, was Esau had become hungry very hungry. Starved after a long day of hunting, he
reasoned that his inheritance would be useless if he happened to die of hunger. I must eat or I will die,
so he thought to himself. He was willing to give up everything for a bowl of beans. His present appetite
was more important than his future glory. Of course, afterwards, this foolish transaction eventually led
Esau to weep bitterly with a guilty conscience (Heb. 12:16).
We have all been guilty of trading in future benefits for a few moments of pleasure. Who has not
made mistakes? To err is human, right?
I remember being willing to sell my soul for a game of freeze-tag. I look back and think to myself,
What was I thinking? When I was around 12, I felt inwardly convicted when I heard the gospel of Christ.
As a preachers kid, it was not the first time I heard the gospel, but it was one of the few times the
gospel brought conviction on me. I was reminded of the good news that God was willing to forgive my
sins. I had the answer to my guilt. Though I knew Christ was the only answer, there was something more
important to me than my eternal welfare a silly game. In the midst of contemplating my sins, guilt,
shame, and the free offer of the gospel, a few friends approached and invited me to come join them in a
game of freeze-tag. I remember feeling conflicted as I wanted to be saved from my sins, but I did not
want to disappoint my friends. Sadly, I thought to myself, salvation can wait. I was not willing to
surrender control of my life to God. I loved the pleasures of this world more than I loved Christ. I hated
my sins but not enough to forsake them. It was evident that I feared man more than I feared God. All it
took for me to forfeit eternal life was a silly game of freeze-tag. It is one thing when our irresponsibility
affects this present life, but quite another to turn our backs on Christ and forfeit our souls for eternity.
As with Esau, my foolishness only added to my already guilty conscience. Shame, of course,
comes from doing something we know is foolish and irrational. Because we have all acted irrationally,
we all know what guilt feels like. Conversely, because we all experience a guilty conscience, it is evident
that we all know the difference between right and wrong. Yet, sin is irrational. It is contrary to what is
reasonable and good. Because we know better, a guilty conscience is unavoidable.

Fair Play is Self-Evident

If you have forgotten what guilt feels like, just take a few moments to remember all the shameful
things you have done in your past. If you have ever tried covering up something that you have done, you
have known guilt. Open the closet and look at all those ugly skeletons. Be honest. Would you want all
those memories broadcasted on national television? The fact that we try to lock those disgraceful
moments up with the chains of a million excuses and seek to forget them is evidence that we have a
guilty conscience.
Stop reading for a moment and pull up that one ugly memory that embarrasses you. You may have
to dig a bit because we have an uncanny way of covering up, suppressing, and justifying our shame. Got
it? Now ask yourself, Why does this make me feel so dirty and guilty? Why do I want to keep this hidden
from others? Where does this guilt come from?
A guilty conscience is a hard thing to overcome. We all have one, but where did it come from?

Why do we so often feel guilty? Can guilt be caused merely by an abstract code of morality? Is guilt just
a byproduct of social constructs, political correctness, and parental instruction? Was Edward O. Wilson,
professor of entomology at Harvard, right when he claimed: Human emotional responses and the more
general ethical practices based on them have been programmed to a substantial degree by natural
selection over thousands of generations?[5.1] Did morality evolve? Is the knowledge of right and wrong
only relative?
C. S. Lewis, a former atheist, argued against such a notion. According to Lewis, because we judge
people, cultures, and ourselves, we believe that there is a universal law of fair play. He said this higher
court is evident when two people quarrel:
Quarreling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. And there would be
no sense in trying to do that unless you and he had some sort of agreement as to what Right and
Wrong are; just as there would be no sense in saying that a footballer had committed a foul
unless there was some agreement about the rules of football.[5.2]
By saying, Thats not fair, we are not merely saying that the offense we are complaining about
does not please me. We are saying that the offense is contrary to the universal rule of fair play. We are
saying that the other person is wrong because he knows better. It is one thing when someone takes the
seat you wanted at the theater because he got there first, but it is quite another thing when returning
from the restroom, you discover your jacket has been relocated and that a stranger is sitting in the seat
that you had reserved for yourself. The first incident is inconvenient. The second incident clearly goes
against fair play. But why is someone stealing your seat not fair? Who says that this seat-thief should
know better?
When people are confronted with violating the standard of fair play, most often, Lewis says, they
do not argue against the standard. They dont typically say, Who says I cant be selfish and exploit
others for my own personal benefit? Can you imagine anyone ever sincerely saying, The golden rule
(do unto others as you would have them do to you) is wrong? Rather than denying the objective and
binding nature of the universal law of fair play, violators often claim that they did not go against the
standard. If not that, they construct some special excuse or circumstance that happens to exempt them
from the moral obligation to follow the rule of fair play. In other words, people caught in a transgression
typically do not argue against the law but deny, justify, or excuse themselves.
Moreover, if we say that the law of fair play is only a cultural construct, then we have no right to
judge or criticize other cultures for their crimes against humanity. This is evident, says Lewis,
The moment you say that one set of moral ideas can be better than another, you are, in
fact, measuring them both by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more
nearly than the other. But the standard that measures two things is something different from
either. You are, in fact, comparing them both with some Real Morality, admitting that there is
such a thing as real Right, independent of what people think, and some peoples ideas get nearer
to that real Right than others. Or put it this way. If your moral ideas can be truer, and those of the
Nazis less true, there must be something some Real Morality for them to be true about.[5.3]
He went on to state that, although other civilizations in different ages might have had subtle
differences in cultural expectations, no civilization has ever believed that selfishness is honorable:
Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man

felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well
try to imagine a country where two and two made five. Men have differed as regards to what
people you ought to be unselfish to whether it was only your own family, or your fellow
countrymen, or everyone. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first.
Selfishness has never been admired.[5.4]
Self-centeredness is the heart of all sinful behavior. The moral law prohibits selfishness. Each of
the Ten Commandments prohibit a different expression of selfishness and can be summed up with the
one word that is antithetical to selfishness love (Rom. 13:9-10). According to Scripture, love is patient,
kind, sacrificially giving, and does not seek its own interest (1 Cor. 13:4-5). We know intuitively that we
ought to love others and restrain from selfishness. At least it is intuitive that we dont want others to
exploit us for their own advantages. For this reason, guilt does not come from breaking some abstract
principle of living, but from injuring another individual.
According to the Bible, we know right from wrong because the law of God is written on our hearts
(Rom. 2:15). If we did not instinctively know right from wrong, we would not constantly be justifying,
condemning, or excusing ourselves in the things we think, feel, and do (Rom. 2:14-15). There is no
reason to make excuses if there is no such thing as the standard of fair play or if that standard was not
rooted in a personal God. We are either condemning or justifying ourselves in the things that we do
(Rom. 2:15). It is self-evident that we all know right from wrong because we are either proud or
disappointed with ourselves. If there was not a standard of fair play, we would neither feel guilty nor
proud. But, because we know better, our irrationality is inexcusable.
In addition, we all stand in approval of the standard of fair play. I have not met a sane person
who knowingly or willfully wants to be mistreated, taken advantage of, or exploited. With few
exceptions, people agree that love is better than selfishness. The problem is not that there is a standard,
but that we do not fulfill its requirements.
Selfish behavior has introduced us to self-condemnation. Thus, guilt is part of the human
condition. If we deny this, we only incur more guilt because we know that we are lying to ourselves. That
is, if we are honest with ourselves, we cannot deny our shame and guilt. Though there is no empirical
proof for ethical distinctions, we cannot rid ourselves of the external standard. By showing how we ought
to behave, the law reveals how often we fall short of its obligations.
Some truths, such as the law of fair play, are self-evident, which means that some truths are
accepted without proof. In fact, none of us, including atheists, can prove everything that we believe.
There are certain truths that we all naturally take for granted.
For instance, it is nonsensical to think we only believe ideas that can be proven true. If everything
had to be proven through reason or experience, then nothing could be proven. If evidence were needed
for every proposition that we believed, then we would need to believe infinitely more propositions. Even
if we had enough time to answer an infinite regression[5.5] of questions, we would be forced to admit
that our inability to find any ultimate truth leaves us without warrant for any of our beliefs. Even the
committed evidentialist Antony Flew conceded that every system of explanation must start
somewhere.So inevitably, all such systems include at least some fundamentals that are not themselves
explained.[5.6]
Thankfully, there are such things as self-evident truths. Self-evident truths testify of their
truthfulness without needing any extra confirmation, demonstration, or proof. 2 + 2 = 4 and no man is

both married and unmarried are examples of self-evident truths. We dont have to travel to the end of a
bottomless pit and answer an infinite regression of questions, for we can construct and anchor our
knowledge on self-evident truths.
We call these self-evident truths, such as the law of fair play, axioms. An axiom is a premise or
starting point that is taken for granted before acquiring any additional knowledge. Axioms are selfevident beliefs that anchor the rest our beliefs.

Logic is Self-Evident
Another axiom is the law of non-contradiction. For instance, the law of non-contradiction cannot
be proven one way or the other. It states that something cannot be entirely true and entirely false at the
same time and in the same sense. That is, an elephant painted entirely pink cannot also be at the same
time be painted entirely blue. This would be a contradiction. Though we all know this to be true, we
cannot prove it. Using logic to prove the law would be a form of circular reasoning, since we would have
to assume that which we want to prove. The law of non-contradiction also cannot be proven by sense
experience seeing that immaterial laws, such as the laws of logic, cannot be examined or tested by the
scientific method. Yet, without the use of the law of non-contradiction, both deductive reasoning and
inductive scientific experiments are impossible. So, if you believe in the law of non-contradiction, then
you believe in something that cannot be proven to be true. This self-evident axiom must be taken for
granted before any other knowledge can be obtained.
Moreover, those who are foolish enough to try and deny the law of non-contradiction end up
contradicting themselves in the process. Without the law of non-contradiction, a positive or negative
statement can be entirely true and entirely false at the same time and in the same sense. If that were
the case, words and propositional statements would mean nothing. Furthermore, to deny the laws of
logic is to use a logic that is irrational. Thus, to deny the laws of logic is to argue in a self-referentially
absurd manner.
Those who intellectually reject the absolute and universal nature of logic declare themselves
fools from the very start. Thankfully, these absurd thinkers do not carry out their beliefs in the real world.
They still drive on the right side of the road as they seek to avoid on-coming traffic. Those who
intellectually deny the laws of logic prove themselves either ridiculously absurd or blatant liars. If you
happen to meet such a person, who stubbornly refuses to play by the rules, the prudent thing to do is
simply walk away.

God is Self-Evident
Self-evident truths, such as the law of fair play and the law of non-contradiction, must be
accepted before we can rationally believe anything else. With this in mind, the biblical worldview offers
three basic truths that are necessary to a cohesive system of thought. These truths are logic, moral
distinctions, and God.[5.7] These things are inherent because they are necessary conditions
preprogrammed within our thinking so that we can construct meaningful thought and cognitive beliefs as
we interact with the external world.[5.8]
Yes, the knowledge of God is an inherent belief.[5.9] Inwardly, we all know this to be true. All
that is meant, by the word inherent, according to Charles Hodge, is that the mind is so constituted that
it perceives certain things to be true without proof and without instruction.[5.10] As John Calvin cleverly
worded it: Whence we infer, that this is not a doctrine which is first learned at school, but one as to

which every man is, from the womb, his own master; one which nature herself allows no individual to
forget, though many, with all their might, strive to do so.[5.11]
Therefore, Calvin unapologetically stated: There is within the human mind and indeed by natural
instinct, an awareness of divinity.[5.12] Awareness of divinity, otherwise known as sensus divinitatis,
according to Alvin Plantinga, is a disposition or set of dispositions to form theistic beliefs in various
circumstances, in response to the sorts of conditions or stimuli that trigger the working of this sense of
divinity.[5.13]
It may be true, as indicated by Plantinga, that experience (that is, the perception of general
revelation) is needed for these intuitive dispositions or beliefs to become activated, but, even so, without
these intuitive beliefs we could not make sense of self-consciousness and the world around us.[5.14]
Experience could not be interpreted without these intuitive dispositions or basic beliefs. This means, as
we shall see, that knowledge of certain truths (such as God) must be presupposed before either reason
or experience can function properly.
In fact, the knowledge of a personal God is a necessary condition for all knowledge (as Part 5 will
show). According to Westminster Seminary professor, K. Scott Oliphint, it is a knowledge that is
presupposed by any (perhaps all) other knowledge.[5.15] None of us, according to Cornelius Van Til
(1895-1987), former professor emeritus of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary, could utter
a single syllable, whether in negation or affirmation, unless it were for Gods existence.[5.16]
As we shall see in chapter 12, though an atheist may rightly know who won the 1976 World
Series, an atheist cannot explain the origin of the immaterial laws of physics or the origin of human
consciousness. And both the laws of physics and consciousness are a vital part of the game of baseball.
But, more importantly, since an atheist cannot provide an all-encompassing rational system based on a
cohesive worldview (i.e., a grand metanarrative), as I hope to demonstrate in chapter 14, skepticism
cannot help but creep into the cracks of its own mislaid foundation, inevitably destroying the flooring and
revealing the level below nihilism. In other words, if followed through to its logical end, atheism leads
to nihilism, in which historical events, such as the 1976 World Series, are questionable. If the knowledge
of God (which presupposes logic and moral distinctions) were not pre-supplied, the construction of a
cohesive worldview would be impossible.
Specifically, how do we know that these three truths (God, logic, and moral distinctions) are
inherent within us all? We know it not only because these beliefs are confirmed by the inward testimony
of our consciences, but also because without these concepts, as we shall see, nothing makes sense. We
need God, logic, and morality to formulate a cohesive worldview that can be lived out in our everyday
lives. To suppress or eliminate knowledge of these truths leads to absurdity.
These inherent beliefs (God, logic, and moral distinctions), are not wholly independent from each
other though. Since these beliefs are foundational to who God is for He is a God of rationality (logic)
and righteousness (moral distinctions) to have an inherent knowledge of God is to have an inherent
knowledge of logical and ethical absolutes. This is to say, God is the foundation and source of logical
and ethical absolutes.
The law written on mans conscience is not an abstract idea of justice that exists outside of God.
The law is Gods moral character. God is righteous. God is logically consistent with His own nature. He
cannot contradict His character. God cannot be non-God. The laws of ethical living (morality) and the
laws of thinking (logic) are not social constructs or abstract principles independent of God. God is not

underneath the law. He is the law. That is, the law is a reflection of His moral essence. The laws of logic
and morality only exist because God exists.

Conclusion
So what this all shows is that of these three truths, the greatest is God. The sensus divinitatis
includes the knowledge of logic and moral distinctions because these truths are grounded in the
knowledge of God. Without God, laws of behavior and thinking would be non-existent. To put it another
way, our guilty consciences, which stem from our knowledge of the laws of logic and morality,
presuppose God. The converse is true as well. Our knowledge of God presupposes the laws of morality
and logic.[5.17] We cannot have knowledge of the laws of morality and logic without having the
knowledge of God.[5.18] Because these beliefs are inherent, incorrigible, and necessary, the Bible does
not seek to prove these things but accepts them as irrefutable realities. All truth must be built on the
knowledge of God, or, as we shall see, there is no ground for knowledge at all.

6. Shaped by Conscience
Since God is the ultimate truth, He must also be the source of all truth.[6.1] All truth comes from
God and points back to God. Without Gods self-revelation, truth is impossible. Gods existence, says
Don Collett, professor of Old Testament at Trinity School of Ministry, is the basis for all predication,
such that one cannot predicate truly or falsely about anything unless God exists.[6.2]

Why Knowledge is Possible

Yet, how do we know the truth? How is the knowledge of God possible? How is revelation
possible? As we have seen, Pseudo-Dionysius claimed that because of Gods infinite transcendence, God
cannot reveal Himself to man. Immanuel Kant, on the other hand, claimed that the knowledge of God is
impossible because of the epistemological limitations of finite man. Either way, the gap between an
infinite God and finite man is too vast for either God or man to cross. According to the Bible, however,
God is not only able to reveal Himself, He has revealed Himself to us through His Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the Word of God (John 1:1). Jesus is the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24). Jesus is the light (John 1:4).
Jesus is the truth (John 14:6). All truth is derived from the mind of God, and Christ Jesus, as the express
image of God, is the conduit through which the mind of God is communicated to man.[6.3]
The knowledge of God, of self, and of the universe reveals the glory of God, and this glory has
been communicated to us through Christ Jesus. As Carl Henry (1913-2003), founder of the popular
Christian magazine, Christianity Today, stated: The logos [the second person of the Trinity] of God
preincarnate, incarnate, and now glorified is the mediating agent of all divine disclosure. He is the
unique and sole mediator of the revelation of the Living God.[6.4]
As any piece of art or engineering marvel reveals the wisdom and creativity of the artist or
engineer, creation reveals the wisdom and power of God. The heavens declare the glory of God; the
skies proclaim the works of his hands (Ps. 19:1). The whole earth is full of His glory (Isa. 6:3). For
since the creation of the world Gods invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have
been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse
(Rom. 1:20). George Park Fisher (1827-1909), emeritus professor of divinity at Yale, stated: A dog sees
on a printed page only meaningless marks on a white ground. To us they contain and convey ideas, and
bring us into communion with the mind of the author. So it is with Nature.[6.5] He went on to say: To
ignore God as the author of Nature as well as the mind is as absurd as to make the anthem the offspring
of unconscious sound.[6.6]
Yet, the knowledge of Gods invisible attributes, which are clearly manifest in creation, has come
to us through Christ. As it is written, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without
him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:1-3). As the instrument through which God created
all things, knowledge derived from the universe comes to us by the immanent power of Christ Jesus.
Christ is not only the medium of general revelation but also the mediator of special revelation.
Not only do we learn about the works of God through Christ, we discover the nature of God through
Christ. How can we see the invisible God? By looking at Christ. Christ is the image of the invisible God
(Col. 1:15). God manifested Himself in His humanity. He came near by becoming one of us. And the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the
Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Though no one has ever seen God, Christ has made Him

known (John 1:18).

The holiness, righteousness, mercy, love, and the very nature of God have been manifested in
this world through the person and work of Jesus Christ. For instance, if we want to learn about the justice
and mercy of God, all we have to do is look at the cross. As the Scriptures say: [God] has spoken to us
by his Sonthrough whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact
imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power (Heb. 1:2-3). Though God is
transcendent and separate from man, He is also immanent. In Christ, He is never far from us. Truly, Jesus
is the way, the truth, and the life. There is no other way to God but through Him (John 14:6).
As the perfect reflection of God, Christ is capable of revealing the infinite mind of God to the
minds of men. But, how is the finite capable of grasping the infinite? Even through the mediation of
Christ, how is man the proper receptor of natural and supernatural revelation?
Though there is an immense gap between Divinity and humanity, this gap is not immeasurable.
Knowledge of anything requires some form of similarity or analogous relationship. Some point of
connection is required between God and man for communication to be possible. And this is exactly what
we find in Genesis 1. As God, in Christ, created all things to reveal the glory of God, He created man in
His own image and likeness.
Because man is made in the image of God (known as the Imago Dei) he is not identical with God,
but he is also not entirely different. This analogous relationship between God and man is what makes
man capable of receiving and understanding divine revelation (Gen. 1:26). As we shall see, the Imago
Dei equips us with an innate and incorrigible knowledge of God and ourselves and provides us with the
apparatus to properly understand the world around us.
Man is a part of natural revelation because God created him. Along with the rest of creation,
mankind reveals the glory and wisdom of God. Man reveals God because he is a part of Gods creation,
but more importantly, man reveals God for he was created after the very likeness of God. Because man
cannot help but know himself, he cannot help but immediately know God.
These basic truths are part of the Imago Dei and supply man with an immediate knowledge of
God through the knowledge of himself. John Calvin was so convinced of this that he began his magnum
opus, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, with these words:
Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two
parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But, while joined by many bonds, which one
precedes and brings forth the other is not easy to discern. In the first place, no one can look upon
himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplation of God, in whom he lives
and moves. . . Again, it is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he
has first looked upon Gods face, and then descends from contemplating Him to scrutinize
himself.[6.7]
We cannot know ourselves without knowing God because we are made in Gods image.[6.8]
Because we cannot help but know ourselves, the knowledge of God is innate. Our life, as God has
breathed life into us, gives us enough light to see God (Ps. 56:13). In seeing ourselves, we see a
reflection of God. Having a life that is analogous to the life of God gives us knowledge of God, or as Van
Til would say: For man, self-consciousness presupposes God-consciousness.[6.9]
Fisher likewise understood that belief in the personality of man, and belief in the personality of

God, stand or fall together.[6.10] Our awareness of God (sensus divinitatis) is the result of being made
in the image of God. Oliphint claims, by virtue of. . . being created in the image of God, always and
everywhere [we] carry the knowledge of God with [us].[6.11] This knowledge does not come by the
proper and diligent exercise of our cognitive, emotive, or volitional capacities; it rather comes by Gods
own revelatory activity within us.[6.12]
This means that the knowledge of God is intuitive. The knowledge of God is immediate,
according to Oliphint, because it is not gained by way of inference. There is nothing that we do no
demonstration, no syllogism that is the ground for the acquisition of this knowledge.[6.13] It is
implanted (or inserted) knowledge of God.[6.14] Oliphint went on to say that it is, given to us, through
the things that are made, by God himself.[6.15] As Fisher said many years prior: The ultimate source of
the belief in God is not in processes of argument. His presence is more immediately manifest[ed].[6.16]
The knowledge of God is what some philosophers call a properly basic belief. Plantinga says
basic beliefs are not accepted on the evidential basis of other propositions.[6.17] Basic beliefs are
similar to memory or perceptual beliefs. They are not inferred or deduced. We do not need evidence or
rational argumentation to believe in God any more than we need evidence or argumentation to believe in
memories.
According to Plantinga, The sensus divinitatis is a belief-producing faculty (or power, or
mechanism) that under the right conditions produces belief that isnt evidentially based on other
beliefs.[6.18] This capacity for knowledge of God, says Plantinga, is part of our original cognitive
equipment, part of the fundamental epistemic establishment with which we have been created by
God.[6.19]
The Imago Dei endows us with the capacity to know God, but it does more than that it provides
us with an inherent knowledge of God (sensus divinitatis). It furnishes us with moral and logical
distinctions. Though this may not seem immediately clear, we must realize that the knowledge of God
that is implanted in us is not simply a knowledge of an abstract being (which we call God), but it is a
knowledge of a personal, moral, and rational being.
This means that the laws of logic and morality are essential to Gods essence and have been
stamped on us because we are made in the likeness of this God. Being created in the image of God
furnishes us with a rational mind and an ethical standard that ensures knowledge of God, of the world
around us, and of ourselves.[6.20] We know right from wrong. We understand that A cannot be both A
and non-A in the same sense and at the same time because we are made in the image of God.
We were designed to know God because we were made in His image and have been given the
cognitive tools necessary to see God as we observe ourselves and the world around us. We know God
because we were made to be rational and ethical beings.
Consequently, being made in the image of God means that our own self-consciousness is a part
of Gods general revelation. This implies that Gods general revelation of Himself is both internal (within
our own self-consciousness) and external (in the physical universe that surrounds us). And this internal
revelation (sensus divinitatis) endows us with the capacity to properly interpret the message of Gods
external revelation.
More specifically, being made in the image of God gives us the apparatus to see the likeness of
God within ourselves as well as the glory of God in creation. As Greg Bahnsen (1948-1995), former

scholar in residence for the Southern California Center for Christian Studies, remarked: Man is created
in the image of God to engage in the world in a rational way. Not only is mans mind analogical to Gods,
but it is compatible with the God-created universe because of Gods designing us and our
environment.[6.21] The universe, according to Calvin, is a mirror in which we are to behold God.[6.22]
Calvin said, men cannot open their eyes without being compelled to see him. [6.23] He went on to
state, wherever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least
some sparks of his glory.[6.24] For this reason, John Murray (1898-1975), professor of theology at
Princeton and then Westminster, affirmed:
It was of his sovereign will that God created the universe and made us men in his image.
But since creation is the product of his will and power the imprint of his glory is necessarily
impressed upon his handiwork, and since we are created in his image we cannot but be
confronted with the display of that glory.[6.25]
This is echoed by John Frame, one of the leading interpreters of the philosophy of Cornelius Van
Til, who says that we know God by means of the world. All of Gods revelation comes through creaturely
meansThus we cannot know anything about God without knowing something about the world at the
same timeWe cannot know the world without knowing God.[6.26]
Plantinga explains how creation reveals the knowledge of God to us:
It isnt that one beholds the night sky, notes that it is grand, and concludes that there
must be such a person as God; an argument like that would be ridiculously weakIt is rather that,
upon the perception of the night sky or the mountain vista or the tiny flower, these beliefs just
arise within us. They are occasioned by the circumstances; they are not conclusions from them.
[6.27]
The sensus divinitatis ensures that the knowledge of God is always present within us. Even if all
our memories were erased, we would not lose sight of God. Ever renewing its memory, Calvin
remarked, he repeatedly sheds fresh drops.Men of sound judgment will always be sure that a sense of
divinity which can never be effaced is engraved upon mens minds.[6.28] As we interact with the world
around us, our very lives cannot help but continually reveal God to us. Natural revelation speaks to us
even when we do not want to hear its message. It is a constant voice that cannot be silenced. Oliphint
claims that it is a knowledge that God infuses into his human creatures, and continues to infuse into
them, even as they continue to live out their days denying or ignoring him.[6.29]
In addition to the Imago Dei stamping, reproducing, and duplicating within us the knowledge of
God, when it is renewed in Christ and functioning properly, it equips us with the necessary properties to
experientially know God. God made us in His own image because He made us to be rational and morally
upright (Ecc. 7:29).
Before the likeness of God in man was defaced by the fall, it consisted of the rational knowledge
of God as well as the moral uprightness to love and obey God. Calvin went on to say, For we know that
men have this unique quality above the other animals, that they bear the distinction between right and
wrong engraved in their conscience. Thus there is no man to whom some awareness of the eternal light
does not penetrate.[6.30] Humanity bore this mark because we were created to have more than an
intellectual conception of God. We were made in Gods likeness so that we could enjoy and glorify God
in our lives. We were created to have a personal relationship with God. Before the image of God was
marred by sin in the fall, man was equipped, according to Martin Luther, to love God, to believe God, to

know God.[6.31] In a word, being created in Gods likeness makes it possible for us to live in a mutually
loving relationship with our Creator.[6.32]
We were designed and efficiently equipped to enjoy a loving and a covenantal relationship with
God. Yet, our guilt is evidence that this covenant relationship has been broken. Even without instruction
from another, because we are made in the image of God, we cannot help but immediately and irresistibly
conclude that our failure is a failure against a personal God. Failure to live in accordance with the laws
of right thinking and the laws of right behavior is a failure not only of our own nature, but also a failure
against a personal God who made us in the likeness of His nature.
Guilt testifies of the fact that our relationship with the Creator is broken. For a God that is both
rational and righteous is not merely a supernatural, impersonal force, but a living, thinking, emotional,
and righteous Person One who has the right and power to tell us how to live. By knowing ourselves in
this manner, we cannot help but understand this reality. We immediately comprehend by the testimony
of our lives and the world around us that we are in some analogous relationship with a personal and holy
God.

At War with God and Ourselves

Being made in the image of God may have originally equipped us to have a personal relationship
with God, but sin damaged that relationship long ago. Like a painting that has been washed out by
exposure to the sun, the likeness of God is still present within us. However, it is no longer a pure
representation as the Imago Dei no longer functions according to its original design.
Consequently, as we noticed in chapter 4, being driven by self-interest, we can no longer think or
live in a manner that perfectly reflects the glory of Gods image. Our thoughts, affections, and lives are
no longer a pure representation of Gods likeness. Rather than being drawn to the knowledge of God that
remains stamped on our consciences, we are at war with this knowledge. The knowledge of God
remains, but a love for God has been supplanted with self-love. Though the knowledge of right and
wrong still speaks within our consciences, the desire to love God and ones neighbor above ourselves is
no longer present in our hearts. Yet, though the rational laws of the mind (logic) are still stamped on our
thinking, apart from Gods grace, the intellectual and practical consistency to live congruently with these
laws is missing. Sin is irrational, for it warps, contorts, and distorts a sound mind and leads to additional
foolish and sinful behavior.
As a result, our guilty consciences demonstrate both our knowledge of God and also our rejection
of this knowledge. This guilt makes Gods holiness terrifying. As Adam and Eve hid from God after they
disobeyed Him, we seek to suppress the knowledge of God in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). This is our
way of hiding from God. This takes place every time we fail to give thanks to God (Rom. 1:21). Ceasing to
acknowledge God is the first step towards practical atheism. Most of us do not intellectually deny Gods
existence. We simply live as if He does not exist or as if He is not watching us. Once we think we have
pushed Gods holy gaze away from our lives, we feel that we are no longer accountable for our actions.
Then comes a whole host of sinful practices which harden our minds and hearts even more towards God
(Heb. 3:13). As Jonah fled from God, we too seek to flee from the knowledge of God and find refuge in
the cold darkness.
How far are we willing to travel away from God? Though all of us are born with the knowledge of
God, we want to live and die as practical atheists. In order to justify our irrational behavior, we devise
contradictory and unreasonable systems of thought that eliminate God from the equation. Because we

naturally place our own interests above the interests of God, we would like to think that we are
intellectually self-sufficient. We do not need to submit to divine revelation. In the same way we suppress
guilt, we seek to stomp out our awareness of God. The sensus divinitatis must be rooted out. We want to
determine what is right and wrong, and what is true and false, for ourselves rather than acknowledge
that all knowledge comes from God. This happened when Eve questioned God in the Garden (Gen. 3:4-6).
And ever since then, we have tried to make ourselves the source of our own beliefs.
We are at war with God and ourselves. We hate God but we cannot fully eliminate the stamp of
God within our own consciousness. We struggle against the reality that we are made in the image of
God. As Oliphint rightly claimed: It is this image of God that is the presupposition behind everything
else that we are.[6.33] Thus, we are tormented and seek to run from God because we carry the
knowledge and reflection of God with us wherever we go. We are tormented because we carry the
knowledge of God in ourselves.
We would like to free ourselves not only from the knowledge of God, but also from the laws of
logic and morality engraved on our hearts. Laws are binding and point to a lawgiver. Ethical standards
only serve to reinforce our guilty hearts. No matter how hard we try, we cannot live without the laws of
logic and morality that come from the knowledge of God, because without the knowledge of God, all
knowledge is impossible.
The postmodern thinker may attempt to live without any absolutes, but everywhere he turns he
crashes into an unmovable logical fence that binds him. Man, says Van Til, constantly throws water
on a fire that he cannot quench.[6.34] Man may suppress the truth, but the truth will not die. It cannot
die. Understanding this, Calvin stated:
Finally, they entangle themselves in such a huge mass of errors that blind wickedness
stifles and finally extinguishes those sparks which once flashed forth to show them Gods glory.
Yet that seed remains which can in no wise be uprooted: that there is some sort of divinity; but
this seed is so corrupted that by itself it produces only the worst fruits.[6.35]
To what extent will depraved men go to deface the remaining image of God that is stamped on
their nature? As we shall see in the next few chapters, they will go so far as to deny the universal nature
of the laws of logic and moral absolutes. If rational sanity demands submission to God, man has proven
that he is more willing to embrace intellectual absurdity than to succumb to the knowledge of the truth.
Because sin damaged men would rather accept a lie than submit to the truth, they stand in front
of a mirror scratching, picking, and clawing at their faces in order to remove the image of God that is
staring back at them. They are eager to erect a god fashioned in their own human likeness rather than to
submit to the God who made them in His own divine likeness. They would rather worship an illogical idol
in order to obtain intellectual independence than submit to the God of all wisdom. In so doing, they are
willing to sell their souls for a bowl of soup. Absurdity and a guilty conscience, however, are things that
mankind will never shake until they turn to Christ and bow the knee to His eternal lordship.

Conclusion
Without submitting to these three innate and ineradicable truths (logic, morality, and God), we
cannot think or live coherently. These basic truths are necessary conditions for knowledge. In other
words, to deny the existence of God (which includes the denial of the laws of logic and moral
distinctions) leads to absurdity in ones thinking and behavior. Without God, all things fall apart.

Yet, I will take it one step further in the following chapters. For any of us to have a holistic
worldview that is capable of answering lifes deepest questions, not just any God will do. The triune God
of the Bible is needed. Though not all the truth claims of the Bible are innate, they consist of the only
logical and cohesive framework that is in perfect agreement with the inherent knowledge of logic,
morality, and God. The biblical worldview is the only coherent system of thought. Only when we submit
ourselves to Gods authority may we escape our own incoherent and dysfunctional thinking. Until then, a
guilty conscience and irrational thinking and behavior will continue.

7. Shaped by Our Worldview

Not only is our perception of reality controlled by the affections of our heart, our perception is
controlled by our thinking. This sounds obvious, but we must realize our cognitive thoughts are not
neutral anymore than our heart is neutral. How we think about any particular subject cannot help but be
shaped by our thoughts about God, knowledge, and morality. Our thoughts about these core beliefs are
the foundation behind our worldview, and our worldview shapes our thinking.
A worldview, or what the Germans call a Weltanschauung, is like a pair of glasses that allows us
to observe the world. If our glasses are green tinted, we will have a hard time seeing the true color of the
sun. If our glasses are red tinted, we will have a hard time identifying the true color of the grass. It is not
until we see through clear lenses that reality will appear as it truly is in-itself. The sensus divinitatis,
which includes the laws of logic and ethical distinctions, is the inherent set of glasses that God has
given us to perceive reality. Because of our fallen nature, however, these glasses have fallen into bushes
full of thistles and thorns. What was once perfectly transparent has been deeply scratched. Our vision is
now blurry. Though we can dimly make out the image of God and the laws of logic and morality from
within our own nature, we no longer appreciate the true beauty of the knowledge, power, and glory of
God that is clearly stamped on every blade of grass and every darting ray of the sun.
In the same way that light and power are self-verifying, even so logic, morality, and God are selfverifying. By what light do we see light? We see light by its own light. How does power prove itself to be
powerful? It proves itself by its own power to effect change. How does logic prove itself to be true?
Because without it, we cannot know anything. How does morality prove itself to be innate within us all?
Because we get mad when others wrong us and hate movies that end badly with the good guys not
properly vindicated. How do we know God? Because without a knowledge of God, nothing makes sense.
As the rest of the book seeks to explain, without the God of the Bible, absurdity is all that remains.
The existence of God, logic, and morality are core realities that make knowledge possible. They
are the pillars behind the biblical worldview. That is, the biblical worldview is not only built on our innate
knowledge of God, logic, and morality, but the biblical worldview also reinforces those three pillars by
providing us with the only cohesive and self-defendable system of thought that corresponds with these
core presuppositions.
As we shall see, all other worldviews fail to be consistent with themselves. This inconsistency
takes place in two ways. Either a worldview starts off by denying the innate knowledge of God, logic, and
morality, and thus fails to be consistent from the get-go. Or, if a worldview happens to accept the innate
knowledge of God, logic, and morality as basic premises, it will quickly deny these premises by
constructing a system of thought that is inconsistent with the knowledge of God, logic, and morality.

Everyone Has a Worldview

To understand this, we first need to understand that we all have a worldview. Our worldview may
be incoherent, or we may live inconsistently with what we believe, but we cannot help to formulate, even
if it is unconsciously, a conceptual system of thought that incorporates our most basic beliefs.
Ronald Nash (1936-2006), philosophy professor of Reformed Theological Seminary, defines a
worldview as a set of beliefs about the most important issues in life.[7.1] Our worldview consists of our
most basic beliefs about God, the universe, and ourselves. Nash went on to state:

Implicit in all this is the additional point that these beliefs must cohere in some way and
form a system. A fancy term that can be useful here is conceptual scheme, by which I mean a
pattern or arrangement of concepts (ideas). A worldview, then, is a conceptual scheme by which
we consciously or unconsciously place or fit everything we believe and by which we interpret and
judge reality.[7.2]
Greg Bahnsen was a little more pointed in his description of a worldview: A worldview is a
network of presuppositions which are not tested by natural science and in terms of which all experience
is related and interpreted.[7.3] This clear definition succinctly states all the major components of a
worldview. A worldview is a set of correlating presuppositions that are not derived by sense experiences
but are necessary to interpret sense experiences.
James Sire, a worldview scholar, reminds us that a worldview is more than just a set of
presuppositions or a conceptual scheme that exists only in the mind. A worldview also consists of the
fundamental commitment of the heart. What we love the most, which has to do with our ethical values,
has more to do with our worldview than with the answers we will give to strange philosophical
questions. What we love the most will determine how we feel about everything, how we make decisions,
and how we behave. Would it not be better, Sire asks, to consider a worldview as the story we live
by?[7.4] Does not the manner in which we live (or seek to live) speak more about what we believe than
what we say that we believe? Sire explains the practicality of this:
I wake up in the morning, not asking myself who I am or where I am. I am immediately
aware of a whole host of perceptions that my mind orders into the recognition that its morning:
Im home, Im crawling out of bed. In this immediate awareness I do not consciously ask or
answer, What is the really real? or, How do I know I am home? or, How can I tell the difference
between right and wrong? Rather, my unconscious mind is using a network of presumptions about
how to interpret for the conscious mind what is going on. In some way all the basic worldview
questions are being answered by the way I am acting and behaving.[7.5]
With this concern in mind, Sire provides an expanded definition of a worldview:
A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be
expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true,
or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently)
about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and
move and have our being.[7.6]
According to Sire, a worldview cannot be separated from a world-and-life-view. And for this
reason, a worldview must not only pass the coherency test, but also it must pass the test of life. Can we
consistently live out our worldview in the real world?

Beliefs are Interconnected

Because a worldview is a fundamental commitment of the heart and a cognitive framework that
we use to understand everything else we believe, constructing a worldview, even if we are not fully
conscious of it, is unavoidable for all of us.
We all have presuppositions. Also, we cannot help but compare and contrast what we are
learning with what we are convinced that we already know.

As already stated, the law of non-contradiction cannot be proven by logic or science, but both
logic and science are built on its foundation. Without the law of non-contradiction, nothing makes sense.
Logic is a necessary condition for us to process data and rationally formulate knowledge. Thus, whether
we like it or not, we all consciously or unconsciously utilize the law of non-contradiction as we process
and assimilate new data.
For instance, my five-year-old son, Martyn, is learning the rules of the road. If he had no innate
concept of the law of non-contradiction, then he would not have yelled at me when I took a right turn at a
red light. He shrieked, Stop! The light is red! Who told him red traffic lights always means stop? Why
was he so scared when I turned right? He was scared because a red light cannot mean stop and go at the
same time. Who taught him this basic logical principle? The fact that it is an innate concept allows him
to process new information and sensations with what he already processed in the past. The new data
only makes sense when it is compared with the old data already stored in his memory. In this case, he
rejected the new information because it did not comport with what he thought he already knew. After
explaining that this was an exception to the rule, he was able to readjust his thinking and format a more
complex system of thought.

Conclusion
We all do this because a single belief never stands in isolation from other beliefs. What we
believe about this will consequently affect how and what we believe about that. Truth is not disjointed
from other truths. Everything in the universe (as the word universe implies) is interconnected. Because of
the law of non-contradiction, we cannot help but seek to formulate a cohesive system of thought with
mutually supporting propositions. If there is a contradiction in our understanding of the rules of the road
or a contradiction in our understanding of the complexities of the universe, we know something is flawed
in our thinking.

8. Shaped by Three Ultimate Questions

Because every single belief correlates with every other belief, it is impossible not to systematize
our knowledge into different categories of thought. Like a big dresser full of drawers, we take what we
know (or think we know) about religion and throw that information into one drawer, we take what we
know about science and throw it into another drawer, and so on. Eventually, as our database grows, we
install dividers in those drawers and begin to make subcategories of subcategories. Without our minds
seeking coherency, all this would be impossible. But because our minds do this automatically, it is also
unavoidable.

Every System is Shaped by Three Fundamental Questions

The collective, systematic arrangement of all our beliefs can be reduced to a few core
presuppositions. We no doubt possess countless categories of thought, but all the diverse categories
and subcategories of thought can be condensed to three major divisions: (1.) objective reality, (2.)
subjective knowledge, and (3.) practical morality. That is, the three basic and ultimate questions of life
are: (1.) What exists outside of our minds? (2.) What exists inside of our minds?, and (3.) How do we feel
about it?
Because the knowledge of (1.) God, (2.) logic, and (3.) ethics are innate within us all, every
cognitive thought will naturally fall into one of those three overarching categories or presuppositional
starting points. Interestingly enough these three categories of thought correspond nicely with the three
main branches of philosophy: (1.) metaphysics, (2.) epistemology, and (3.) ethics.[8.1]
Though these philosophical categories (metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics) sound complex,
we all have metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical beliefs. For instance, even scientists, claimed
Nash, make important epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical assumptions.[8.2] Cleverly, Nash
went on to explain:
They assume, for example, that knowledge is possible and that sense experience is
reliable (epistemology), that the universe is regular (metaphysics), and that scientists should be
honest (ethics). Without these assumptions that scientists cannot justify within the limits of their
methodology, scientific inquiry would soon collapse.[8.3]
For this reason, Bahnsen concluded: Worldviews are systems of inter-locking presuppositions.
As systems they include meta-physics and epistemology and ethics all bound up together in a mutually
self-supporting system.[8.4]

1. What is Real?
The German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) asked the question, Why is there
something rather than nothing? This question has been viewed as one of the most important questions
in all of philosophy. It comes from inquiring did the universe create itself, or has it always been here? Is
there a God who created the universe? Where do we come from? Did Divine Intelligence (i.e., God)
create matter, or is human consciousness derived from an undirected material process? In other words,
which came first, mind or matter? If there is a God, what is our relationship to Him? What is our
relationship to the universe? What is the relationship between God and the universe? Is God the ultimate
being, or is the universe all there is? Are God and the universe one and the same, or are they distinct?

Ultimately, all these questions can be condensed to this: Is there a God, and if so, is He the cause of
there being something rather than nothing?
There is an entire division of philosophy that is devoted to answering this question known as
metaphysics.[8.5] Though the many complexities of the vast amount of different philosophies and
religious constructs have a way of making things confusing, there are only three possible answers to the
God question naturalism, impersonal-supernaturalism, and personal-supernaturalism. Besides these
three options, there are no other possible answers.
A. Naturalism
Naturalism is the belief that if there is a God, He is entirely unknowable and practically irrelevant.
Thus, naturalists believe the universe is a self-contained, closed system. That the origin and function of
the universe are explained by natural or physical causes, such as the theory of evolution, and that
everything that is real can be reduced to the physical world.
According to the Christian mathematician John Byl, The main underlying theme of naturalism is
that nature is self-sufficient. Nature, it is alleged, exists by itself, deriving all meaning and purpose from
itself. It needs nothing outside of itself to explain it.[8.6] In the famous words of the astrophysicist Carl
Sagan (1934-1996), The Cosmos is all there is, or ever was, or ever will be.[8.7] Nature must be able to
explain itself. Those within this group include atheists, agnostics, and deists.[8.8]
B. Impersonal-supernaturalism
Those in this group include Yoda and his followers, pantheists, panentheists, polytheists, liberal
christians, animists, monists, and dualists. These are those who believe that Ultimate Reality is a divine
force that is impersonal and entirely imminent (in one way or another) throughout the universe. Although
polytheists and liberal christians believe in a personal deity/deities, they are included in this category
because as a whole, they believe in an impersonal Ultimate Reality that either God or Morality is
ultimately behind are capability of knowing.
C. Personal-supernaturalism
Personal-supernaturalism is the belief in an all-powerful and transcendent, yet personal God who
both created and imminently governs the universe. Though He is transcendent, He is omnipresent. God
created and governs the universe, but He remains independent and separate from the universe. This
group includes the three major monotheistic world religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
These three different metaphysical answers (A. naturalism, B. impersonal-supernaturalism, and C.
personal-supernaturalism) can be understood and distinguished from each other by the way they seek to
explain the relationship between material and immaterial substances (i.e., consciousness). In other
words, which came first, mind or matter?
Naturalism = Matter Comes before Mind
Impersonal-supernaturalism = Mind & Matter Come Together
Personal-supernaturalism = Mind Comes before Matter
To simplify further that which I have already oversimplified, these three overarching categories

can be reduced to two naturalism and personal-supernaturalism. Though impersonal-supernaturalists

differ from naturalists in that they are not materialists or empiricists (for they believe in the existence of
a spiritual, invisible dimension to the universe that is not detectable by the empirical senses), they, for
all practical purposes, do not believe in a supernatural power that can be truly known. Because they do
not believe in a distinct and personal God, their God is unknowable. Either the supernatural force is
entirely transcendent, or entirely imminent, but either way it is unknowable at least unknowable as a
personal being.
And, if the supernatural side of the universe is beyond the transcendental wall, then all that is
left for rational and empirical inquiry is the physical and material side of things. If the supernatural
cannot think, or feelor simply doesnt make that knowledge or emotion available to us for whatever
reasonthen it cannot be a proper subject of knowledge. So, in a somewhat less precise way of thinking,
naturalism and impersonal-supernaturalism can be grouped together in the same broad category,
because in both, man is left to discover all the answers for himself.
Since the liberal christian worldview believes in a God who is ultimately unknowable, they would
fit into the Naturalism category for all practical purposes. This is because even though liberal christianity
says that God is personal emotionally, He is also at the same time distant doctrinally. In other words,
they are ethically and epistemologically naturalists, but they still latch onto the doctrine of Jesus Christ
for the sake of emotional encouragement. For them, Gods main purpose is to uplift, build up, and
encourage us when our self-esteem gets too low, and so God is in this way personal. But when it comes
to understanding doctrine or morality in this day and age, God becomes completely beyond our reach.
They interpret moral instruction found in the New Testament as cultural and subjective, and thus, they
have created an entirely new worldview, with a God whose mind is transcendentally padlocked from our
knowing, but at the same time is deeply and personally involved with boosting our confidence and
keeping us comforted emotionally. Even though liberal christianity says there are logical and ethical
absolutes found within the mind of God, they believe that since the bible is a cultural relic, Gods
absolute knowledge was never transmitted and thus, like naturalists, they are forced to live a life in
ambiguity of what is right and what is wrong.
So the ultimate metaphysical question comes down to this: Does the universe have all the
answers to its own origins and design? In other words, are we, as finite beings, self-sufficient and
capable of unraveling all the mysteries of the universe? Was Protagoras right when he said, man is the
measure of all things? Does the presupposition of a closed universe supply us with a cohesive
worldview? Or, do we need a supernatural and personal God to prevent us from becoming irrational and
absurd in our thinking? In short, do we need a supernatural, personal and self-revelatory God to answer
our ultimate questions about reality, or is science and human reason alone sufficient?

2. How Do We Know?
This naturally leads us to the second branch of philosophy, which is epistemology. Epistemology
is concerned with knowledge. Is knowledge possible, and if so, how do we know what we know? How do
we know if there is a God or not? How do we know if science is sufficient to answer all the questions?
How do we know what our relationship is with ultimate reality, God, and the universe? How do we know
what the relationship is between mind and matter? Though the question of how we know what we know
is a difficult one to answer, there are three major answers that have been suggested historically:
rationalism, empiricism, and existentialism.
A. Rationalism

Rationalists, for the most part, are those who believe ultimate reality (i.e., God) consists of
something that is non-material, such as ideas, mind, rational thought, or an ultimate spiritual being. If
(the cosmic) mind comes before matter, then knowledge is principally derived deductively through the
proper use of reason. Rationalism is the idea that man is capable of ascertaining true knowledge through
unaided (or pure a priori) reason alone, without the assistance of general or special revelation.
The French mathematician Ren Descartes (1596-1650) is considered the quintessential
rationalist. He began his epistemological inquiry by questioning everything. Though he doubted the
existence of everything, he could not doubt that he doubted. Because doubting was the one thing he was
certain of, he concluded that by doubting/thinking, he must exist as a self-conscious being. Thus, he is
known for the phrase I think, therefore I am.[8.9]
Because he could not be sure his body existed, he concluded his existence lay in thinking rather
than in any physical substance.[8.10] By doubting, He also deduced that he could not be perfect, for I
saw clearly that it is a greater perfection to know than to doubt.[8.11] Because he was able to
conceptualize that which is entirely perfect, he determined that the idea of that which is perfect could
not have arisen within himself any more than it is logical for that which is lesser to produce that which is
greater. Hence it follows, he argued, that something cannot come into being out of nothing, and also
that what is more perfect cannot come into being from what is less perfect.[8.12]
Accordingly, since Descartes saw that he was able to perceive not only a more perfect thing, but
the most perfect thing, he reasoned that this conception of the most perfect thing could not have
proceeded or originated out of anything other than God Himself. In this fashion, Descartes logically
deduced that God also existed, and on this rational foundation (based on pure reason), he went on to
deduce the rest of his worldview.[8.13]
B. Empiricism
Unlike rationalists, empiricists, strictly speaking, believe that all knowledge is derived from the
senses. Even though the English philosophers Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and John Locke (1632-1704)
were empiricists who believed in God, most empiricists believe that reality consists of only that which is
physical or material. They tend to be naturalists, for they answer the God question by saying that the
universe is a closed system. Therefore, if matter comes before mind (consciousness), knowledge
originates through experience and experience through the physical senses alone. Empiricism, which is
also unbiblical, is the notion that there are no innate presuppositions or basic beliefs within our
precognitive minds to assist us in the processing and categorizing of all the multiple sensations that are
flowing into our thoughts through lifes experiences.
For instance, John Locke rejected the rationalism of Ren Descartes. Where did those ideas,
which Descartes doubted, originate? Descartes did not come to his conclusions when he was a newborn;
he was a grown man with a life full of experiences. The only thing that connects the mind with the
external universe is the five senses. Therefore, according to Locke, it is only through experience that
ideas can get into the thought process from the outside. Locke believed man was born with no innate
knowledge.
Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without
any ideas; how comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has
painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and
knowledge? To this I answer in one word, from experience; in that all our knowledge is founded,

and from that it ultimately derives itself.[8.14]

For Locke, our minds are born as a blank slate (i.e., tabula rasa). Knowledge is limited to what is
physical and can be discerned by the senses. Because God does not exist as a part of the observable
universe, if He exists at all, He is not an object of knowledge seeing that He cannot be detected by the
empirical senses.
C. Existentialism
Existentialism is the third major theory of knowledge. It, at least in its secular form, is rooted in
naturalism. The universe is a closed system, which means that knowledge is limited to sense
experiences and that God does not exist, or that He is unknowable and thus irrelevant. Thus,
existentialism is finite mans attempt to dig his own way out of his finiteness in his endeavor to establish
meaning for life without any objective foundation.
Historically, existentialism came after the philosophies of Locke and Kant. These two
philosophers, in different ways, locked the transcendental God behind an impenetrable wall. Yet,
existentialists were not happy with the consequences. Naturalism leads to no God, no afterlife, no
purpose, no absolute code of morality, and no free will (seeing that our thoughts are merely chemical
reactions and electrical impulses within the hard tissue of the brain that are predetermined by fixed laws
of nature in the same way the planets circle the sun according to the fixed laws of physics).
With no God, life ends without any ultimate purpose. Life ends in death and annihilation. The
resultant meaninglessness of life was rather depressing and unacceptable for existentialists however.
Rather than going back and questioning the presuppositions behind naturalism, while existentialists
agree that God is unknowable, they turned around and claimed that individual freedom and purpose
could still be had. Either by religiously taking an experiential leap of faith into the unknowable
transcendental realm or by atheistically creating ones own meaning and purpose in life by an act of the
will, man could rescue himself from a life of despair and hopelessness. With the notion that truth is
rooted in mans existence, man could create meaning for himself.

3. Who Determines What is Right?

The third major branch of philosophy is ethics.[8.15] How should we live? What should we value
the most? What is the ultimate good? These are the questions that this branch of philosophy seeks to
answer. How one answers (1.) what is real? and (2.) how do we know? will thus determine how one
answers (3.) who determines what is right? For example, those who reject the existence of God, of
course, will not look to Him for guidance. The source of our ethical standards can be reduced to two
options ethics are either objective/absolute in nature or they are subjective/relative in nature. That is,
we will either submit to God or we will do what is right in our own estimation.
A. Universal and Absolute Ethical Standard
The moral standard is derived not from abstract principles, but from the character of a holy,
righteous, trinitarian God because love marks the essence of the relationship between the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. Since God made us for His own purpose, He has the right to tell us how to fulfill
that intended purpose. Because He made us in His image, we are to mirror His love by loving Him and
loving our neighbors. Out of love, He has invited us to share in His love. Loving God with all of our
hearts, minds, and souls and loving our neighbor as ourselves is not merely the heart of the universal

standard of morality, it is the key to fulfilling our purpose and finding personal meaning and fulfillment.
Man was not made to be alone, for man is not self-sufficient. Selfishness is forbidden because it
ruins meaningful relationships. Thus, obeying Gods law is the key to our own personal fulfillment
because it drives us away from self-idolatry into a loving and meaningful relationship with God and other
people.
B. Subjective and Relative Ethical Standards
Those who reject the supernatural and personal God are forced, if they desire to remain
consistent with their beliefs, to reject any absolute ethical standard. With no transcendent God to know,
obey, and love, not only is there no ultimate purpose for life, there is no absolute standard to follow.
With the removal of any objective destination, there is no need for any road maps to chart. Relationships
are left to be governed by what seems right in the eyes of self-seeking individuals.
From a naturalistic standpoint, ethics are constructed for merely pragmatic purposes. At best,
ethics are situational and relative in nature. With no God, there is no universal Lawgiver. If there is no
universal and absolute justice and accountability, then this also means evil men, like Adolf Hitler, got off
easy. In fact, with no universal standard, who is to say Adolf Hitler was in the wrong?

Conclusion
As you can see, the various answers to these three ultimate questions about ultimate reality,
about knowledge, and about ethics are intertwined. How we answer one will heavily influence, if not
completely determine, how we answer the other two questions. The answers to these questions
determine our worldview, and our worldview cannot help but shape what we believe and how we
interpret the world around us.

9. Shaped by Our Presuppositions

John Frame was right when he said, Ones view of reality will determine, to a great extent, his
view of knowledge, and vice versa.[9.1] For instance, if we presuppose a self-sufficient and closed
universe, then of course we will lean heavily, if not entirely, on sense perception and science. Special
revelation and miracles will be ruled out, if one wishes to maintain naturalism. On the other hand, if we
start with the presupposition that there is a God, then our view of knowledge will be determined by our
theological position of Gods relationship with the universe.
If God is completely transcendent, like the mystics and liberal theologians believe, then we will
be prone, if we hang on to religion at all, to become existentialists. If we believe God is completely
imminent, as do pantheists, we will more than likely become mystical as well. In both cases it is
impossible to know God.
If we believe God is both transcendent (separate from the universe) and imminent (interacts
within the universe), then we will look to both Gods general revelation (what we learn through nature)
and special revelation (what we learn in Holy Scriptures) as valid sources of information. Both point us
back to God. Science reveals certain truths about Gods created order and glory, while Scripture reveals
more precisely the identity and nature of this God and how we are to properly worship Him. With this
said, Bahnsen concluded: Clearly then, [our] method of knowing depends on the nature of reality.[9.2]

The Relationship between God, Knowledge, and Ethics

As I pointed out in chapter 4, our values the affections of our heart heavily influence what we
choose to believe. For instance, John Stuart Mills father admitted he became an atheist not because of
any epistemological concerns but because of ethical reasons. He rejected the idea of God because he
could not appreciate and value a God who would allow so much evil to take place in the world. In the
words of his son, John Stuart Mill:
My father, educated in the creed of Scotch Presbyterianism, had by his own studies and
reflections been early led to reject not only the belief in Revelation but the foundations of what is
commonly called Natural Religion. My fathers rejection of all that is called religious belief was
not, as many might suppose, primarily a matter of logic and evidence: the grounds of it were
moral, still more than intellectual. He found it impossible to believe that a world so full of evil
was the work of an Author combining infinite power with perfect goodness and righteousness. His
aversion to religion, in the sense usually attached to the term, was of the same kind with that of
Lucretius: he regarded it with the feelings due not to mere mental delusion but to a great moral
evil. It would have been wholly inconsistent with my fathers ideas of duty to allow me to acquire
impressions contrary to his convictions and feelings respecting religion: and he impressed on me
from the first that the manner in which the world came into existence was a subject on which
nothing was known.[9.3]
He was not the first person to reject the idea of God out of a hatred for Him. Atheist Thomas
Nagel freely admitted his bias against God:
I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be
true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people
I know are religious believers. It isnt just that I dont believe in God and, naturally, hope that Im

right in my belief. Its that I hope there is no God! I dont want there to be a God; I dont want the
universe to be like that. My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and
that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time.[9.4]
Another example of this is found in the writings of Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011). The
arguments he crafted against God were based on his personal disdain for God. He did not appeal to
metaphysics or to epistemology in his argumentation but to ethics; he made a moral case against God.
Hitchens claimed not to be an atheist but an antitheist. According to Hitchens, God is not great.[9.5] In
sum, why we should hate God is how Hitchens made his case for atheism. However, despising the
concept of hell and citing various cases of religious misconduct does not disprove the existence of God.
Likewise, English physicist Paul Davies confesses that he is not emotionally neutral: Theres no
need to invoke anything supernatural in the origins of the universe or of life. I have never liked the idea
of divine tinkering.[9.6] Davies knows that he is not alone in his sentiments, for he believes that many
scientists who are struggling to construct a fully comprehensive theory of the physical universe openly
admit that part of the motivation is to finally get rid of God.[9.7]
This, however, is not to be taken as something unusual. Quite a few self-proclaimed atheists, so
it seems, are motivated to question the existence of God out of their hatred for Him. Having a holy Judge
who will hold us accountable for all of our thoughts, emotions, and actions is not an easy thing to
embrace. Naturally, none of us want to submit every single area of our lives to a divine authority. Guilt,
divine authority, divine surveillance, and divine accountability seem to be where the conflict really lies.
Therefore, suppressing the knowledge of God is often easier than facing this knowledge with a guilty
conscience.
In this way, if we like it or not, our ethical values (what we like and dislike) have a vital role in
shaping our thinking and beliefs. I think it was for this reason that Frame claimed it is useful to regard
epistemology as a branch of ethics.[9.8]
With this said, how we answer any one of the three ultimate questions of life (God, knowledge,
and ethics) will consequently influence how we will answer the other two. Vern Poythress, professor of
New Testament interpretation at Westminster Theological Seminary, concludes: In many respects they
presuppose one another. Though we may temporarily focus on only one subdivision within philosophy
[metaphysics, epistemology, or ethics], the others lurk in the background.[9.9]
Because every worldview, at its basic level, consists of the answers we give to (1.) the God
question, (2.) the knowledge question, and (3.) the ethics question, these three questions are both
intrinsically and inextricably interwoven together.

The Necessity of Presuppositions

The answers we give to the metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical questions become the
basic presuppositions that determine our worldview. These presuppositions are like axioms, which we
must presume to be true before we can go any further. That is, we must take them for granted seeing we
have no rational or empirical evidence to support our answers. As Greg Bahnsen stated:
A presupposition is an elementary assumption in ones reasoning or in the process by
which opinions are formed.It is not just any assumption in an argument, but a personal
commitment that is held at the most basic level of ones network of beliefs. Presuppositions form

a wide-ranging, foundational perspective (or starting point) in terms of which everything else is
interpreted and evaluated. As such, presuppositions have the greatest authority in ones thinking,
being treated as ones least negotiable beliefs and being granted the highest immunity to
revision.[9.10]
Every worldview, including theism, atheism, naturalism, and empiricism, is based on a few core
presuppositions. These presuppositions interpret lifes experiences but are not derived from lifes
experiences.
For instance, because there is no evidence supporting the foundation for empiricism, empiricists
are forced to make a precommitment to the starting presupposition that every belief to be justified must
be supported by evidence. This precommitment is a leap of faith. Though those who take this leap may
work hard to prove, explain, argue, and provide evidence for everything else that they believe, the
presuppositional foundation for their worldview is simply taken for granted or presumed.
That nothing exists beyond the natural world is the core presupposition behind the naturalistic
worldview. Naturalists presuppose this belief without any scientific evidence. As John Lennox, professor
of mathematics at the University of Oxford, rhetorically queries, So, is naturalism actually demanded by
science? Or is it just conceivable that naturalism is a philosophy that is brought to science, more than
something that is entailed by science? Could it even be, dare one ask, more like an expression of faith,
akin to religious belief?[9.11]
The Hungarian-Swedish biologist George Klein was willing to admit that it was: I am not an
agnostic, I am an atheist. My attitude is not based on science, but rather faith.[9.12]
Professor Richard Lewontin, a geneticist and one of the worlds leading supporters for
evolutionary biology, also confessed that he is committed to materialism even before the investigation
gets started:
We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructsin
spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we
have a prior commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science
somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the
contrary, that we are forced by our priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus
of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated.[9.13]
For instance, Richard Dawkins acknowledged that he accepted naturalism as a starting
presupposition without any evidence or proof:
When asked by the Edge Foundation, What do you believe is true even though you
cannot prove it? Dawkins replied: I believe that all life, all intelligence, all creativity and all
design anywhere in the universe, is the direct or indirect product of Darwinian natural selection.
It follows that design comes late in the universe, after a period of Darwinian evolution. Design
cannot precede evolution and therefore cannot underlie the universe. At the bottom, then,
Dawkinss rejection of an ultimate Intelligence is a matter of belief without proof.[9.14]
Scientists may navely think that they do not bring presuppositions into their investigations. They
may even claim that they do not believe in any metaphysical realities seeing that metaphysics
transcends the scope of scientific investigation. But, saying you dont believe in metaphysics is a

metaphysical statement. Science cannot prove that there are no metaphysical realities, and such an
assertion as I dont believe in metaphysics would not make any sense without the use of logic and
ethics.
Thus, even scientists have presuppositions about God, knowledge, and ethics that they
presuppose and bring with them into their laboratories.
It is not that having presuppositions is wrong, for we all have presuppositions. For instance,
Christians start by presupposing the God of the Bible, and this presupposition provides a worldview that
acknowledge both the existence of supernatural events (such as the miracles and the resurrection of
Christ) as well as the revealing power of science.
There is nothing wrong with scientific knowledge. Christians can thank God for an orderly
universe that allows them to learn from the past as well as plan for the future. A transcendent and
imminent God, whose sovereign rule is perfectly compatible with the laws of physics, provides the
Christian with a perfect foundation for all of their empirical and rational knowledge. An orderly universe
only makes sense when one has an orderly God. Since all truth comes through general and special
revelation, then true scientific and biblical truth cannot be not at odds with each other.

The System Controls the Verdict

Once we have chosen whether consciously or unconsciously our presuppositions, such as
theism, atheism, naturalism, rationalism, or empiricism, we then use them as a cognitive framework to
interpret and understand all of our lifes experiences. Presuppositions are like an operating system in a
computer the overarching system that reads/runs all the other programs. Our presuppositional
foundation determines not only how we process information, it determines how we answer the questions
that we ask. It shapes us in the same way our values shape us, which means our thinking is never
neutral. No matter how unbiased we may try to be, how we interpret and process data cannot help but be
influenced and shaped by the basic presuppositions behind our worldview.
For this reason, trying to convince someone who has a naturalistic worldview about the validity of
miracles is like trying to get on the same page with someone who is reading from a different book. The
only sure way a naturalist will be convinced of the validity of the miracles of Christ is if he has a change
in his worldview and the basic presuppositions that lie behind it, as John Byl explained:
If ones worldview reflects ones most basic faith commitments, how can we hope to
rationally convince an opponent that any particular belief of theirs is false? To put it another way,
if worldviews are like spectacles through which we view the world, how are we to convince
someone wearing yellow-tinted spectacles that there are blue flowers? He wont be able to see
blue until he exchanges his yellow spectacles for a pair that enables him to see a wider range of
colours. But that amounts to a radical conversion, a major switch in faith commitment.[9.15]

The Controlling Presupposition

Thus, the three basic beliefs or presuppositions that shape every worldview, as we have already
mentioned, are the answers we give to (1.) the ultimate reality question, (2.) the knowledge question,
and (3.) the ethics question. Between the corresponding metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical
presuppositions, which is the central presupposition that controls the other two?
In support of a Christian worldview, Sire emphatically says, Ontology [what is real] precedes

epistemology [what we know].[9.16] In other words, what we know does not determine what is real. The
method of how we know what we know does not establish the existence or non-existence of anything.
This seems obvious. Wishing that unicorns were real does not make it so any more than atheism
eliminates God. Rather, what is really real, such as God and the universe, determines what we know.
This is what Sire means when he says, Ontology precedes epistemology.
Sire is right from an ontological perspective. The reality or non-reality of God, either His existence
or His non-existence, determines everything else. Gods existence is logically primary, as God is ultimate
reality. In fact, without the existence of God, knowledge and ethical distinctions are impossible because
they logical flow out of ontology and not the other way around.[9.17] Therefore, we must presuppose
God if we are to have a reliable epistemological and ethical standard.
Just because knowledge of God does require the existence of God, though, does not mean that
we must always start with the knowledge of God to conclude that He exists. We could start with
epistemology or ethics as well, and eventually conclude with the existence of God, because metaphysics,
epistemology, and ethics are all inter-dependent. They each cannot be rightly understood without rightly
understanding the other.
Thus, of these three core presuppositions, it does not matter if we presuppose God first or not as
we set forth our apologetic argument. All that matters is that we remain logically consistent with the
presuppositions that we have chosen to embrace as our ultimate starting point, because that is what
truly matters consistency. Thus we must always beg the question, do we remain consistent with
ourselves?

Conclusion
In conclusion, all of our beliefs are shaped by our individual worldviews, each of which happens
to be rooted in a few core presuppositions. We cannot think coherently or learn anything new without
filtering information through our conceptual framework that includes our beliefs about God, about
knowledge, and about ethics.
If we are going to be coherent thinkers, however, then we must have a worldview that is capable
of answering all the ultimate questions of life without contradicting ourselves in the process. Therefore,
the ultimate question that we must ask ourselves is this: Are we consistent with ourselves? That is to
say, do our presuppositions coherently support our worldview, or better yet, is how we live consistent
with how we view life?
The objective of the rest of this book is to show that the biblical worldview is the only coherent
and consistent worldview. It is to show that to deny the Christian worldview is to live inconsistently with
our conscience (i.e., the necessary conditions of God, knowledge, and ethics) by willingly accepting an
absurd and self-defeating system of thought. In the words of the presuppositional apologist Cornelius
Van Til: We as Christians alone have a position that is philosophically defensible.[9.18]

PART III. How to Test Beliefs

for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or
contradict.
Luke 21:15

10. Cohesiveness is Mandatory

My father taught me that the question Who made me? cannot be answered, since it
immediately suggests the further question Who made God? Reading this in the Autobiography of John
Stuart Mill led Bertrand Russell to reject the cosmological argument for the existence of God. In the
words of Russell: If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything
without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that
argument.[10.1]
It is true that the cosmological argument only makes sense within the framework of the Christian
worldview. But, what Russell does not seem to understand is that his critique of the cosmological
argument does not make sense in either the Christian or the naturalists worldview.
In fact, there is no worldview in which his statement makes any logical sense. Russells
statement, If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, is selfrefuting on its own terms. In other words, he is attempting to refute an argument with an irrational
statement.
For instance, within the Christian worldview, the cosmological argument makes perfect sense.
When we presuppose the God of the Bible, the God who created the universe to operate with precise
regularity, then both science and religion can coexist in perfect harmony. The Bible teaches us certain
things, and science teaches us certain things. These two sets of things are not in opposition. Science
teaches that everything in motion has a cause. Since everything in motion must have a cause, then
everything in the universe, which is in motion, must have a cause. Though science cannot prove or
explain the Cause, the only logical answer is that the Cause is something that is not in motion the
Unmoved Mover.
Within the framework of the Christian worldview there is a logical and an innate explanation of
who this Unmoved Mover actually is God. It may not properly disclose the glory of a trinitarian God of
love, but at least within the Christian worldview the cosmological argument is a rational argument
because the God of the Bible, who created the universe, and who is unlike the universe, is autonomous,
immutable, and self-existent.
Russell, though, rejected the presupposition that God exists and instead operated from an
atheistic and naturalistic worldview. Even though he thought of himself as an agnostic, he was adamant
in that God was never allowed to be a valid answer to any of lifes questions.
The presuppositions, or the starting point, for this naturalistic worldview is materialism and
empiricism. As naturalism seeks to explain everything as having a naturalistic cause, materialism is
similar in that it says the physical or material is all that exists in ultimate reality (making it not very
ultimate). Mind only exists as a function of the body. Matter and nature is all that there is.[10.2] If this is
true, then all knowledge can only be obtained by the empirical senses (i.e., sense perception).
Thus, naturalism, materialism, and empiricism are the basic presuppositions of the atheistic
worldview. With this in mind, for Russell to claim that it is possible for the world to be without a cause is
completely irrational in an atheistic worldview where knowledge is ascertained and limited to the
scientific method. According to the evidence, nothing that has a beginning is autonomous. That is,
nothing is self-sufficient and able to move itself without any external assistance. Science teaches in the
first, second, and third laws of motion that everything that has a beginning, such as the universe, must

have an external cause.

In other words, every effect must have a cause. According to science, there is no such thing as an
uncaused effect. To say otherwise is to deny the laws of science, which are core presuppositions of
atheism and naturalism. The universe cannot, according to the laws of science, be its own cause
anymore than any effect can be its own cause. The statement: If there can be anything without a cause,
it may just as well be the world makes absolutely no sense at all within the atheistic worldview. In fact,
it makes absolutely no sense in any worldview to say it is possible for the universe to be without a
cause. More precisely, it makes no sense to presuppose empiricism that scientific knowledge is the
only means for understanding the existence of the world and then to deny the laws of science in your
attempt to explain the origins of the universe.
Russell began his critique of the cosmological argument on the false premise that everything
must have a cause. Yet, the cosmological argument does not state that everything must have a cause. It
states that every effect must have a cause. It states that everything that has a beginning must have a
cause. This is a big distinction that Russell conveniently overlooked.
It is nonsensical to say that something can be its own cause. Even God cannot create Himself.
This would be a clear contradiction, for God to create Himself He would have to first exist prior to the act
of self-creation. So, although God is self-existent, He is not self-created, for this would be impossible.
Either Gods existence is in Himself, or He does not exist at all. Either He is eternal, or He is nonexistent.
Because the universe is full of effects, there must have been a first cause. Because the universe
cannot be its own cause, there must be a self-existent God who created the universe. There must be a
non-material, non-contingent, and self-existent being who created the universe. This is the only logical
explanation. This is why Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), one of Americas most prominent theologians,
said, Nothing ever comes to pass without a cause. What is self-existent, must be from eternity, and
must be unchangeable; but as to all things that begin to be, they are not self-existent, and therefore
must have some foundation of their existence without themselves.[10.3]
Though the cosmological argument is not enough to establish the God of the Bible, it is at least a
coherent argument within the greater context of the Christian worldview. My purpose, however, in
exposing the irrationality of Russells critique is not to seek to build a case for Gods existence on the
cosmological argument. Rather, my purpose is to illustrate that Russell operated out of an atheistic
worldview (a worldview that consists of naturalism, empiricism, and relativism). And, if Russell wants to
prove that the universe does not need God for its existence,[10.4] he must do so in a way that remains
consistent with the basic presuppositions of his own atheistic worldview. This is something neither he,
nor any other atheist, can do.
The daunting task for naturalists is that they are forced to answer all the questions of life in a
fashion that does not contradict the foundation of their worldview, or otherwise they become irrational
and incoherent babblers. That is, naturalists must have a naturalistic explanation for everything, or
otherwise they cease to be naturalists. Is evolution a reasonable explanation for logic, mathematics,
emotions, willful intent, and ethics? We will seek to answer that question later, but for now it is
important to realize that naturalists are obligated to answer all of lifes questions from within the
confines of their worldview.
This is not only true for atheists; it is true for all of us. Whatever we accept as our starting

presuppositions, if we are going to continue to hold onto those presuppositions, we cannot deny these
starting presuppositions by borrowing capital from an antithetical worldview. This is cheating, and it
exposes an inconsistency in our thinking.

The Veracity of Any System is Cohesiveness

If any system of thought is incoherent, then it cannot be trusted. For instance, when I was a child,
one of my older brothers discovered that our parents were hiding our Christmas gifts in a large cardboard
box under their bed. Youve got to be kidding! For a kid, this was like a treasure chest. Once the secret
was out, the temptation seemed too great to resist. We just had to take a peek. With much eagerness,
we each took a turn sneaking into this dark hiding place. What started as a one-time endeavor, turned
into multiple visits a day; that is, until we were called out for it. My mother discovered that the lid to the
box was not properly closed. One of us was careless.
As always, when my mother did not know who was the guilty child, she lined us boys up in the
kitchen, from the oldest to the youngest, with me at the end. We were all guilty, but which one of us was
going to take the fall? The questioning began with James, my oldest brother. He quickly denied knowing
anything about it. As the stern face of my mother turned from James to her middle child, with a voice of
certainty, Jason belted out, It wasnt me, Mommy, I made sure I closed the lid every time I looked!
Though young Jason was truthful, for he was not the reason we got caught, his defense was the
reason we all got busted. The inconsistency in this story is easy to spot, but any inconsistency reveals
that something is amiss. My brothers self-incriminating confession is a funny memory now, but what if
our inconsistency happens to exist in the core beliefs of our worldview?
Minor inconsistencies in peripheral matters may be easily corrected in any system of thought, but
inconsistency in the primary and core presuppositional statements of how we view life exposes a real
problem with the conceptual system itself. An atheist and a Christian may both be mistaken about who
won the World Series in 1976, but this mistake does not, in-and-of-itself, undermine either one of their
worldviews. This bit of knowledge is tangential to their overall conceptual system of thought. It is of
much greater concern, however, if the presuppositions behind their worldview are faulty. If the
foundation is broken, there is no hope for the building to remain standing.
C. Stephen Evans, professor of philosophy at Baylor University, understood that believing in God
is not the same thing as believing in the Loch Ness monster: The Loch Ness monster is merely one
more thing God, however, is not merely one more thing. The person who believes in God and the
person who does not believe in God do not merely disagree about God, they disagree about the very
character of the universe.[10.5] It is harmless enough if we happen to be mistaken about who won the
1976 World Series, but if we happen to get the God question wrong, essentially everything else that we
believe will be negatively affected.
For instance, logical positivism used to be popular in the early part of the twentieth century.
Logical positivists claimed that only two types of propositions were meaningful: analytic statements and
synthetic statements that were empirically verifiable. An analytic statement is a proposition that is true
by virtue of its meaning. The statement all bachelors are single is an example of an analytic
statement. It is meaningful because of the impossibility of the contrary. The statement, by the very
nature of it own terms, verifies itself. A verifiable synthetic statement, on the other hand, is a proposition
that is confirmed by sense experience. The fire is hot is a meaningful statement because it is easily
demonstrated by the empirical test of putting your hand into the flames. If any proposition was unable to

meet these two forms of verification, then it was considered a non-meaningful statement.
Because it is impossible to verify Gods existence through empirical examination, logical
positivists argued, belief in God is nonsensical. In his book Language, Truth, and Logic, professor of logic
at Oxford, Alfred J. Ayer (1910-1989), explained:
There can be no way of proving that the existence of a god, such as the God of
Christianity, is even probable. Yet this also is easily shown. For if the existence of such a god
were probable, then the proposition that he existed would be an empirical hypothesis. And in that
case it would be possible to deduce from it, and other empirical hypotheses, certain experiential
propositions which were not deducible from those other hypotheses alone. But in fact this is not
possible.For to say that God exists is to make a metaphysical utterance which cannot be
either true or false. And by the same criterion, no sentence which purports to describe the nature
of a transcendent god can possess any literal significance.[10.6]
Consequently, logical positivists, such as Ayer, took pride in claiming that metaphysical
statements, such as God exists, could not be verified as meaningful, and thus should not be accepted.
Their confidence in their criteria for verification continued until people turned their own verification
principle on them. No proposition is meaningful unless its an analytic or synthetic statement is itself a
proposition that is neither analytic nor synthetic. Logical positivists unwittingly undermined their own
foundation by making the metaphysical statement that only non-metaphysical statements are
meaningful. Consequently, logical positivism self-destructs it is self-referentially absurd.
The inconsistency within logical positivism is not merely a peripheral matter, such as who won
the 1976 World Series; it is rather a fatal flaw in the philosophical system itself. Yet, how about
naturalism, empiricism, and rationalism? Do these core presuppositions uphold a consistent and
cohesive worldview? Can these worldviews support themselves?

We Must All Start Somewhere

We must remember that we all have presuppositions that we either loosely take for granted or
we firmly presuppose. Consciously or unconsciously, we all start somewhere. Even evidentialists, who
claim that every belief must be supported by evidence, recognize the impossibility of such a claim. Not
only do they not have any evidence to support the presupposition that every belief requires evidence,
they also understand that each belief would require infinitely more beliefs. Evidentialists, whether they
like it or not, build their worldview on the unscientific claim that every justified belief requires evidence.
They, like all of us, must start at some given point. Some start with a commitment to naturalism and
empiricism, others start with divine revelation and a personal God. Regardless, every philosopher,
scientist, skeptic, religious thinker, and soccer mom has a foundation that undergirds all of their beliefs.
What are your presuppositions? What do you think about God, about knowledge, and about
ethics? Do you presuppose that there is a God or not? Do you believe that you are self-sufficient to build
a trustworthy worldview, or do you believe you need divine revelation to guide you? Do you believe
ethics are universal or relative in nature?

Required to Remain Faithful

Though I believe God has written the answers to these questions on our hearts by giving us the
innate knowledge of Himself, of logic, and of morality, for the sake of the argument, lets say that you

honestly do not know. I dont know if there is a God or not. I dont know if ethics are universal. I
dont know if I believe in divine revelation or not. I am skeptical. If agnosticism is your stance to these
all-important questions, then go ahead and answer them in the negative. Go ahead and say that you
dont believe in God. Say that you dont believe in divine revelation or in an absolute code of morality.
Presuppose naturalism (that there is no God), empiricism (that there is no divine revelation), and
relativism (that there is no absolute standard of right and wrong) and then see if you can construct a
cohesive and consistent worldview on the foundation you have chosen.
However, no matter what presuppositions you have chosen, you must remain consistent with
them until the end. It is logically inconsistent to jump from one presuppositional foundation to the next.
We have seen how Bertrand Russell cheated when he critiqued the cosmological argument. He did not
stay true to his core epistemological presupposition empiricism. If you are an atheist, stick to your
guns. Follow through with your presuppositions. Dont build on someone elses foundation. Hold strong
to what you believe. Take Socrates advice and follow the argument wherever it leads.[10.7] If there is
no such thing as a supernatural and personal God, then the consequences must be accepted and
embraced. Cheaters cannot be trusted, and this includes ourselves.
Because we have no choice but to accept a few core presuppositions, the only rational thing for
us to do is examine the validity of our presuppositions and follow them through to their logical and
natural conclusions. If our presuppositions hold up under the weight, then they are worth maintaining. If
we discover our worldview is inconsistent with itself, then we are justified in rejecting it and looking for
another. As in the words of the presuppositional apologist Gordon Clark (1902-1985):
If one system can provide plausible solutions to many problems while another leaves too many
questions unanswered, if one system tends less to skepticism and gives more meaning to life, if one
worldview is consistent while the others are self-contradictory, who can deny us, since we must choose,
the right to choose the more promising first principle.[10.8]
No matter how rational our line of reasoning may be, if our presuppositional foundation is
defective, then the system itself should be discarded. After all, as R. C. Sproul explains:
A scientist who refuses to acknowledge facts that he knows are true can hardly be expected to
arrive at sound conclusions. Any reasoning process that begins with a denial of the known and proceeds
on the basis of prejudice can hardly produce light, no matter how lucid and cogent the argument may
proceed after the initial error is made.[10.9]
Cohesiveness, therefore, is necessary for any worldview. If a worldview cannot uphold its own
weight, but falls into absurdity under the pressure of its own truth claims, then it is not a worldview
worth embracing.
Why would you knowingly build your house on an active fault line? Why then would you want to
build your life on a faulty worldview? In fact, to continue to embrace and defend a faulty and incoherent
worldview is to prove you are willing to embrace the absurd and willfully blind yourself to the truth.

Conclusion
Does the Christian worldview support itself? Can the naturalistic worldview remain consistent
with its basic core beliefs? No philosophical, humanistic or religious system of thought is based on a
single line of thought that leads to an eternal regression without a foundation.

Atheism, pantheism, supernaturalism, naturalism or any other worldview has a foundation, an

interlinking system of thought based on a core set of presuppositions that are fitted together, whether
consistently or inconsistently. Everyone has presuppositions, and if we want to prove that our
presuppositions are worth embracing, then we must construct a consistent worldview based on those
presuppositions.
Cohesiveness, cohesiveness, cohesiveness, therefore, is the ultimate test behind any worldview.
As we shall see, the Christian worldview has the only valid presuppositional foundation, as it is the only
conceptual system of thought that successfully passes the all-important test of cohesiveness.

PART IV. The Irrationality of Unbelief

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.
Ecclesiastes 10:3

11. The Irrationality of Naturalism

The Christian worldview is true because of the impossibility of the contrary. It is not merely the
best worldview out of all the other possible worldviews; it is the only coherent worldview. All the
conditions that are necessary for knowledge are completely lost without the God of the Bible. Both
deductive and inductive knowledge requires divine revelation to be communicated to those who are
made in the likeness of a self-revealing, rational, loving, personal, and trinitarian God. If we take the
trinitarian and self-revelatory God out of the equation, and leave man to himself, then absolute absurdity
is all that remains.
To help demonstrate this, lets take a look at the logical consequences of the most basic
presuppositions that lay behind the various non-Christian worldviews: naturalism, impersonalsupernaturalism, and personal-supernaturalism. Are any of these foundations secure enough to hold
their own weight?
We begin by examining the cohesiveness of one of the more widely accepted presuppositions in
the Western world naturalism. Naturalism is the basic belief that the material universe is all that there
is in existence. This means the universe is a closed system, with no supernatural explanation for any of
lifes questions. This implies (1.) materialism the universe consists of only that which is physical and
material. This also implies (2.) empiricism knowledge is limited to the senses. (3.) Determinism is also
implied man is merely a machine, without a free will, with his thoughts and emotions being determined
by the fixed laws of physics that control the motions of all moving things in this materialistic universe.
(4.) Relativism is also a byproduct of naturalism without a Divine lawgiver, ethical morality must be
situational and relative at best. (5.) Nihilism, sadly, comes next all of world history and every individual
life within it are ultimately meaningless.[11.1] With no design, there is no purpose. In the end, nothing
truly makes any sense. Take God out of the picture and this is what we get.

The Irrationality of Materialism

But lets start from the beginning. Naturalism leads to materialism all that exists is reducible to
mass and energy independent of any supernatural influence.
Materialism finds its roots in some of the earliest philosophers of ancient Greece. Thales
believed that the basic element of the universe was water, while Anaximenes believed that it was air.
Heraclitus concluded that everything is reducible to fire, and Pythagoras, the ancient mathematician,
said number was the basic element. Though the answers provided by these Presocratic philosophers
sound somewhat primitive, they were some of the first attempts to explain the universe without any
supernatural element.
What supposedly prevented the Greeks from abandoning belief in the gods was unexplainable,
natural phenomena. Any unusual or traumatic occurrences, which appeared to defy the orderly and
normal functions of nature, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and solar and lunar eclipses were viewed as
supernatural events. The wrath of the polytheistic gods must be behind such dreadful things, for what
other explanation could there be for such wild and unpredictable disturbances? The supernatural was
needed to explain such mysteries.
Thales, however, by the use of scientific observation, explained and predicted a solar eclipse.
What was once an act of the gods was now an act of nature. In time, science gave more and more

naturalistic explanations to many of the mysteries of the universe.

It was Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), and Isaac Newton (16421727) who supposedly dropped the bombshell on religion. Copernicus placed our sun at the center of the
universe. Galileo agreed with Copernicus, which did not place him in conflict with the Bible, but with
Aristotle and the Catholic Church. Newton provided a scientific explanation for the movements of our
planets in his law of gravitation. The mystery of how the earth and other planets suspend themselves in
space now had a naturalistic answer. As science seemed to be providing more and more answers, the
need for God was slowly being pushed out the back door.
Naturalism was growing stronger, but it was not until Charles Darwin (1809-1882) provided a
scientific explanation for the origins of life that, according to Richard Dawkins, it became possible to be
an intellectually fulfilled atheist.[11.2] A naturalistic understanding of the origins of life was not new to
Darwin, but according to law professor Phillip Johnson from the University of California, Charles Darwin
made evolution a scientific concept by showing, or claiming to have shown, that major transformations
could occur in very small steps by purely natural means, so that time, chance, and differential survival
could take the place of a miracle.[11.3] The English biologist Julian Huxley (1887-1975) went as far as
to say, In the evolutionary scheme of thought there is no longer either need or room for the
supernatural. The earth was not created, it evolved. So did all the animals and plants that inhabit it,
including our human selves, mind and soul as well as brain and body.[11.4]
What Darwin was to biology, Georges Lematre (1894-1966) and Edwin Hubble (1864-1934) were
to astronomy. Lematre proposed that the universe had a beginning by tweaking the calculations of
Einstein, who believed that the universe was in an eternally constant state.[11.5] By mapping the
galaxies and their movements, Hubble verified Lematres theory by proving the universe is ever
expanding by showing that galaxies are moving further and further away from each other. With the
expansion of the universe, it was postulated that everything originated at a single point a singularity.
With a big bang, from this singularity, the universe exploded into existence out of nothing.
Though this sounds like Genesis 1:1, naturalists have sought to explain how the Big Bang could have
occurred without God. With evolution and the Big Bang[11.6] as naturalistic explanations to the origin of
the universe, supposedly the physical laws of nature have taken the place of any supernatural
explanation.
But certain questions need to be answered. Can any naturalistic/materialistic explanation support
the laws of physics? Can materialism support its own foundation? First, we will show the absurdity of a
Big Bang without God, and then we will show the absurdity of evolution of the species through natural
selection. Neither one of these theories can give an account for the laws that undergird their foundation.

The Irrationality of the Big Bang

If a supernatural God is not an option, there are only two possible answers to the origin of the
universe. Not three of four, but only two answers can be given the universe either came into existence
out of nothing, or its eternal. Both fly directly in the face of the laws of science.
If you believe that the world came out of nothing, you must truly begin with nothing! Christian
apologist Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) explained that if you start with nothing, you couldnt secretly
add something to the equation: Now, to hold this view, it must be absolutely nothing. It must be what I
call nothing nothing. If one is to accept this answer, it must be nothing nothing, which means there must

be no energy, no mass, no motion, and no personality.[11.7] I would also add that there would be no
such thing as time or chance. If nothing exists, then time and chance do not exist either. They do not
exist even as concepts without something (such as an intelligence or mass and energy) being in
existence first.
So, did nothing create something? Former Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking and former
Oxford chemist Peter Atkins claim that it did. Hawking explains that because there is a law like gravity,
the universe can and will create itself from nothing.[11.8] Atkins, with less explanation but with more
words, concurs:
In the beginning there was nothing. Absolute void, not merely empty space. There was no
space. There was no space; nor was there time, for this was before time. The universe was
without form and void.
By chance there was a fluctuation, and set of points, emerging from nothing and taking
their existence from the pattern they formed, defined a time. The chance formation of a pattern
resulted in the emergence of time from coalesced opposites, its emergence from nothing. From
absolute nothing, absolutely without intervention, there came into being rudimentary existence.
[11.9]
Do Hawking and Atkins not know that they sound ridiculous? For something to come from nothing,
then something must have created itself. But self-creation is impossible. As R. C. Sproul explains, For
something to create itself, it must have the ability to be and not be at the same time and in the same
relationship.[11.10] If the law of gravity is an observed property of matter, how did the law of gravity
exist when matter did not exist? How can gravity create anything if it does not even exist?
Bewildered by Hawkings statement, John Lennox states: To presuppose the existence of the
universe to account for its existence sounds like something out of Alice in Wonderland, not
science.[11.11] But, Atkins explanation is not any better. Is it not completely absurd to say, In the
beginning there was nothing, and then go on to say, By chance there was a fluctuation? How can
there be chance when there is nothing to begin with? What is chance in a non-existent universe? It is
absurd to think that we can create something when we add nothing to nothing. Nothing, plus chance
(which is nothing), plus time (which is also nothing) brought about everything. If time and chance are
nothing, it does not matter how much of it there is, it still adds up to nothing. The old maxim of
Parmenides (515-460 BC) principle, Ex nihilo nihil fit, still rings true today: nothing can come from
nothing.
To say otherwise, as we already pointed out in chapter 10, goes directly against the first, second,
and third laws of motion that state every cause must have an effect. To believe that the universe is an
effect or a fluctuation that had no cause is evidence that we would rather deny the existence of God than
remain rationally sane. To say nothing created something is to believe in a divine miracle without
believing in God. What this all goes to show is that nonsense remains, concluded Lennox, even when
talked by world-famous scientists.[11.12]
Well, maybe its impossible for nothing to produce something, but that does not mean the
universe could not be eternal. The cyclic theory of the universe states that the universe is its own eternal
cause. Under this model, from the moment of the Big Bang, the universe will continue to expand outward
in all directions until its own gravitational force is so strong that it pulls everything back on itself,
causing the universe to collapse into a cosmic black hole, which in return provides the energy needed for

another Big Bang. This eternal process of expansion and retraction repeats itself indefinitely.
This, however, only pushes the problem back. Who fired off the first Big Bang to get things
started? An infinite regression of effects does not solve anything. It is an attempt to explain the effects
by a cause, but never willing to answer the question of who or what caused the first effect. Because selfcreation is a logical contradiction, it is impossible for the universe to have gone through multiple selfcreations.
Moreover, the second law of thermodynamics states that the total amount of useable energy in
any isolated system never increases. The design and complexity of a German high-performance vehicle
does not improve over time. If you dont believe me, all you have to do is to ask the mechanic who
continued to be paid for working on my Audi A4. Though it ran with precision the first few years, before
trading it in for a new car, it would not stay out of the garage. But I am not picking on German
engineering, for all things in the universe from automobiles to dying stars fall apart over time.
Because the amount of useable energy in any closed system naturally dissipates, the universe is not selfsustainable. Thus, even if the universe went through multiple self-recreations, the process could not
sustain itself forever. Ultimately, everything would end in maximum entropy (disorder). Without an
external power source, eventually the universe would die with all of its useable energy being fully
depleted. And if there is a definite end to the process, then there could not have been an eternal
beginning. Thus, it is irrational to think the universe is eternal.
Moreover, explosions do not create complex and wonderfully designed infrastructures no matter
how many times they occur. Chance and time will never create the Empire State building with its running
water, electricity, elevators, and nicely fitted glass windows by the random explosion of raw materials.
The massive energy behind the Big Bang just so happened to throw all of the raw materials of the
universe into a precise, mathematical, and uniform framework where it runs with the precision of the
immaterial laws of physics. Are we to believe raw matter was randomly and blindly thrown into perfectly
and mathematically structured galaxies? Even Big Bang supporter James Trefil, professor of physics at
George Mason University, confessed that there shouldnt be galaxies out there at all, and even if there
are galaxies, they shouldnt be grouped together the way they are. He went on to say:
The problem of explaining the existence of galaxies has proved to be one of the thorniest
in cosmology. By all rights, they just shouldnt be there, yet there they sit. Its hard to convey the
depth of the frustration that this simple fact induces among scientists.[11.13]
The Big Bang did not merely end with lifeless galaxies, but with a perfectly positioned planet that
is capable of all the vast amount of complexities that are necessary for life to thrive and flourish known
as the anthropic principle. Intelligent Design advocate Jim Nelson Black summarizes the madness in his
book The Death of Evolution:
We also know that the mixture of oxygen and nitrogen in Earths atmosphere must be
exact, within very narrow limits, for us to breathe. In order to sustain life, the planet must be
precisely situated in the solar system to remain in the habitable zone around the sun. If the earth
were to orbit 5 percent closer to the sun, the seas, rivers, and lakes would evaporate and all
carbon-based life would cease to exist. If the planet were 20 percent farther from the sun, the
water would freeze.
Relative to the size of the planet, the outer crust of the earth is paper thin. If it were any
thicker, the process of plate tectonics, which controls the inner temperature of the earth and the

presence of chemical elements essential to life, could not take place. The terrestrial depth also
affects the movement of molten elements beneath the surface of the earth, including the iron ore
responsible for the magnetic field around our planet. The magnetic field, in turn, shields the
planet from dangerous solar winds generated by the sun and keeps the earth in precisely the
right orbit with relation to the sun, moon, and neighboring planets.
These are merely a few of the factors that make the earth just right for life. And there are
many more . . . The chance of all these factors and the hundreds of others that allow life to exist
on earth occurring purely by chance are astronomical the odds are literally trillions to one. The
British mathematician Roger Penrose conducted a study of the probability of a universe capable
of sustaining life occurring by chance and found the odds to be 1 in 1010 123 (expressed as 10 to
the power of 10 to the power of 123). That is a mind-boggling number. According to probability
theory, odds of 1 to 1050 represents Zero Probability. But Dr. Penroses calculations place the
odds of life emerging as Darwin described it at more than a trillion trillion trillion times less than
Zero.[11.14]
Those numbers presuppose that the building blocks to the universe were already in existence. If,
however, nothing comes out of nothing, then there is no chance for the Big Bang to have created the
universe on its own initiative. Black rightly concluded that holding to the Big Bang theory demands a
complete suspension of belief better suited of the readers of fairy tales.[11.15] Even the evolutionist
Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882-1944) conceded that the scientific evidence behind the origins of the
universe, though he thought it was repugnant, pointed to an Intelligent Designer:
The picture of the world, as drawn in existing physical theories shows arrangements of
the individual elements for which the odds are multillions to 1 against an origin by chance. Some
people would like to call this non-random feature of the world purpose or design; but I will call it
non-committally anti-chance. We are unwilling in physics that anti-chance plays any part in the
reactions between the systems of billions of atoms and quanta that we study; and indeed all our
experimental evidence goes to show that these are governed by the laws of chance. Accordingly,
we sweep anti-chance out of the laws of physics out of the differential equations. Naturally,
therefore, it reappears in the boundary conditions, for it must be got into the scheme somewhere.
By sweeping it far enough away from the sphere of our current physical problems, we fancy we
have got rid of it. It is only when some of us are so misguided as to try to get back billions of
years into the past that we find the sweepings all piled up like a high wall and forming a
boundary a beginning of time which we cannot climb over.[11.16]
The mathematical odds are too great to overcome for the universe to have been caused by mere
chance. After knowing the facts, it takes more blind faith to believe that a random universe blindly
created itself than it does to accept an Intelligent Designer.
Moreover, these mathematical odds create another problem for the naturalists. Not merely do the
mathematical odds oppose the possibility of the universe being sparked into existence by an
unintelligent cosmic explosion, an unintelligent explosion cannot provide any explanation for the
existence of the absolute and immaterial laws of math.
The laws of physics operate in accordance to the laws of math. For instance, the acceleration of
gravity can be precisely measured by a mathematical equation (g = 9.81m/s/s). The distance a falling
object travels increases at the square of the time it travels. According to the inverse square law, the
intensity of gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance of two bodies. The force of a

magnet will diminish with the cube of its distance away from ferromagnetic materials (such as iron). The
point is that the laws of physics cannot be separated from mathematics. Seeing this connection caused
English astronomer James Jeans (1877-1846) to remark: The universe appears to have been designed by
a pure mathematician.[11.17]
But where do the immaterial and mathematical laws come from? How can mathematics exist
independently of intelligent consciousness? Professor of mathematical sciences at Trinity Western
University, John Byl, explains why this is an awkward dilemma for naturalists:
Naturalism has great difficulty dealing with mathematical objects. Mathematical objects
are abstract ideas. How can matter ever evolve into ideas? How can ideas exist, other than in
some mind? Naturalism alleges that mind evolved from matter. How, then, did mathematics exist
before mind evolved? If the answer is that mathematics did not exist before the appearance of
man, how are we to account for the mathematical structure of the laws of physics, which are
assumed to have held from the start? If mathematical truths are universal and eternal, this seems
to require the existence of a universal, eternal Mind. Yet, if mathematics exists objectively,
beyond the human mind and physical world, how can man gain access to it?[11.18]
This was one of the reasons the long-standing atheist Antony Flew renounced his atheism: The
important point is not merely that there are regularities in nature, but that these regularities are
mathematically precise, universal, and tied together.[11.19] A self-creating universe is nonsensical
because it destroys the foundation that it is seeking to uphold the laws of nature. Consequently, the
Big Bang theory cannot explain why the world is orderly, symmetrically arranged, and abides by the
mathematical principles of the laws of physics.
Seeing an Intelligent Mind behind the mathematically precise structure of the universe seems
more natural and plausible than thinking that blind chance created and organized the universe out of
nothing. Yet, the New York Times columnist and science writer George Johnson would have us believe
that our minds are playing tricks on us when we automatically assume that such geometrical
organization found throughout the universe was engineered by an Intelligent Mind: When we see such
intricate symmetry, our brains automatically assume there was an inventor.[11.20] But this apparent
design, says Johnson, is merely an illusion. Similarly, evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin remarked
that objects of nature only appear to have been carefully and artfully designed.[11.21]
Johnson went on to say that this instinct to see God as the architect must be suppressed if ever
we are to make sense of the universe: Overcoming that instinct took centuries, and it was only then that
the living world began to make sense.[11.22] Biologists must constantly keep in mind, according to
Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, that what they see was not designed, but rather
evolved.[11.23]
In other words, though it is not natural for us to believe that the universe created itself, we must
suppress the knowledge of God that is triggered when observing the universe if we are ever to believe
that the world is without design or purpose. And, according to Johnson, it is only when we see the world
as without design or purpose that we can make sense of a senseless world.
Naturalists, such as Eddington, Lewontin, Crick, and Johnson, would have us believe that if we
happened to find a watch in the desert, with all of its interworking pieces collectively operating for a
single purpose with mathematical precision, and the watchmaker was not also visibly present, then we
should not believe the watch had any intelligent designer. If the watchmaker cannot be observed through

scientific observation, then a watchmaker must be ruled out.[11.24]

However, the universe is a lot more complex and mathematically precise than any watch. If it is
only rational to think watches have watchmakers, then it is also irrational to think the cosmic watch of
the universe does not have an intelligent designer. Watches are merely an imperfect copy of our solar
system. Watches often need resetting, but the earth continues to make a full spin on its axis every 24
hours and completes a full rotation around the sun every 365.25 days. There are far more complexities
and mathematical necessities that go into keeping the world ticking than any man-made clock.

Conclusion
A naturalistic explanation of the universe, no matter if it be by a non-supernatural explosion from
a singularity or by some other means, cannot account for the laws of nature that are rooted in the
immaterial laws of mathematics. If there is a universe without a Divine Mind, why is there order and
geometrical structure when chaos is what should be expected?

12. The Irrationality of Evolution

When thinking about evolution, one must not confuse microevolution (the ability of various
species to adapt to their surroundings, such as when a strain of the flu becomes immune to certain
antibodies over time) with macroevolution (the idea that every species has descended from a common
ancestor). It is sloppy science to confuse microevolution with macroevolution. Proving microevolution
does not equate to proving macro-evolution.
Microevolution is a fact that is easily demonstrated by taking note of the different ethnicities of
people that have developed along geographical lines. Macroevolution, on the other hand, is the theory
that the complexities of the human race have evolved from non-living matter through the slow process of
adaptation. Moreover, once the material world came into existence out of nothing, macroevolution
demands that the immaterial (i.e., consciousness, emotions, etc.) arose from the material, that life
derived from non-life, and that our emotions, thoughts, and aspirations slowly developed from dead
matter.
Darwin did not provide any evidence for macroevolution, but filled his book, On the Origin of
Species, with multiple examples of microevolution. Daniel Dennett, the great modern day apologist for
Darwins theory of evolution, admitted that Darwins observations were limited to the study of various
adaptations taking place in already existing traits within already existing species:
Darwin doesnt even purport to offer an explanation of the origin of the first species, or of
life itself; he begins in the middle, supposing many different species with many different talents
already present, and claims that starting from such a mid-stage point, the process he has
described will inevitably hone and diversify the talents of the species already existing.[12.1]
In other words, after Darwin had observed the ability a particular species has to adapt to its
surroundings, he concluded that man evolved from apes from natural selection. Lennox, however,
reminds us that the word selection ought to alert our attention to this: selection is made from already
existing entities.[12.2] Adaptation can take place within traits and entities that already exist. Bird beaks
can get longer or shorter, but there is no empirical evidence that beaks turn into snouts. Skin color can
change and height can vary from generation to generation depending on who marries whom, but all
these subtle changes are only changes in preexisting traits.
It is not as if Darwin observed any instance where there was a creative process or development
of new entities where those entities were not in existence in the first place. The survival of the fittest is
one thing; the arrival of the fittest is quite another. Lets not get these two things confused.

Contrary to the Law of Biogenesis

Macroevolution seems silly. A long time ago, a stone, or a stick, or a pile of dirt, or a pool of
water reproduced itself. One of these rocks, or sticks, or dirt piles, or water holes after many more years,
became self-conscious. It had feelings. It no longer wanted to be a rock, so it decided to turn into a
monkey. This sounds absurd, but how does slowing the process down and adding a million more steps to
the process help? How can life arise from dead matter?
Not only does it sound ridiculous, it is unsupported by the evidence. Life evolving from non-life
goes against the law of biogenesis. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) researched the possibility of life mutating
from non-life and concluded, all life comes from the egg (Omne vivum ex ovo). Living beings come only

from other living beings. Though there has been no observable exception to this rule, the same
naturalists who reject miracles, such as the resurrection of Christ that was verified by more than 500
eyewitnesses, claim that we are to believe in a more radical miracle that life evolved from non-life
without even a single eyewitness. Which is more unbelievable, the resurrection of Christ or life being
birthed from a rock? At least the Christian worldview makes room for miracles and the supernatural.

Contrary to the Reproductive Principle

Supposedly, because of the all-important reproductive principle known as natural selection, life
emerged from non-living matter through slow adaptations. The elements or parts that were not useful for
life died out, and those that were useful for life were reproduced. Supposedly a pile of dirt eventually
becoming living, thinking matter is not silly or miraculous sounding if we slow the process down to
billions of years.
Yet, how does the reproductive system work for that which is not living? Seeing that reproduction
is one of the attributes of life, life must first exist before it can reproduce itself. Survival of the fittest
demands that the reproductive system be already functioning before any adaptations can take place.
Rocks do not mutate or reproduce themselves. How does natural selection and the reproduction process
ever get started? For good reason, Charles Darwin was completely mute on this point.

Contrary to the Irreducibly Complex Principle

To say that lighting struck a warm puddle of water (i.e., a prebiotic soup) and out popped living
matter the simplest cells is altogether unbelievable and goes against the theory that life evolved
from slow and gradual adaptations. Especially seeing how complex and amazing the simplest cell
actually is which includes more than three billion moving parts and complex chemical reactions.
In his book Refuting Evolution, Jonathan Sarfati explains the complexity of the simplest cell and
cites the work of molecular biologist Michael Denton, who provides this amazing explanation:
Perhaps in no other area of modern biology is the challenge posed by the extreme
complexity and ingenuity of biological adaptations more apparent than in the fascinating new
molecular world of the cell.To grasp the reality of life as it has been revealed by molecular
biology, we must magnify a cell a thousand million times until it is twenty kilometers in diameter
and resembles a giant airship large enough to cover a great city like London or New York. What
we would then see would be an object of unparalleled complexity and adaptive design. On the
surface of the cell we would see millions of openings, like port holes of a vast space ship,
opening and closing to allow a continual stream of materials to flow in and out. If we were to
enter one of these openings we would find ourselves in a world of supreme technology and
bewildering complexity.
Is it really credible that random processes could have constructed a reality, the smallest
element of which a functional protein or gene is complex beyond our own creative capacities,
a reality which is the very antithesis of chance, which excels in every sense anything produced by
the intelligence of man? Alongside the level of ingenuity and complexity exhibited by the
molecular machinery of life, even our most advanced artifacts appear clumsy.[12.3]
In addition, the simplest cells host a genetic code that is duplicated in replication. A vast amount
of information is copied from DNA to RNA (ribonucleic acid) in transcription. DNA hosts semantic

information, like an instruction manual, with chemical subunits that function as alphabetic characters.
The genetic language consists of an alphabet (coding system), correct spelling, grammar (proper
arrangements of the chemical subunits), meaning (semantics), and intended purpose. This genetic
information is translated as it is conveyed to the amino acids, which are assembled into proteins. This
process is amazing. Yet, how did this knowledge emerge? Where did this specific and functional
information come from? Another important question is how did the simplest cell evolve with the ability to
transmit, store, and translate all this information in its replication process?
Human DNA, for instance, contains more than 3.5 billion letters and enough information to fill 12
sets of the 32 volume Encyclopedia Britannica. All empirical evidence and common sense would have us
believe that functional information comes from intelligent minds. DNA, according to the founder of
Microsoft, Bill Gates, is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever
created. Yet, in the same way it seems absurd to think that time and chance could write a complex
computer program, it seems absurd to think that blind chance just so happened to write the genetic code
of life on strands of DNA. It takes a fair amount of blind faith to believe that chance could construct a
marble statue that looks like Abraham Lincoln, but more than blind faith is needed to believe that chance
could write a 385 volume instruction manual and have it neatly stacked on Lincolns lap. Such
information simply cannot be explained by the random and blind arrangement of mass and energy.
This, according to Paul Davies, arguably the most influential contemporary expositor of modern
science,[12.4] is a major problem for the theory of evolution: The problem of how meaningful or
semantic information can emerge spontaneously from a collection of mindless molecules subject to blind
and purposeless forces presents a deep conceptual challenge.[12.5]
It must be kept in mind that macroevolution cannot take place without new genetic information
being added to an organisms genetic code. Without an increase of information, it is impossible for the
simplest organism to have evolved into something more complex.
Yet, there is not one stand of observable evidence that new genetic information can be created.
For instance, microevolution only operates on genetic information that already exists. For proteins to be
capable of building new and more complex forms of life, they would need new and more complex
instructions to follow. Mutations that alter existing traits (e.g., varieties of corn and fruit flies) is not a
formation of new information but the rearrangement of preexisting information. On the molecular level,
something was not created but broken in the mutation process.
If not created, then where does genetic information come from? Stephen C. Meyer, co-founder of
the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute, explains why we should not rule out an
Intelligent Mind when asking this question:
Scientists in many fields recognize the connection between intelligence and information
and make inferences accordingly. Archaeologists assume that a scribe produces the inscriptions
on the Rosetta Stone. Evolutionary anthropologists establish the intelligence of early hominids
from chipped flints that are too improbably specified in form and function to have been produced
by natural causes. NASAs search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) presupposes that any
specified information embedded in electromagnetic signals coming from space would indicate an
intelligent source. As yet, radio astronomers have not found any such information-bearing
signals. But closer to home, molecular biologists have identified information-rich sequences and
systems in the cell, suggesting, by the same logic, the past existence of an intelligent cause for
those effects.[12.6]

All this genetic information and immense complexity supposedly came from non-living matter
that magically happened to be able to reproduce itself. Unless you believe in magic without a magician,
the engineering marvel of the simplest cell could not have evolved from non-living matter. For life to
begin, the simple cell had to spontaneously appear with all its necessary parts, thrown together in the
proper place, creating the semantic information needed for the living cell to reproduce itself.
Biochemist Michael Behe, in his book Darwins Black Box, goes into great detail not only in
explaining the complexity of the single cell, but also explaining how this complexity is needed, with all of
its diverse parts simultaneously working together, for a single cell to reproduce itself.[12.7] The cell is a
functionally integrated system that only operates when each of its components (processors, power
supplies, and switches) function together.
That is, the simplest cell is irreducibly complex. Behe illustrated this by observing the
components of an old-fashion mousetrap. A mousetrap has six components a platform, a spring, a wire,
a hammer, a catch, and a holding bar. For the mousetrap to work, all of its components must be present
and in their proper place, or otherwise it cannot function. Remove just one of its parts, such as the
spring, and the trap is completely useless. All the different components of the simplest cell likewise are
needed for it to be able to reproduce itself. The cell is irreducibly complex. So, if the unnecessary parts
are discarded in the evolutionary process, the simplest cell had to come together simultaneously. Yet,
the coming together of all these components in a mere spontaneous moment goes against the theory
that things slowly adapt to survive. This means the single cell could not have evolved by reproduction,
for it either came fully intact or it did not come at all.
Darwin assumed that the simplest living cell would consist of a single component (a blob of
protoplasm),[12.8] but we have learned that it is more like a complex factory with a mass
telecommunications network. Understanding this, Dean Kenyon, professor emeritus of biology at San
Francisco State University, states: We have not the slightest chance of a chemical evolutionary origin
for even the simplest of cells.[12.9] This was another reason Flew turned his back on atheism, for he
concluded that the origin of life cannot be explained if you start with matter alone.[12.10] Christopher
Williams, professor of bio-chemistry at Ohio State University, echoed this same conclusion:
Few people outside of genetics or biochemistry realize that evolutionists still can provide
no substantive details at all about the origin of life, and particularly the origin of genetic
information in the first self-replicating organism. What genes did it require or did it even have
genes? How much DNA and RNA did it have or did it even have nucleic acids? How did huge
information-rich molecules arise before natural selection? Exactly how did the genetic code
linking nucleic acids to amino acids sequence originate? Clearly the origin of life the foundation
of evolution is still virtually all speculation, and little or no fact.[12.11]
What can be said of the simplest cell can be said of many things, such as sight. Sight could not
have evolved from non-sight because the eye needs all of its working components to function. Even
Darwin admitted: To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to
different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and
chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the
highest possible degree.[12.12]
If the eye must come intact for it to function, what good is 5 percent of an eye in the early
process of the adaptation of the eye? Richard Dawkins seems foolish when he tries to explain:

An ancient animal with 5 per cent of an eye might indeed have used it for something other
than sight, but it seems to me as likely that it used it for 5 per cent visionSo 1 per cent is better
than blindness. And 6 per cent is better than 5, 7 per cent better than 6, and so on up the gradual,
continuous series.[12.13]
Dawkins seems to be missing the point. With only 5 percent of the eye, there is absolutely no
vision. 5 percent, 10 percent, and even 50 percent of the eye equals zero percent eyesight. Vision is
impossible without all of its necessary components, and this indicates that it is impossible for the eye to
have slowly evolved. Because evolution is blind, it cannot create parts that will possibly be needed
thousands of years in the future. Supposedly, the evolutionary process eliminates that which is nonuseful for survival such as 5% of a non-functioning eye. For this reason, eyesight either comes intact, or
it does not come at all.
One of the most cited chemists in the world, James M. Tour, who is also professor of mechanical
engineering and materials science at Rice University, argued that no scientist is able to explain
macroevolution:
Does anyone understand the chemical details behind macroevolution? If so, I would like to
sit with that person and be taught, so I invite them to meet with me. Lunch will be my treat. Until
then, I will maintain that no chemist understands, hence we are collectively bewildered. And I
have not even addressed origin of first life issues. For me, that is even more scientifically
mysterious than evolution. Darwin never addressed origin of life, and I can see why he did not; he
was far too smart for that. Present day scientists that expose their thoughts on this become ever
so timid when they talk with me privately. I simply cannot understand the source of their
confidence when addressing their positions publicly.[12.14]
In a speech given at Georgia Tech, Tour defended his critique of macroevolution:
I will tell you as a scientist and a synthetic chemist: if anybody should be able to
understand evolution, it is me, because I make molecules for a living, and I dont just buy a kit,
and mix this and mix this, and get that. I mean, ab initio, I make molecules. I understand how hard
it is to make molecules. I understand that if I take Natures tool kit, it could be much easier,
because all the tools are already there, and I just mix it in the proportions, and I do it under these
conditions, but ab initio is very, very hard.
I dont understand evolution, and I will confess that to you. Is that OK, for me to say, I
dont understand this? Is that all right? I know that theres a lot of people out there that dont
understand anything about organic synthesis, but they understand evolution. I understand a lot
about making molecules; I dont understand evolution.
Let me tell you what goes on in the back rooms of science with National Academy
members, with Nobel Prize winners. I have sat with them, and when I get them alone, not in
public because its a scary thing, if you say what I just said I say, Do you understand all of
this, where all of this came from, and how this happens? Every time that I have sat with people
who are synthetic chemists, who understand this, they go Uh-uh. Nope. These people are just
so far off, on how to believe this stuff came together. Ive sat with National Academy members,
with Nobel Prize winners. Sometimes I will say, Do you understand this? And if theyre afraid to
say, Yes, they say nothing. They just stare at me, because they cant sincerely do it.

I was once brought in by the Dean of the Department, many years ago, and he was a
chemist. He was kind of concerned about some things. I said, Let me ask you something. Youre
a chemist. Do you understand this? How do you get DNA without a cell membrane? And how do
you get a cell membrane without a DNA? And how does all this come together from this piece of
jelly? We have no idea, we have no idea. I said, Isnt it interesting that you, the Dean of
science, and I, the chemistry professor, can talk about this quietly in your office, but we cant go
out there and talk about this?
But about seven or eight years ago I posted on my Web site that I dont understand. And I
said, I will buy lunch for anyone that will sit with me and explain to me evolution, and I wont
argue with you until I dont understand something I will ask you to clarify. But you cant wave by
and say, This enzyme does that. Youve got to get down in the details of where molecules are
built, for me. Nobody has come forward.
The Atheist Society contacted me. They said that they will buy the lunch, and they
challenged the Atheist Society, Go down to Houston and have lunch with this guy, and talk to
him. Nobody has come! Now remember, because Im just going to ask, when I stop
understanding what youre talking about, I will ask. So I sincerely want to know. I would like to
believe it. But I just cant.[12.15]

Cannot Give Account for Consciousness

Not only is the theory of evolution unable to explain the origins of life from dead matter, it has no
explanation for the origins of consciousness. Where did consciousness come from? In The Cosmic
Jackpot, evolutionist Paul Davies claims: Mindless, blundering atoms have conspired to make not just
life, not just mind, but understanding.[12.16] Yet, a few pages later he admitted that scientists dont
know how life began, and they are almost totally baffled by consciousness.[12.17] This is because
consciousness, which includes self-awareness and willful intent, cannot be reduced to merely physical
properties.
Because of this, Thomas Nagel, though he denies the existence of any divine intelligence, says
that natural evolution alone cannot explain the origins of consciousness:
If evolutionary theory is a purely physical theory, then it might in principle provide the
framework for a physical explanation of the appearance of behaviorally complex animal
organisms with central nervous systems. But subjective consciousness, if it is not reducible to
something physical, would not be part of this story; it would be left completely unexplained by
physical evolution even if the physical evolution of such organisms is in fact a causally
necessary and sufficient condition for consciousness.[12.18]

Not Supported by the Fossil Records

Moreover, where are these blind transitional species with only 5 percent of a non-functioning
eyeball? Where are the fossil records? Where are the missing links? Did Java Man disappear? What
happened to Lucy? Where is Piltdown Man when you need him? What about Nebraska Man? All these
supposed missing links that gave undeniable proof for the evolutionary process of the species have
turned out to be either frauds or blatant errors in judgment. Is there not just one missing link that can be
found? Colin Patterson, who was the senior paleontologist of the British Museum of Natural History, in
his book Evolution explained, when questioned, why he did not include any pictures or illustrations of

transitional forms:
I fully agree with your comments about the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary
transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them. I
will lay it on the line there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight
argument.[12.19]
In fact, according to paleontologist David Raup of the Field Museum of Natural History, the fossil
records have done nothing to assist Darwins theory of evolution:
We are now about 120 years after Darwin and the knowledge of the fossil record has been
greatly expanded. We now have a quarter of a million fossil species, but the situation hasnt
changed much. The record of evolution is still surprisingly jerky and, ironically, we have even
fewer examples of evolutionary transitions than we had in Darwins time.[12.20]
Niles Eldredge of the American Museum of Natural History was even bolder when he admitted:
We paleontologists have said that the history of life supports [the story of gradual adaptive change]
knowing all the while it does not.[12.21]
Rather than working in favor of evolution, according to Stephen Meyer, the fossil records provide
evidence for Intelligent Design. He cites Darwins admission that If numerous species, belonging to the
same genera or families, have really started into life all at once, that fact would be fatal to the theory of
descent with slow modification through natural selection.[12.22]
Yet, paleontologists around the world have discovered a sudden explosion of fossil records in
Cambrian strata in the sedimentary rock layers without any transitional intermediate fossils connecting
the Cambrian animals to simpler Precambrian forms.[12.23] Moreover, within the Cambrian layer there
is a startling array of completely novel animal forms with novel body plans; and a pattern in which
radical differences in form in the fossil record arise before more minor, small-scale diversification and
variations.[12.24] This, according to Meyer, turns on its head the Darwinian expectation of small
incremental change only gradually resulting in larger and larger differences in form.[12.25]
Such facts as these caused David Berlinski, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, to claim:
The greater part of the debate over Darwins theory is not in service to the facts. Nor to
the theory. The facts are what they have always been: They are unforthcoming. Among
evolutionary biologists, these matters are well known. In the privacy of the Susan B. Anthony
faculty lounge, they often tell one another with relief that it is a very good thing the public has no
idea what the research literature really suggests.
Darwin? a Nobel laureate in biology once remarked to me over his bifocals. Thats just
the party line.[12.26]

Evolution is Based in a Naturalistic Worldview, Not Science

The theory of evolution is riddled with problems, but according to Lewontin, these problems are
easier to embrace than admitting that there is a God:
We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in
spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the

tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior
commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science
somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the
contrary, that we are forced by our priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus
of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is an absolute,
for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.[12.27]
As the quote above suggests, quite a few scientists are convinced of macroevolution not because
of the evidence, but because it is a logical conclusion of naturalism. Thus, macroevolution is more of a
philosophical conclusion than a scientific finding. Lewontin confessed that he, as with other scientists,
had an a prior commitment to naturalism which is a philosophical worldview. Dennett was right when
he claimed that there is no such thing as philosophy-free science; there is only science whose
philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination.[12.28] If we presuppose and remain
committed to naturalism, then macroevolution must be embraced regardless of the evidence. As we have
seen, scientists, such as Dawkins and Lewontin, continue to embrace naturalism even when they are
presented with opposing evidence. Because God is unacceptable, macroevolution, even with all of its
inconsistencies, must be maintained.
Naturalism is the framework that these scientists accept by faith and utilize to understand and
interpret their observations and experimentations. They are convinced naturalists even before the
investigation gets started. For instance, after Dennett recapped the thrust of Darwins argument in The
Origin of the Species, without providing any empirical evidence for macroevolution, concludes:
Levelheaded readers of the book simply could no longer doubt that species had evolved over the eons,
as Darwin said they had.[12.29]
Though Darwin only observed slight adaptations taking place in preexisting entities within
preexisting species, Dennett believes that this was enough evidence to logically deduce that all species
(including human consciousness) have evolved from dead matter by natural selection.
Darwin may have produced a large volume full of examples of microevolution, but even if he
included a billion more examples of how bird beaks slowly grow longer or shorter under the right
circumstances, it would not prove that birds have evolved from flying fish. Evidence for microevolution
does not prove macroevolution. Darwin presented no evidence for macro-evolution, but this did not
hinder him from concluding that men have evolved from apes.
Dennett not only believes Darwin convincingly proved his case, he went as far as to say: To put
it bluntly but fairly, any one today who doubts that the variety of life on this planet was produced by a
process of evolution is simply ignorant inexcusably ignorant.[12.30] It is amazing that such bold
confidence and fundamentalist like fervor can come without any credible evidence.
Dennetts confidence, however, seems to be more heavily rooted in his naturalism than in
evolution. He intentionally or unintentionally revealed his primary commitment when he said: Even if
Darwins relatively modest idea about the origin of species came to be rejected by science yes, utterly
discredited and replaced by some vastly more powerful vision it would still have irremediably sapped
conviction in any reflective defender of the [old] tradition[12.31] that there is a Intelligent Design. In
other words, even if Darwin was wrong, Darwin was right in removing God from any possible
explanation. And this, my dear friends, is the chief concern and commitment for naturalists.

You see, evolution is not one of many possible naturalistic explanations for the origins of the
species; it is the only naturalistic explanation. For this reason, so it seems, naturalists are deeply
committed to evolution. As the Nobel Prize-winning physiologist George Wald (1906-1997), professor
emeritus of biology at the University at Harvard, admitted: We choose to believe the impossible: that
life arose spontaneously by chance.[12.32] Likewise, after the Scottish anatomist and anthropologist
Arthur Keith (1866-1955) said that macroevolution was unproved and unprovable, he confessed, We
believe it only because the alternative is special creation.[12.33]
To abandon belief in evolution would require naturalists to abandon their faith-commitment in
naturalism. No matter how ridiculous the theory may seem, no matter what evidence is lacking, no
matter what kind of internal problems are created, naturalists seem to refuse to give up on evolution
because it appears that the only alternative answer to the origin of life is completely unacceptable for
we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door. As Wolfgang Smith, a physicist who helped solve the re-entry
problem for space flight, explained:
I am convincedthat Darwinism, in whatever form, is not in fact a scientific theory, but a
pseudo-metaphysical hypothesis decked out in scientific garb. In reality the theory derives its
support not from empirical data or logical deductions of a scientific kind but from the
circumstance that it happens to be the only doctrine of biological origins that can be conceived
with the constricted worldview to which a majority of scientists no doubt subscribe.[12.34]
Wald not only conceded that he chose to believe in the impossible, but he also explained his
motive in doing so:
There are only two possibilities as to how life arose. One is spontaneous generation
arising to evolution; the other is a supernatural creative act of God. There is no third possibility.
Spontaneous generation, that life arose from non-living matter was scientifically disproved 120
years ago by Louis Pasteur and others. That leaves us with the only possible conclusion that life
arose as a supernatural creative act of God. I will not accept that philosophically because I do not
want to believe in God. Therefore, I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically
impossible; spontaneous generation arising to evolution.[12.35]
At least Wald was honest in his atheism. Consequently, Thomas Nagel is right when he questions
the foundation behind the naturalistic worldview:
Physico-chemical reductionism in biology [i.e., naturalism] is the orthodox view, and any
resistance to it is regarded as not only scientifically but politically incorrect. But it seems to me
that, as it is usually presented, the current orthodoxy about the cosmic order is the product of
governing assumptions [presuppositions] that are unsupported, and that it flies in the face of
common sense.[12.36]
Nagel went on to remind us that the naturalism that undergirds the theory of evolution cannot
be regarded as unassailable. It is an assumption governing the scientific project rather than a wellconfirmed scientific hypothesis.[12.37] I believe it is for this reason that Nagel went on to say, I find
the confidence among the scientific establishment that the whole scenario will yield to a purely chemical
[physical] explanation hard to understand, except as a manifestation of an axiomatic commitment to
reductive materialism.[12.38]
This axiomatic commitment to the naturalistic worldview, however, takes a blind and irrational

leap of faith. Though show me the evidence may be the slogan for naturalists, naturalists prove that
they are willing to embrace a worldview that runs contrary to the evidence. For this reason, the Dutch
theologian Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) concluded that these materialist explanations of the universe
are not scientific in character but are rather religious worldviews masquerading as science.[12.39]

Conclusion
Naturalism is a worldview that shapes how its adherents interpret the evidence, but its an
inconsistent worldview. As we have seen, naturalism is not only a worldview that fails to be supported by
the evidence, it is a worldview that fails to provide answers for the existence of the immaterial laws of
science the very foundation on which naturalism is ostensibly built. So, ironically, naturalism purports
to be based on the laws of science alone, but in reality it is forced to deny the laws of science in its
explanation of a self-creating universe. It cannot explain how nothing plus nothing created the universe
that is mathematically structured and miraculously fine-tuned to host life on earth. This inconsistency is
not a gap in scientific knowledge. Rather, its a blatant absurdity.
Moreover, naturalism cannot explain the origins of the semantic and functional language that is
written on DNA, or how the complexity of life (even the simplest living cell) emerged from dead matter.
This is not to mention the problem of consciousness. In the end, naturalism is a godless attempt at
explaining everything, but it cannot even explain itself. Thus, naturalism (with all of its postulations of
the origins of mass and energy and life and consciousness) ends in absurdity. To say belief in God takes
a leap of faith sounds ridiculous when we compare it with the absurdity of unbelief.

13. The Irrationality of Empiricism & Determinism

Every absurdity, says Oliver Goldsmith, has a champion to defend it. These champions
include renowned scientists, philosophers, and theologians. Because experts often disagree with each
other, appealing to their expertise is not enough to settle an argument.
The battle between worldviews, therefore, is won not by counting the noses of fallible men. Each
worldview must stand up under its own weight. We have already seen how naturalism, though supported
by many eminent thinkers, is internally inconsistent with itself. Here, this inconsistency will be shown to
be manifested within naturalisms kin as well: empiricism, determinism, relativism, and nihilism.

The Irrationality of Empiricism

Materialism breeds empiricism, for if everything is reducible to mass and energy, then knowledge
is limited to sense perception. Though most worldviews, including the biblical worldview, accept the
basic reliability of sense experience, empiricism states that all knowledge is reducible to sense
experience. Without empirical evidence, there is no justification for belief in anything.
Empiricism, however, is inconsistent with itself. For instance, those who have dogmatically put
their foot down and devotedly claimed that they will not believe anything without empirical evidence
have themselves presupposed (without any evidence or proof) empiricism that knowledge only comes
through the five senses. As William Clifford (1845-1870) unabashedly declared: It is wrong always,
everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.[13.1] Bertrand Russell fell
into this same trap in his reply when asked what he would say to God if he happened to face Him on
judgment day: Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence! Like Clifford, Russell was convinced
that there was no justification for any belief without sufficient evidence. Whatever knowledge is
attainable, Russell speciously stated without a shred of scientific evidence, must be attained by
scientific methods; and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.[13.2]
Yet, the deaf person has no right to deny the existence of sound just because he cannot hear.
Likewise, because scientific knowledge is limited to the study of the cosmos, it is insufficient to make
the claim that only the cosmos exists. That is, science has no grounds to deny the existence of things
that transcend and go beyond the reach of science. It would be ridiculous for the deaf person to demand
audio evidence before he believed in the existence of sound. It is equally as ridiculous for empiricists to
demand empirical evidence before they will believe in an invisible and immaterial God who has
communicated to us.
Unless you are willing to believe by faith that all knowledge is limited to scientific knowledge and
to embrace the awful consequences, then it is hypocritical to say, Science has killed God. If science has
killed God, then science has killed mathematics and the laws of morality along with Him. If scientific
knowledge is all that there is, then science has killed logic as well. And once logic is dead, frankly, we
have no reason to believe in anything. For science to be trustworthy, it requires logic and ethics to
remain alive and well. Since it is self-evident that truth is not limited to scientific knowledge, then it is
impossible for science to kill God.
Looking for empirical and material evidence for a spiritual and invisible God in a physical and
material universe is like looking for the builder of a house in the parts of the house itself. Just because
the builder is not made out of wood, brick, or mortar, and he is not found in the staircase, the doorframe,

or any other part of the house, does not mean there is no builder.[13.3] The design and structure of the
building clearly cries out that there is indeed a builder. If God is a transcendent spirit, then we should not
expect to discover Him through our sensory organs of seeing, tasting, smelling, hearing, and touching.
Of course, an invisible and transcendent God is not an object of scientific experimentation. But
that does not rule Him out, as empiricists would have us believe. If we assume that personal experience
is the only way to prove anything, then we will not believe houses have builders unless we meet those
builders in person. If empiricism is our starting presupposition, then we would also have to suspend
belief in logic, in mathematics, and in other minds,[13.4] for no amount of sense experience can verify
these realities.
Science has its limits. It seeks to discover the reason why things work in the universe but cannot
explain the reason why the universe exists in the first place. John Lennox provides us with an insightful
illustration of this:
It is conceivable that someone from a remote part of the world, who was seeing [a Ford
motor car] for the first time and who knew nothing about modern engineering, might imagine that
there is a god (Mr Ford) inside the engine, making it go. He might further imagine that when the
engine ran sweetly it was because Mr Ford inside the engine liked him, and when it refused to go
it was because Mr Ford did not like him. Of course, if he were subsequently to study engineering
and take the engine to pieces, he would discover that there is no Mr Ford inside it. Neither would
it take much intelligence for him to see that he did not need to introduce Mr Ford as an
explanation for its working. His grasp of the impersonal principles of internal combustion would
be altogether enough to explain how the engine works. So far, so good. But if he then decided
that his understanding of the principles of how the engine works made it impossible to believe in
the existence of Mr Ford who designed the engine in the first place, this would be patently false
in philosophical terminology he would be committing a category mistake. Had there never been a
Mr Ford to design the mechanisms, none would exist for him to understand.[13.5]
Moreover, and most importantly, what empirical evidence do empiricists, such as Clifford and
Russell, have to support their belief in empiricism? Seeing that there is no evidence to substantiate the
belief that every belief must be supported by evidence, Clifford and Russell unwittingly hold to a
contradictory presupposition. A wise man, said David Hume, proportions his belief to the evidence.
But an even wiser man understands that this is a foolish statement. Because Hume had no evidence to
support this claim in the first place, his statement is self-refuting.
In the same way materialism cannot give an account for the laws of physics and the laws of
morality, empiricism cannot give an account for why the senses are the only means of ascertaining
knowledge. Thus, empiricism is self-referentially absurd.

The Irrationality of Determinism

If everything can be reduced to the properties of matter, as determinists suggests, then the laws
of physics must determine all events, including human actions. This would mean that at the moment
when everything, including time and space, was blasted forth from the Big Bang, the chain reaction that
determines the course of everything was then determined from the location and movements of the
galaxies to the exact tilt of the axis of the earth. The laws of nature are non-negotiable; they determine
the course of everything.

Consequently, if the laws of nature determine everything, such as the orbit of the planets, they
also determine the chemical reactions within the brain. If physical matter is all that there is, then our
memories, thoughts, and emotions are merely the byproduct of these chemical reactions. As Dawkins
freely admitted: Human thoughts and emotions emerge from exceedingly complex interconnections of
physical entities within the brain.[13.6] With less elegance, the French physiologist Pierre Jean Georges
Cabanis (1757-1808) stated: The brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile.[13.7]
If this is the case, then we do not have a free will, but all of our thoughts are merely the
predetermined results of the laws of physics. The impersonal laws of nature determine and govern all of
our lives, thoughts, and emotions. At least, this was the opinion of the English molecular biologist
Francis Crick (1916-2004), who co-discovered along with James Watson the double helix structure of the
DNA molecule. The notion that causes us to feel like we have free will, according to Crick, is merely an
impression of the brain.[13.8] Crick introduces The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the
Soul with these astonishing words: You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your
sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of
nerve cells and their associated molecules.[13.9]
Crick was an impressive scientist, but a poor philosopher. Crick was right when he linked our
mental activity with the nerve cells and molecules in our brain, but once he added the philosophical
words no more than to his explanation of human joy, sorrow, memories, ambitions, personal identity,
and free will, he stepped out of the realm of science and entered into the arena of philosophy and
theology. Yet, it seems (either by the laws of chemistry or by his own volition) that Crick had his mind
made up even before he got started; he admits that one of his principle assumptions about
consciousness is that it is something that requires a scientific explanation.[13.10] But, is he right in
making such an assumption? Was Carl Sagan right when he said, The Cosmos is all that is or was or
ever will be?
It is beyond the scope and capacity of science to explain metaphysical realities. No amount of
scientific evidence can prove that there is nothing more to human experiences than chemical reactions.
How is it possible for science to prove that there is nothing more to the soul than physical properties
interacting with one another? Some realities go beyond the realm of science. For instance, scientists
must utilize ethics, logic, and their free will in their scientific experimentations, but they cannot place
these metaphysical realities (ethics, logic, and free will) in any laboratory test-tube. In fact, in order for
scientists, such as Dawkins, Crick, and Saga to deny the existence of metaphysical realities (such as
logic, ethics, and free will), they must temporarily leave the scientific field and enter into the
metaphysical arena. But this is self-refuting. It is not wrong for scientists to be philosophers and visa
versa, but once scientists push philosophical and metaphysical realities out the door, they do not have
the right to turn around and make philosophical and metaphysical statements. If science alone can
explain everything, as they say it can, then it should not have to continually rely on philosophical and
metaphysical categories in the process.[13.11]
Determinism, however, is not something proven by science, but is rather a philosophical
worldview deduced when naturalism is presupposed. Yet, like naturalism, determinism is a worldview
that collapses under its own weight. If mind evolved from matter by the laws of physics, then not only
does this undermine any absolute and universal standard for right and wrong, it also undermines
mathematics, for mathematics, as with ethics, are rooted in universal absolutes that exist independent
of the brain. But once the objective and universal nature of mathematics is undermined, then the laws of
physics, which are rooted in mathematics, are undermined as well. Supposedly, the immaterial laws of
physics are the legs upon which evolutionary biology stands. To put it more concisely, determinism is

rooted in naturalism, which is rooted in the laws of physics, which is rooted in mathematics, which is
rooted in logic, which is rooted in absolutes, which is rooted in the immaterial, which undermines
naturalism and determinism.
This leads to another inconsistency. If determinism is right, we are not free to accept or reject the
argument for determinism. Why try to convince people of the validity of determinism if our beliefs are
determined not by rational arguments but by heredity, environment, and what we happened to have
eaten for breakfast. If the laws of nature determine our beliefs for us, then we have no basis for holding
any of our beliefs as true or false and this includes the belief in determinism. C. S. Lewis saw the
irrationality of such an argument:
If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of
organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident
too. If so, then all our thought processes are mere accidents the accidental by-product of the
movement of atoms. And this holds for the materialists and astronomers as well as for anyone
elses. But if their thoughts i.e., of Materialism and Astronomy are merely accidental byproducts, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident
should be able to give a correct account of all the other accidents.[13.12]
Determinists ask us to do something that we do not have the freedom to accept any more than
they have the freedom to reject. According to British philosopher J. R. Lucas, Determinism, therefore,
cannot be true, because if it was, we should not take the determinists arguments as being really
arguments, but as being only conditioned reflexes.[13.13]
Moreover, Lewis saw another contradiction with determinism, which he described in his book
Miracles: A Preliminary Study. If our thoughts are controlled by the fixed laws of nature, then there is no
guarantee or even reason to believe that any given thought will truly correspond to a reality outside of
the thinker.[13.14] We cannot be certain that we know anything as it truly is, including the laws of
physics that supposedly control our thinking. Thus, for determinists to argue for determinism is selfstultifying.
If we are what we are, we will do what we will do, and we will become what we will become by
the fixed laws of the universe. So, when a determinist complains about anything, such as the weather or
a moral injustice, he is protesting against the worldview that he is so eager to embrace and to defend.
But, then again, I guess its the laws of physics that force him to complain.

Conclusion
In short, science explains a lot of things, but it cannot explain everything. When science tries to
explain everything, it destroys itself by undermining the objective and universal nature of the laws of
physics, in which science is fundamentally rooted.

14. The Irrationality of Relativism & Nihilism

Relativism is the consequence of naturalism. If naturalism is right in saying that there is no God,
then there must be no Lawgiver, and without a divine Lawgiver, we are left to ourselves. But this is not
the only problem for the naturalistic approach. If nature is all there is, our thoughts and our ethical
judgments are merely the byproduct of the laws of nature evolutionary ethics.

The Irrationality of Relativism

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) understood the logical consequence of naturalism man is a mere
machine. Man is simply an evolved, mechanical animal that is controlled by the fixed laws of physics.
Russell attempted to explain:
Materialists used the laws of physics to show, or attempt to show, that the movements of
human bodies are mechanically determined, and that consequently everything that we say and
every change of position that we effect fall outside the sphere of any possible free will. If this be
so, whatever may be left for our unfettered volitions is of little value. If, when a man writes a
poem or commits a murder, the bodily movements involved in his act result solely from physical
causes, it would seem absurd to put a statue to him in the one case and to hang him in the other
case.[14.1]
According to Russell, these misbehaved machines do not need to be shamed or punished; they
need to be fixed and treated medically:
No man treats a motorcar as foolishly as he treats another human being. When the car
will not go, he does not attribute its annoying behavior to sin; he does not say, You are a wicked
motorcar, and I shall not give you any more petrol until you go. He attempts to find out what is
wrong and to set it right. An analogous way of treating human beings is, however, considered to
be contrary to the truths of our holy religion.[14.2]
This of course removes all culpability and responsibility from criminal acts. As Russell went on to
explain:
It is evident that a man with a propensity to crime must be stopped, but so must a man
who has hydrophobia and wants to bite people, although nobody considers him morally
responsible. A man who is suffering from a plague has to be imprisoned until he is cured,
although nobody thinks him wicked. The same thing should be done with a man who suffers from
a propensity to commit forgery; but there should be no more idea of guilt in the one case than in
the other.[14.3]
In other words, criminals, such as Adolf Hitler, should not be held accountable, judged, punished,
or blamed for their selfish and immoral behavior because they are simply victims of natural
consequences outside of their control. They should be pitied not punished.
Yet, the laws of physics could care less about moral distinctions. Evolution does not care if it
produces a loving mother or a cruel Hitler. The laws of physics have no opinion about life or death,
pleasure or pain, health or sickness, and good or evil. Thus, naturalism not only destroys human freedom
and moral responsibility, it also eliminates ethical distinctions and morality altogether. This is what we
get when we reduce everything down to science.

To save the world from complete anarchy, Russell claimed that pragmatism should govern our
behavior. Morality is not a transcendental moral code given to us from above, but is a matter of
convenience and practical usefulness. Of course, this is wildly inconsistent with naturalisms denial of
free will, but it appears that some could care less about being rational as long as they are free to do
what they want with their lives.
The British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and his disciple John Stuart Mill (18061873) also sought to rescue mankind from complete immorality by proposing utilitarianism. While trying
to promote moral goodness, utilitarianism aims to bring the most happiness to the most amount of
people. As Mill stated in his famous little book on the subject:
The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals utility or the greatest happiness
principle holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as
they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the
absence of pain.[14.4]
Likewise, the American philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910), based ethics on
expediency. He writes, in his work Pragmatism, The true, to put it very briefly, is only the expedient in
the way of our thinking, just as the right is only the expedient in the way of our behaving.[14.5]
Following this path of reasoning, Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991), an Episcopal priest turned atheist,
became famous for his book Situation Ethics. Applying the pragmatism of James to challenging
situations, Fletcher became one of the leading advocates for abortion, eugenics, and euthanasia.
According to the publishers description of Situation Ethics, lying, premarital sex, abortion, adultery,
and murder could be right, depending on the circumstances.[14.6]
In Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University, applied
evolutionary ethics to animals. Whereas Fletcher uses evolutionary ethics to advocate the murder of the
unborn, the handicap, and the elderly, Singer uses evolutionary ethics to advocate the protection of even
the simplest of animals.
If man is evolved from animals, what makes man special? According to Peter, man is slightly
more evolved than an ape, while an ape is much more advanced than an oyster. Apes and oysters are
grouped together as animals while humans stand in a class of their own. But why? Singer argued that
any such boundary separating man from animal is entirely arbitrary. If we claim that mans intelligence
separates him from beast, then what about people with Down Syndrome? He calls those who give
preferential treatment to humans as speciesists. According to Singer, we should not do anything to
animals that we would not do to other humans: Just as most human beings are speciesists in their
readiness to cause pain to animals when they would not cause a similar pain to humans for the same
reason, so most human beings are speciesists in their readiness to kill other animals when they would
not kill human beings.[14.7] From this line of argument, Singer went on to condemn chicken farms and
the mass slaughtering of animals and then ended by presenting a case for the ethical value of
vegetarianism.
Moral relativists, such as Fletcher and Singer, often place a greater value on eagle eggs than on
unborn babies. Placing the rights of animals on par with human rights sounds absurd, but if man is
merely an evolved animal rather than a being created in the likeness of God, then who is to say that
animals should not be eaten? But then again, if there is no God, who is to say that we shouldnt eat
them? If there is no God, who is to say Jeffrey Dahmer, the Milwaukee cannibal, was in the wrong for his
crimes against humanity?

If there is no God, then who gets to make the rules? Does the person carrying the biggest stick in
the playground get to tell the children how to behave, even a person such as Hitler? Is it okay for parents
to abuse their children? Does might make right? As Wolf Larsen told Hump in the novel Sea-Wolf: Might
is right, and that is all there is to it. Weakness is wrong. Which is a very poor way of saying that it is
good for oneself to be strong, and evil for oneself to be weak.[14.8] If Hitler is breathing down my neck,
do I have the right to kill innocent Jews? Am I obligated to disobey my superior if he asks me to steal,
exploit people, or commit fraud? If there is no transcendent code of morality, who is to say?
Does the majority rule? If so, who determines the boundaries or scope of who is included in the
census? Is it right for the majority of High School students to pick on the weirdo at school? Is the majority
always in the right? Or, should government be given to a few elite people (oligarchy)? If there is no
absolute standard that governs all people alike, who is to say?
If there is no transcendent Lawgiver who stands above humanity, then humanity is left to itself to
argue and fight over who is in charge. In the end, everything is relative, and relativism, no matter what
form it takes (i.e., utilitarianism, pragmatism, and situational ethics), is self-referentially absurd. To say
that there are no absolutes is to make an absolute statement. Moral relativism has no foundation in a
purely naturalistic worldview. Why should we listen to Russell, Mill, James, Fletcher, or Singer? Who put
them in charge? Why do they get to write the rules for the rest of us?
If there is no God, why not live lives of rank selfishness? Why not do what we want no matter
who gets hurt?
This sounds like freedom. But is it?
If we are going to accept the freedom that supposedly comes with relativism and deny the
existence of absolute truth, then we had better understand the consequences. Relativism not only
destroys the truths we find inconvenient (such as the existence of God), it destroys all truth. Truth, by its
very nature, demands concreteness. Ultimately, something either exists or it does not exist. Something is
either true or false. If something is objectively true, our opinions, feelings, and wishes have nothing to do
with it. If truth cannot be firmly established, however, then we have no right to say that truth exists at
all.
Relativism is not the archer placing his target on a slippery slope, for this implies that the target,
though moving, is still there to aim at. Relativism is removing the target altogether. The target has
slipped off the cliff and is nowhere to be found.
Relativism cannot be satisfied, as a system of thought, until full-blown nihilism has its tentacles
wrapped around every grain of truth. If it encourages us at all, relativism encourages us to aim at
nothing. We get to choose what is true for ourselves. The target merely exists subjectively in our mind.
Seeing that there is nothing objective and external to aim at, just pull back the bowstring and release the
arrow in any random direction you may happen to like.
This supposedly gives us freedom to choose to live however we please. The handcuffs of
restraints and the laws that shackle us are forever removed. We are free to smash store windows, loot,
set cars on fire, and run chaotically through the streets as we see fit.
We are free, but so is everyone else. With all these aimless arrows flying around, however,
someone is bound to get hurt. Let us not be surprised or upset if we find a few of these arrows flying
towards us.

The Irrationality of Nihilism

Meaninglessness is the high cost of seeking to live in opposition to the truth. Dawkins
understands that naturalism does not provide us with an optimistic worldview: This is not a recipe for
happiness. So long as DNA is passed on, it does not matter who or what gets hurt in the process.[14.9]
He went on to say: Nature is neither kind nor unkind. She is neither against suffering nor for it. Nature is
not interested one way or another in suffering, unless it affects the survival of DNA.[14.10] Such a cold
and depressing understanding of the world led Dawkins to conclude that life itself is meaningless: This
is one of the hardest lessons for humans to learn. We cannot admit that things might be neither good nor
evil, neither cruel nor kind, but simply callous indifferent to all suffering, lacking all purpose.[14.11]
Cornell University historian, William Provine agreed with Dawkins on the absurdity of life:
The implications of modern science, however, are clearly inconsistent with most religious
traditions. No purposive principles exist in nature. Organic evolution has occurred by various
combinations of random genetic drift, natural selection, Mendelian heredity, and many other
purposeless mechanisms. Humans are complex organic machines that die completely with no
survival of soul or psyche. Humans and other animals make choices frequently, but these are
determined by the interaction of heredity and environment and are not the result of free will. No
inherent moral or ethical laws exist, nor are there absolute guiding principles for human society.
The universe cares nothing for us and we have no ultimate meaning in life.[4.12]
Jim Black concluded: Darwinism is an anti-God philosophy offering no hope, no comfort, no
happiness, and no ultimate meaning. It offers nothing but a cold, mechanistic existence in which mans
only purpose is to live as long as he can before he vanishes into everlasting oblivion.[14.13]
Such conclusions led behaviorist C. F. Skinner to write Beyond Freedom and Dignity where he
essentially compared man to a brute beast and brute beast to a machine.[14.14] Though Skinner agreed
that human behavior was less than desirable, he thought that the key for mankind to reach their full
potential would not come by embracing the delusional ideas that they are dignified and personally free,
but by seeking to reshape the physical and social environments in which they live. Regardless, man is
neither free nor dignified. The problem is not in man, but in the laws of physics, and this is where
evolutionary ethics brings us.
This is nihilism there is no meaning, no purpose, and no ultimate truth. Jean Baudrillard (19292007), Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), and Jean-Franois Lyotard (1924-1998) were all renowned French
nihilists who oddly enough constructed their respective nihilistic worldviews in their attempt to
deconstruct all other worldviews.[14.15] Yet, it does not take a genius to see the inconsistency in such a
position. As James Sire remarked: Nihilismdoes not stop intellectuals from writing, only from making
sense.[14.16] If there is no meaning, then nothing can be trusted. If nothing can be trusted, then the
presuppositions behind nihilism cannot be trusted either. Like all forms of relativism, nihilism is
inconsistent with itself.
Furthermore, no nihilist really lives according to his or her worldview. Schaeffer was right when he
said, no one can hold consistently that everything is chaotic and irrational and that there are no basic
answers. It can be held theoretically, but it cannot be held in practice that everything is absolute
chaos.[14.17] Some may claim there are no absolutes and that meaning is only a fancy word that has no
meaning itself, but once the professor leaves the lecture hall and places his key into the ignition of his
Toyota Prius, he conveniently forgets everything he just taught as he happily submits himself to the
absolute laws that surround him. The modern artist may paint pictures as if there is no up and down or

right and wrong, but she, too, hopes that when she walks out of the studio that the law of gravity holds
true and that she doesnt go flying into outer space.
The behaviorist may claim that genetics and the environment are the root cause behind adultery,
but that does not prevent him from getting mad when his spouse of twenty years is caught in an affair
with his best friend. For some reason, he forgets to take out his anger on the laws of nature but instead
places the blame on his wife and friend. No one, according to William Lane Craig, professor of
philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, employs postmodern hermeneutics in reading the instructions
on a medicine bottle.[14.18]Nihilists may mean well, but they cannot consistently live without meaning.
It is true that when Christians behave in a way that is inconsistent with their worldview, they
often suffer the consequences. Though Christians are not exempt from the consequences of their
hypocrisy, nihilists are required to be hypocritical if they want to function at all. If nihilists seek to live
according to their worldview by refusing to submit to absolutes, then they will knowingly jeopardize their
health in the process. In other words, Christians are frustrated when they fail to practice what they
believe, while nihilists are frustrated when they practice what they believe. Because of this, nihilism can
not be a worldview that is intellectually worth accepting.

Conclusion
The circular problem with the naturalistic worldview is that naturalism leads round to
determinism and empiricism, and empiricism says truth is only obtained inductively by sense perception,
and this leads around to determinism, which concludes by coming back around to relativism and nihilism,
which says nothing makes sense. Naturalists start the conversation by saying that the laws of nature
control everything, but conclude by denying that there are such things as universal laws of nature.
Ultimately, the collective system of the naturalistic worldview, with all of its logical consequences, ends
in meaninglessness. It is not that science is defective, but that, if there is no God, science only leads to
despair and irrational absurdity. It is clear that the naturalistic worldview cannot support its own basic
presuppositions; hence it deconstructs under the pressure of its own weight. Without presupposing God,
madness is all that remains.

15. The Irrationality of Existentialism

The folly of existentialists is that they embrace relativism but continue to search for individual
purpose and meaning. Who are the existentialists? They are those who build on the foundation of
naturalism mans self-sufficiency but paradoxically refuse to accept the dreadful implications of
naturalism life is meaningless. Though they have rejected all set reference points, existentialists
continue to write down their beliefs as if their particular philosophies could be trusted.

The Absurdity of Jaspers & Sartre

The German existentialist Karl Jaspers (1883-1969), for instance, was unwilling to lay down his
pen and accept the fatalism that flows out of naturalism. If naturalism is right, man is not free. Man is
merely a hydrated dust-ball. Mans thoughts and emotions are merely a cluster of chemical impulses that
are controlled by the laws of physics. For this reason, according to Jaspers, modern science and
empiricism cannot provide psychologically satisfactory answers to our most basic questions such as
the meaning of life. Scientific knowledge can only take us so far and leaves us to make a choice. We will
either sink into despair or take a transcendental leap of faith, which Jaspers called transcendence.
Transcendence refers to Jaspers method of intense self-contemplation. It was an internal search for
existential, self-prescribed meaning. In his own words: Only transcendence can make this questionable
life good, the world beautiful, and existence itself a fulfillment.[15.1] Only afterwards are we comforted
with our own limitless freedom and the experience of authentic existence. This process, Jaspers said, is
the purpose of philosophy:
But philosophical thought begins at the limits of this rational knowledge. Rationality
cannot help us in the essentials: it cannot help us to posit aims and ultimate ends, to know the
highest good, to know God and human freedom; this inadequacy of the rational gives rise to a
kind of thinking which, while working with the tools of understanding, is more than
understanding. Philosophy presses to the limits of rational knowledge and there takes fire.[15.2]
John-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) believed that ultimate personal freedom only exists when there is
no God. Man can only be unshackled and free when he is able to create his own meaning. Naturalism
and empiricism have ruled out God as a possible answer to the ultimate question why are we here in
the first place? But this should not depress us, for it opens up the possibility for us to choose our own
way. Sartre explained:
Atheistic existentialism, which I represent, is more coherent. It states that if God does not
exist, there is at least one being in whom existence precedes essence (meaning), a being who
exists before he can be defined by any concept, and that this being is man, or, as Heidegger says,
human reality. What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means that,
first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself. If
man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only
afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be. Thus, there is no
human nature, since there is no God to conceive it. Not only is man what he conceives himself to
be, he is only what he wills himself to be after this thrust toward existence.[15.3]
At the heart of existentialism is a bold attack against the rule of God. We will make our own way
in this world. We are free to do what feels right in our own eyes. It does not matter that freedom from
God leads to our own incarceration, for at least we are free to act like madmen within our cells.

To understand the absurdity of existentialism, think about the design of a carpenters hammer.
Whoever designed the hammer had a particular purpose in mind pounding nails into things. For the
hammer, its design and intended purpose preceded its existence. Yet, for the existentialist, the hammer,
by chance, just so happens to exist for no particular reason or purpose at all. It just happened to evolve
from nothing. There is no God, thus no designer. The hammer just so happens to exist, and we just so
happen to find it lying on the ground. What is it? It does not matter, we get to decide its meaning for
ourselves. For us free thinkers, existence precedes meaning. We are free to use the hammer however
we please. How about we use the hammer as a bowl? For since we have sold our inheritance for some of
Esaus delicious soup, we need a container in which to store it. Who cares if the hammer is inadequate
and our soup spills on the ground in the process, at least we will not have God telling us what to do.
Moreover, nature itself sufficiently teaches us that design precedes purpose and not vice versa.
The sun, the moon, trees, rivers, snakes, snails, lungs, bones, teeth, and everything else in nature have a
pre-established purpose. These artifacts of nature are good at what they do because they were made to
do what they do. We may arbitrarily say that teeth are not for chewing and lungs are not for breathing,
but we will look silly in the process. We may say that men and women are not created for each other, but
the very design of the human anatomy tells us that same sex couples do not properly fit together and are
unable to procreate. Existentialism is irrational, but man has proven that he would rather do as he
wishes than maintain his sanity.

The Absurdity of Friedrich Nietzsche

No one, however, was as radical and, dare I say, bold as the German existentialist Friedrich
Nietzsche (1844-1900). Nietzsche was courageous enough to take the ethics of naturalism to their logical
and haunting conclusions turning good and evil upside down. In one of his more popular passages, he
vividly and unashamedly proclaimed the death of God:
Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to
the market place, and cried incessantly: I seek God! I seek God! As many of those who did not
believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost?
asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us?
Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated? Thus they yelled and laughed.
The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. Whither is God?
he cried; I will tell you. We have killed him you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did
we do this? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually?
Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying
as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become
colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning?
Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell
nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains
dead. And we have killed him.
How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and
mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe
this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement,
what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us?
Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?[15.4]

God is dead, claimed Nietzsche. According to Nietzsche, modern man has finally removed the
need for any supernatural explanation for the universe. The superstitious idea of God, which primitive
man needed to explain such things as lunar eclipses and natural disasters, can no longer be sustained by
modern and liberated thinkers.
Nietzsche understood the high cost of eliminating God from our lives our morals would have to
come from some other source. Since God is dead, we must look to nature for the answers. Once the sin
against God was the greatest sin, Nietzsche claimed, but God died, and these sinners died with him.
To sin against the earth is now the most dreadful thing, and to esteem the entrails of the unknowable
higher than the meaning of the earth.[15.5] What do we learn when we look at nature? We learn the
importance of reproduction, natural selection, and the survival of the fittest.
Nature is often cruel, but the process of evolving is the ultimate goal. Herein, Nietzsche claimed,
lay the meaning for mans existence and his ethical code for living. He argued that civilization has
evolved from the animal world by the assertions of the strong over the weak. Civilization will only
continue to make progress when the noble, wise, strong, and mighty decide to conquer and overpower
the weak and the feeble. Thus, selfish and ambitious desires are not to be considered as evil but good.
Concerning Nietzsches philosophy, historian Will Durant (1885-1981) remarked:
If life is a struggle for existence in which the fittest survive, then strength is the ultimate
virtue, and weakness the only fault. Good is that which survives, which wins; bad is that which
gives way and failsThe ultimate ethic is biological; we must judge things according to their
value for life.[15.6]
To live well, according to Nietzsche, is to allow all your intellectual powers and ambitious
passions to run free from, and unshackled by, any superstitious religious restraints. Remarking on this
ethical framework, Durant stated: The best thing in man is strength of will, power and permanence of
passion; without passion one is mere milk, incapable of deeds. Greed, envy, even hatred, are
indispensable items in the process of struggle, selection and survival.[15.7] Nietzsche declared, I have
often dreamed it must be still more blessed to steal than to receive.[15.8] In his book Beyond Good and
Evil, Nietzsche was audacious enough to say:
To abstain from mutual injury, violence, exploitation, to equate ones will with someone
elsesreveals itself as will towards the denial of life, the principle of dissolution and decaylife
itself essentially consists of dispossessing, injuring, overpowering the foreign and the more
feeble, suppression, severity, imposing ones own forms, annexing and at least at mildest
exploiting.
Even Charles Darwin realized the counterproductivity of hospitals and medical care:
We civilised men do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for
the imbecile, the maimed, and sick.Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate
their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must
be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly
directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man itself,
hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.[15.9]
Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), who prized Nietzsche as having more
penetrating knowledge of himself than any man who ever lived or was likely to live, bemoaned the

reduction of the infant mortality rate brought about by technical progress of medicine because it works
against the beneficial effects of natural selection.[15.10]
For this reason, Christianity promoted what Nietzsche called a slave morality that legislates
dulling norms of rectitude, thereby fostering herd like quiescence and stigmatizing the highest human
types.[15.11] Rather than Christian virtues, such as pity, compassion, and kindness being helpful, they
are detrimental to the all-important evolutionary process. Christians believe in the dignity of man
because man is made in the image of God. Man is not an animal, thus human life is sacred and in need
of protection. This includes infants in the mothers womb and the elderly who need constant care. In
Christianity, the strong should protect the weak. But, according to Nietzsche, these Christian virtues
topple the mighty and rebel against natures law.[15.12]
In this evolutionary program, social progress requires the strong to willfully, actively, and
forcefully choose to obtain more power, and the only way to do so is to remove the weak and mentally
impotent. In the same way a farmer seeks to weed out his feeble cattle by breeding the stronger cattle,
society ought to weed out those individuals who are deformed and incompetent.[15.13] Nietzsche
claimed that marriage was made for this purpose, Thou shalt not only propagate thyself, but propagate
thyself upward![15.14] He also felt war was a useful means to this end. This might sound contradictory
to the enhancement of society, yet Nietzsche claimed that war should be encouraged. You say that a
good cause justifies war? . . . I say unto you: it is a good war that justifies any cause.[15.15] Superiority
is established the same way apes show their dominance by fighting their opponents. War is natural. War
is good. In the twisted words of this twisted man:
What is good? All that enhances the feeling of power, the will to power, and power itself
in man. What is bad? All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that
power is increasing, that resistance has been overcome. Not, contentment, but more power: not
peace, but war, not virtue, but efficiency. The weak and the botched shall perish; first principle of
our humanity. And they ought even to be helped to perish.[15.16]
Of course, this line of thinking was agreeable to Adolf Hitler who said: Those who want to live,
let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to
live.[15.17]
We must fight. If society is ever going to obtain more power, it must first will it. We must
choose power over submission and pity. Nietzsche believed the desire for power was imbedded within all
men by nature. Evolution has instilled this appetite in us all. All men are self-seeking; to deny this, is to
deny reality. On the other hand, to restrain this natural craving is detrimental to the self and to the
collective. Nietzsche asserted, What is most unforgivable in you is having the power to rule and not
wishing to. To will to power is only natural.[15.18]
By choosing (will to) power, individuals not only improve themselves, but they assist in the
creation of a new superior race of beings a race of Supermen (one reason why he is known as
Hitlers philosopher).[15.19] This superior race would improve society (the arts, sciences, literature, etc.).
Yes, this would eliminate the physically weak and mentally feeble, but these people do not contribute to
society anyway. They slow down the natural evolutionary process.
Nietzsche coined the term superman (bermensch, or overman) to explain the next phase of
mans evolution. Man has evolved from apes and that which will evolve from man is yet to appear.
What is ape to man? Nietzsche asked, A laughing stock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be

just that for the overman (superman): a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. You have made your
way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is
more ape than ape.[15.20] Nietzsche went on to say, Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman .
. . What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not the end.[15.21] The end of man is Superman; a
new race of beings superior in every way to what humans are today. Whatever means is necessary to
reach this end must be carried out.
Yet, there is one glaring inconsistency with the existentialism of Nietzsche the superhuman
race will not occur without a cognitive and willful intent (the will to power) within men, but supposedly
past evolution took place without any cognitive planning within the species. It takes intelligent breeders
to match the stronger cattle together and it will take intelligent man to create the superman. Where in
nature was the willful intelligence that brought about the evolutionary process? It could not have been
God, for God is dead. In addition, the blind forces of nature often eliminate the strongest among us
because they do not distinguish between the strong and the weak. But this undermines Nietzsches
foundation. If, as he claimed, evolution does not take place without willful intent, then evolution could
not have occurred in the past without some external, intelligent guidance.

The Absurdity of Existentialism

Atheistic existentialism is built on the unsustainable foundation of materialism. If materialism
cannot substantiate its own presuppositions, how can existentialism avoid an irrational conclusion as
well?
It is true that if there were no God, there would be no meaning to life. But it is not true that finite
man is sufficient to create his own meaning without any absolutes. Seeking meaning without any
absolutes is like a disoriented, blind man throwing a dart at a cosmic target a billion miles away. Even if
he happens, by chance, to throw the dart in the right direction, he does not have the arm strength to
reach the desired destination. In the end, existentialism is a leap into the darkness without any warrant
for belief. At best, existentialism is wishful thinking built on a dreadfully, pessimistic foundation.
This is part of the reason that space-age movies like Star Wars and Star Trek attract such a grand
fan-base; because they latch on to the part of ourselves that says, there must be greater purpose. The
theater welcomes us into a world greater than our own. When existentialists start to get down, movies
like Star Wars revive their hope - a hope in intergalactic governance. Right now, were merely ruling little
ole Earth. But if keep pushing forth the advancement of technology and the agenda of needing more
engineers, well get there someday.
Intergalactic governance becomes there hope how they find meaning and they dont even
stop to realize the absurdity of it all. How ultimately, it still doesnt matter what we all accomplish within
the universe, because according to the theory of the Big Bang, which they hold, the Universe is still going
to eventually end and destroy all our hard work.
Such wishful thinking, without God in the picture, will always leave us psychologically and
emotionally unfulfilled. As finite individuals, we are not autonomous. We are not self-sufficient. We are
born needy. We are born in search for something beyond ourselves. Principally, we are born in search of
meaning and happiness. We cannot help but look for these things. This is true. But the answer is not
found in this world.
Freud agreed that we all seek after happiness; however, he despised any form of religious

solution. In regards to belief in God, he denounced it: The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign
to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority
of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life.[15.22]
Though Freud despised religious faith, he understood that atheism had its consequences: One
can hardly be wrong in concluding that the idea of life having a purpose stands and falls with the
religious system.[15.23] Though Freud did not think any definitive answer could be given for the
meaning of life, he concluded that people will not give up looking for happiness: They strive after
happiness; they want to become happy and remain so.[15.24] Yet, after listing the various unsuccessful
ways people typically try to find happiness, Freud acknowledged: The programme of becoming happy,
which the pleasure principle imposes on us, cannot be fulfilled; yet we must not indeed, we cannot
give up our efforts to bring it nearer to fulfillment by some means or other.[15.25] Though he compels
us to keep searching, he could not tell us where to look. Though he didnt want us to give up, he knew it
was futile to keep looking.
Freud was right about humanitys desire to be happy. It is self-evident that we do not inherently
possess happiness, or otherwise we would not be looking for it. Freud was also right in concluding that
without God, happiness is nowhere to be found. The well-meaning therapist may tell us that we do not
need others to be happy. She may even encourage us to love ourselves more and look within ourselves
for the answers that we are searching for. But this advice becomes foolish to the one who is banished to
a deserted island. If we were left totally alone, we would cling to a volleyball and make him into an
image of a friend and call him Wilson. We could love ourselves all we want, but we would still go mad.
Insanity would overtake us because the despair of loneliness would be overwhelming. The very thought
of living our lives alone is utterly depressing. This is because we were not made to be alone (Gen. 2:18).
We were made in Gods image so that we may have fellowship with God.
Even if we had all the power, fame, and fortune imaginable, we would still be lonely and
miserable without any true friends. We may think that all we need is money to be happy, but even with
unlimited buying power we would still be searching. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear
filled with hearing (Ecc. 1:8). The bodily passions and the cravings of the five senses are never
satisfied. We may love our exotic sports cars, but they will never love us back. There must be something
more to life than just accumulating possessions. Likewise, fame and power do little to meet the deepest
longings of the heart.
When I was younger, I traveled to Europe and toured the Swiss Alps alone. The sights were
breathtaking, but the experience had an empty feeling to it. Who enjoys going to the movie theater or a
nice restaurant alone? We naturally want to experience life with someone else. All of our best memories,
the ones we could not stand to lose, have at least one other person included in them. We are made for
relationships.
A few months ago, I had the privilege of holding my third son, Britain, just moments after his
birth. There is no feeling like it in the world. My own son! For those fleeting moments, the beauty of new
life removed the scales from my eyes and allowed a glimpse into the meaning of life. When we have
found that which is worth dying for, then we have discovered that which is worth living for. Though little
Britain did not know or love me, I could not help but find the greatest joy and happiness in clinging to
him.
As much as I love and find happiness in my baby boy though, such happiness, as unnerving as it
is, will not be permanent. There will be many years where I will sacrifice myself in service to him, while

he in return gives me more defiled diapers. You see, in fatherhood and motherhood, there is a greater
happiness still that lurks, and has yet to be found. It is the child in all of us crying out for a father who
despite our inadequacies, loves us permanently and infinitely, even when we do not deserve it. Because
when we are sacrificially serving and loving our children, we instinctively want and wish for a similar
kind of love ourselves. A loving relationship we know we are all lacking, and if sought after in this world,
truly, will never be found. There is only one who gives everlasting and unfailing love such as this, and it
is God. As George Park Fisher summarizes, There is in the human spirit a profound need for God. This is
grown out of the fact that we are not only finite, but consciously finite, and not sufficient for
ourselves.[15.26]
We were made in His image so that we may have a relationship with Him, but we will not recover
our joy and purpose until that image and relationship is renewed in Christ. For this reason, I agree with
Alister McGrath, professor of science and religion at the University of Oxford, who said: We are created
with an inbuilt yearning for God, famously expressed in the prayer of Augustine of Hippo (354-430): You
have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.[15.27]
To treasure Christ and to know that He treasures us is the key to happiness; it is the true meaning
of life. If we were made for Him, then we will never be fulfilled without Him. Gods commandments to
love Him with all of our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves arent given merely to restrict us
from having fun. They are keys to our own personal meaning and happiness.
Nietzsche may have thought that selfishness and lust for power were the keys to life, but in those
last few years of his life he depended on the unselfishness of his mother. After all his friends forsook
him and he went completely insane, he would have died all alone if it were not for his Christian mother
showing him love and compassion.
Existentialists may not want to submit to Gods design for them, but no matter what they choose
to dedicate their lives to, they will remain miserable outside of a personal relationship with God through
Jesus Christ. Frustration only comes when trying to use something for which it was not designed.
Pragmatism may work in the short term, but eventually the shoe will fall apart if we keep using it
as a hammer. In the same way, when I was much younger, I had the clever idea to clean my fish tank
with toilet tissue. As you might suspect, rather than cleaning the tank, the tissue did what tissue is
designed to do dissolve in water in a fairly quick fashion. As I attempted to clean the algae off the
sides of the tank, things went from bad to worse. The tissue broke up into a billion pieces, which clogged
the filter and fogged up the water. Just how the tissue disintegrated and lost all purpose, so too do we
lose our purpose when we do not dedicate our lives to what we were designed to do.

Conclusion
Ultimately, we were created to walk with God. If we evict Him from our lives, we drive ourselves
into captivity. God does not need us in order to be happy. He, as God, is self-sufficient. The Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit are eternally happy and glorified with the love that they have for each other from all
eternity. We, on the other hand, will never find purpose, meaning, or happiness without Him. No amount
of power or money will ever satisfy us. Not even ruling and having governance over the universe will
leave us satisfied. We are not self-sufficient. We will never find the love we are looking for apart from
Him. We were not designed to live life without a relationship with God. This is why we need divine
revelation. Thus, we only hurt ourselves when we forsake God and close our ears to what He has said to
us in His Word. No wonder so many people, who are separated from the joy of the Lord, are so

miserable. And they will remain in this wretched state as long as they continue to intellectually and
practically live their lives without Him.

16. The Irrationality of Postmodernism

How beautiful it all seemed at the time of the Enlightenment, the British journalist Malcolm
Muggeridge observed, that man triumphant would bring to pass that earthly paradise whose groves of
academe would ensure the realization forever of peace, plenty, and beatitude in practice. But what a
nightmare of wars, famines, and folly was to result therefrom.[16.1]

The Rise of Postmodernism

The cultural historian Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) linked the decline of culture with the decline of
faith:
Nietzsches observation of eighty years ago that God is dead was taken up again
recently as a liberating idea, but all it records is that the citizens of the modern industrial world
do not habitually reckon with Providence or appeal to a deity. They appeal and reckon with
machinery, medicine, money, and the forces of the unconscious. These are not gods: the relation
of humble intimacy, sacrifice, and mutual love, is lacking.
Thrown back wholly on themselves, men feel their insufficiency. They see more and more
clearly that they are not in control of their individual lives or collective destiny, and that many of
their practical goals elude their reach.[16.2]
Without a grand purpose to guide us, emptiness and futility is what remains. According to Barzun:
Despair, indifference, the obsession with cruelty and death, the Samson complex of
wanting to bring down the whole edifice on ones head and the heads of its retarded upholders
those passions seize the souls of the young generations and turn them into violent agents of
change, or disabused skeptics and cynics.[16.3]
In his bestselling book The Culture of Narcissism, the Neo-Marxist historian Christopher Lasch
(1932-1994) gave a vivid and pessimistic description of the decadence of our times. Plagued by anxiety,
depression, vague discontents, a sense of inner emptiness, the psychological man of the twentieth
century seeks neither individual self-aggrandizement nor spiritual transcendence but peace of mind,
under conditions that increasingly militate against it.[16.4]
Slavery to the vanity of our own selfishness is the high cost of being liberated from God.
According to Muggeridge, Barzun, and Lasch, we now live in the age of despair, but it is the world of our
own making. We have traded hope for despondency, life for death, meaning for emptiness, truth for
nihilism, love for selfishness, and God for a bowl of Esaus soup. But the exchange cost us everything.
We wanted to be left alone, and now we have discovered the desolation of our own isolation. We
were nave to think we could travel alone and not feel lonely and miserable when we finally arrived at
our destination. But here we are addicted to our psychotropic, antidepressant medications.
We did not become depressed overnight however. We traveled a long way through the many
years of Modernity, through the Age of Enlightenment, and the great gains of the scientific revolution.
According to the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylors epic work A Secular Age, it has been a 500-year
journey. During which we have gone from the impossibility of not believing in God in the 16th century to
where unbelief is not only easy, but inescapable.[16.5] We have become, as it were, disenchanted

with the supernatural.[16.6]

This disenchantment is linked with, among other factors, the false but optimistic notion of our
intellectual self-sufficiency. With an imminent God being pushed aside and our becoming overly fixated
on our own autonomy and independence we have entered what Taylor calls the age of selfauthenticity.[16.7]
Rather than living within the box, we feel the need to blaze a new trail for ourselves. With the
demise of God and the meaningful cosmos, says Taylor, we are the only authorizing agency left.[16.8]
In this we have moved away from finding our identity in God, the church, the state, or even our nuclear
family to seeking meaning and personal value in our own individual self-expression.[16.9] Self is
ultimate. Sadly, this was reinforced when Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) placed esteem and selfactualization at the top of mans hierarchy of needs. Self-actualization and the ethic of authenticity
have replaced our dependency on any transcendental and objective standard.
Our dependence on God has been supplanted by the lust for self-identification. For we no longer
need to deny ourselves and bring our lives into conformity to Gods will to find fulfillment. We are now
encouraged to find our purpose in being ourselves whatever that may look like.[16.10]
Of course, this intellectual independence, selfishness, and even narcissism can be traced back to
Adam and Eve when they questioned the wisdom of God and took hold of the forbidden fruit. Man has
always placed his own wisdom above Gods. As a cultural shift, the roots of humanism and intellectual
autonomy can be traced through the rationalism of Ren Descartes. He believed that mankind was selfsufficient in obtaining knowledge of all things though their own intellectual capacities.[16.11] John Locke
disagreed in part with Descartes, arguing that experience, not reason, must be relied upon. However,
like Descartes, Locke contended for mankinds self-sufficiency.
Rather than truth descending from God, man could climb upwards on his own. If man is left to
himself, then Immanuel Kant was right God lies behind a transcendental wall.
Kant may have thought he was rescuing faith from knowledge, but he actually ignited a fire that
would burn until every particle of truth was consumed.
Though Kierkegaard sought to rescue religion from Kants wall by turning faith into a passionate
and existential leap, he too failed to stress that religious truth is foremost an objective certainty that has
been historically revealed to us in an infallible book.
Man is sufficient; science is sufficient. The great philosophers of Modernity, such as Descartes
and Locke, did not need any supernatural guidance. These men attempted to construct their respective
theories of knowledge from a finite starting point themselves. Their aim was to answer every possible
question and obtain universal knowledge. By working upwards, they thought they could reach the
heavens.
Their attempt to attain universal knowledge, however, would be like trying to construct the Tower
of Babel on a frozen lake. No matter how solid the construction may be, if the foundation is insufficient
to hold the weight, the structure is bound to fall. Modernity and her philosophers may have had high
hopes to reach the pinnacle of knowledge, but the higher she climbed, the more she realized that
ultimate truth could not be found from a finite starting point. Before making it to the top, the integrity of
her presuppositions began to be in doubt as the foundation started breaking apart underneath her feet. If
she cannot be certain of the end of truth, she can not be certain of its beginning.

The Arrival of Postmodernism

With the loss of hope of obtaining universal knowledge, according to the French philosopher
Jean-Franois Lyotard (1924-1998), the construction of any grand metanarrative has fallen down.[16.12]
Like a collapsed building, knowledge itself has collapsed into pieces and there is no foundation with
which to rebuild it. We are lost. We are adrift, according Sartre, in a rudderless boat in an endless sea.
We are eternally floating in the air a dark hole with no knowledge of which way is up or down.
Everything is in flux. Everything is contingent and relative. Without God, there is no eternal reference
point to keep us from losing our bearings in this dark world. All is fragmented. There are just bits and
pieces that cannot be connected.
Who is right? No one knows. All that we know is that we had better not think we know because
certainty has become the hallmark act of intolerance.
This is where Modernity has brought us nowhere. Because of her embarrassment, she has run
off into the darkness with her twin sister, Postmodernity, sweeping into the vacuum to take her place.
The difference between them is that Modernity gave us hope and promised to lead us into all truth, while
Postmodernity is honest when she promises us nothing but hopelessness and despair.
The absurdity of it all led the French Noble Prize winner Albert Camus (1913-1960) to begin his
book, The Myth of Sisyphus, with these words: There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and
that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental
question of philosophy.[16.13]
Camus concluded, as King Solomon did long ago (when contemplating the futility of life under
the sun), that all of life is meaningless and all of its fruitless toil amounts to nothing. Everything is
meaningless, even the great discoveries of science. Whether the earth or the sun revolves around the
other is a matter of profound indifference. To tell the truth, it is a futile question.[16.14] And he is right,
if there is no meaning to life, what does it really matter?
Camus compared life to the ancient myth of Sisyphus who was cursed to carry a heavy rock up a
steep mountain that only became steeper as he climbed. The closer he came to reaching his goal, the
more difficult the process became until, finally, it was entirely impossible. It was inevitable, at a certain
point in his journey, that the stone would fall off his back and roll all the way back down to the base of
the mountain. Turning around in despair, Sisyphus realizes as he marches down after his stone, that his
lot in life was to continue to repeat this grinding process over and over without end.
Hard work is manageable when there is a reason or motive to work, but when the work becomes
pointless, then despair is all that remains. Life and all of its meaningless labor amounts to nothing. We
live and hope for tomorrow, but tomorrow only brings us closer to death.
Yet, we live as if we will never die until the knowledge of death is unavoidable. Rationality and
science are of no comfort. We are alone; we work but to no avail. When we wake up to the realization of
our own death, we cannot help but contemplate the absurdity of life a life without meaning or purpose.
Once despair and absurdity set in, we discover that if there is nothing worth dying for, then there
is truly nothing worth living for either. From the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion,
the most harrowing of all.[16.15]
Man longs for meaning, but because it is fools gold, the absurdity of it all must be embraced:

I dont know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I do not
know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just not to know it. What can a meaning
outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms. What I touch, what
resists me that is what I understand. And these two certainties my appetite for the absolute
and for unity and the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle I
also know that I cannot reconcile them. What other truth can I admit without lying, without
bringing in a hope I lack and which means nothing?[16.16]
Though life is a bad joke, according to Camus, the only way to get through it was to rebel and
embrace the absurdity of it all. Rather than looking to God, as Solomon once did, Camus suggested we
accept our fate and acknowledge the meaninglessness of life and continue to march up the pointless
mountain. He tells us to defy the truth by strapping that rock on our backs and climbing the mountain of
absurdity because the only other option is suicide.
Though Camus embraced the absurdity of life, other atheists could not bear to succumb to such
despair. According to many atheists, we must create our own way in the world. We must create meaning
for ourselves. For example, the French biochemist Jacques Monod unashamedly put man in the place of
God by dogmatically preaching that we, as autonomous creatures, are free to choose our own meaning:
The ancient covenant is in pieces; man at last knows that he is alone in the unfeeling
immensity of the universe, out of which he emerged by chance. Neither his destiny, nor his duty
have been written down. The kingdom above or the darkness below; it is for him to choose.
[16.17]
Social theorist Jeremy Rifkin was even more daring when he said:
We no longer feel ourselves to be guests in someone elses home and therefore feel
obliged to make our behavior conform with a set of pre-existing cosmic rules. It is our creation
now. We make the rules. We establish the parameters of reality. We create the world and,
because we do, we no longer feel beholden to outside forces. We no longer have to justify our
behavior, for we are now the architects of the universe. We are responsible to nothing outside
ourselves, for we are the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever and ever.[16.18]
With God pushed aside, external values and meaning are pushed aside as well. How to live and
what to live for are not questions that have external answers. Mankind is left alone to discover or create
these answers. If God is dead, then, Muggeridge concluded, somebody is going to have to take his
place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched
fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner.[16.19]
Some existentialists have concluded that the meaning of life is power and others have resorted
to a life of hedonism. But regardless of what answer is supplied, existentialism is finite mans attempt
to create meaning in a meaningless world without a divine dictionary.

The Despair of Postmodernism

The implications of Postmodernity are dreadful. If God is exiled, it is man who will go into
captivity. If we cast out the warmth of the light, cold and dreary darkness is bound to consume us. If we
have sought to be enlightened without looking at the Light, it is no wonder that all we discover is dark. If
we throw away Gods law, let us not be surprised if we cannot find our way. If we do not want to gaze on

heavenly things, let us not be shocked if hell is all we see.

Our captivity is of our own making. We have pushed God out of sight so that we can be free to
create our own world without Him. We have made Him irrelevant to life in hopes that we find personal
freedom. We have claimed that we can climb our mountains and unlock all the secrets of the universe for
ourselves. We have forsaken God by exalting our experiences, our wisdom, and ourselves.
We are self-sufficient, so we think. But after all our searching, boasting, and self-exaltation, we
have awoken to the depressing realization that we have lost our dignity, freedom, and meaning.
We went to sleep thinking that we were gods, but woke up to discover that we are less than
dogs. Without God, we are mere beasts seeking to gratify our lower passions, barking and sniffing
around in dumpsters and trash heaps for our next meal. We used to sit upright, but now we go about
crawling on all fours.
Though we were made for greatness, we have settled for the trifles and vanities of this world.
Without God, our dignity has been marred with dirty, hedonistic pleasures that enslave and destroy our
souls. The very thing we have chosen to love is the very thing that is killing us. We were called to be the
crown of creation. We were made in the likeness of God, and we were given the noblest of all tasks to
find happiness, purpose, and freedom in loving, worshiping, and obeying the King of Glory.
We were created to walk beside the living God, but we have pushed Him off the path and we
have lost our own way in the process. Without God, misery, hopelessness, and despair is all that remains
for us, and we only have ourselves to blame. By throwing God overboard, we did not realize that by being
made in His image, we would be dragged into the cold, dark, watery grave as well. [16.20] If we have
killed God, then we have killed ourselves along with Him.[16.21]

Conclusion
Everyones presuppositions about God, knowledge, and ethics determines their worldview. As we
have seen, naturalists begin with a precommitment to the belief that God is irrelevant. When the cosmos
is all that remains, there is neither any epistemic warrant for knowledge nor any ethical foundation for
the purpose of life. And when there is no warrant for knowledge and ethics, then there is no warrant to
believe anything at all. In the end, naturalism is an atheistic and self-contradictory worldview that only
ends in despair.
From the starting presupposition that the cosmos can explain itself without any supernatural
revelation comes materialism, empiricism, determinism, relativism, nihilism, and existentialism. On the
foundation of naturalism, Modernity began with the confidence that man was self-sufficient to discover
an all-encompassing explanation of all things.
The original objective of Modernity was not to kill God as much as it was to explain all things,
including God, without the assistance of God. Modernity was rooted in the self-confidence of mans selfsufficiency.
Yet, after many years of disappointment, when it became evident that a grand metanarrative
could not be discovered from a finite reference point, Modernity has succumbed to Postmodernity. And
Postmodernity has not declared the death of God but the death of truth. Because we are not selfsufficient, this is what we get when we refuse to look to God meaninglessness and hopelessness.

17. The Irrationality of All Nontheistic Religions

Sin against a holy God is the problem, and our guilt is the evidence that we all know this to be
true. Naturalism is an attempt to remove guilt by removing God, but because God cannot be killed, our
guilt remains alive.
As we have seen, naturalism ends in absurdity because it cannot support its own presuppositions.
Not only can naturalism not give an account for sin and guilt, it cannot give an account for its own
foundation logic, mathematics, and the laws of physics.
Since it is irrational to embrace naturalism, we will now need to examine the next options
impersonal-supernaturalism and personal-supernaturalism.
Do the various impersonal-supernatural worldviews, such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and
the like provide us with any coherent solutions? Can consistency be found in any of the non-Christian,
personal-supernatural religions, such as Judaism and Islam? First we will examine the coherency of
impersonal-supernaturalism in this chapter and then turn our attention to the non-biblical personalsupernaturalism in the following chapter.

The Absurdity of Impersonal-Supernaturalism

Eastern religious thought, as with all forms of mysticism, can be henotheistic, polytheistic,
pantheistic, dualistic, monistic, animistic, agnostic, and even atheistic. Though this sounds complicated,
no matter what the various mystical religions believe about the nature of the Ultimate Being (i.e., God),
they all believe that the Ultimate Being is impersonal and utterly unknowable. No matter if this God (if it
can even be called God) exists as a force entirely separate from nature, within nature, or one with
nature, regardless, it is always a God that is not a personal and knowable being.
Since, even within polytheism, there is one Ultimate Being behind all the multiple deities,
henotheism is not out of the question. Because this Ultimate Being may be one with nature,
panentheism is also included. Because this force may manifest itself in different degrees and strengths
within the universe, polytheism and animism are a part of some Eastern religions. Since this ultimate
force transcends all that is knowable and is beyond the concepts of being and existence, agnosticism
and even atheism have found their way into Eastern practices.
Eastern religions are not concerned about pinpointing and defining the nature of God, for this is
impossible for an Ultimate Being that is ineffable (unknowable). What concerns these religions is how to
escape the sufferings, or pollutions, or finiteness, or individuality of our physical life that is bound to the
material and physical world. The objective is for our souls to be reunited with this impersonal and
unknowable Ultimate Being.
Different Eastern religions may emphasize a slightly different path or manner of obtaining union
with the Ultimate Being, from various forms of ethical behavior to mystical enlightenment, but they all
would have us find a way to escape the evil and suffering of this world through some manner of
enlightenment or nirvana with the Ultimate Being. The goal is annihilation to cease to exist as a
personal and conscience being by being united to the ultimate impersonal and unconscious being.
Hinduism

In Hinduism, the Ultimate Being is Brahman, which is something that cannot be defined, for it is
undifferentiated and beyond existence or being itself. Brahman could be nothing as much as it could be
something. To be reunited with Brahman, the soul must be liberated (Moksha) from the wheel of karma
and Samsara (reincarnations) by reaching nirvana through either the Way of Works, or the Way of
Knowledge, or the Way of Devotion. Only afterwards will the soul be free from the pain and suffering
that comes with being chained to a physical and bodily existence.
Jainism
In Jainism the path (Dharma) for the soul to escape its physical bondage is through right belief,
right knowledge, and an ascetic denial of the flesh as listed in the Five Great Vows of renunciation
which are: (1) killing, (2) lying, (3) stealing, (4) sexual pleasure, and (5) worldly attachment.
Buddhism
Nirvana, the release of suffering and binding attachment, is reached in Buddhism not through
extreme asceticism or hedonism, but through a Middle Path of knowledge and enlightenment.
Enlightenment is obtained through the Eightfold Path: (1) Right knowledge acceptance of the four
Noble Truths, (a) believing in the existence of suffering, (b) suffering is caused by our bodily cravings, (c)
we cannot be free without our bodily cravings being extinguished, and (d) bodily cravings are
extinguished by following the Eightfold Path. (2) Right resolves renouncing bodily pleasures and
harboring ill towards any living creature. (3) Right speech cease lying, gossiping, and idle talking. (4)
Right behavior do not kill, steal, or fornicate. (5) Right occupation earning your living without
exploiting or harming others. (6) Right effort resolving to put the proper effort in eliminating our sinful
qualities and increasing our good qualities until we are perfected. (7) Right contemplation being
observant, strenuous, and alert in striving to free ourselves from desire and suffering. (8) Right
meditation once we have abandoned all desires and are free from suffering, then nirvana can be
reached through right meditation. Afterwards, we are one with the Ultimate Being (Brahman).
Other Eastern (Mystical) Religions
Along with Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, many of the other mystical worldviews such as
Taoism, Shintoism, Sikhism, and the New Age movement hold to an impersonal Ultimate Being. These
different worldviews may give different answers regarding how we are to become enlightened or united
with deity, but the one thing they hold in common is that the Divine (what ever its relationship is to the
universe) is utterly unknowable. Ultimate Being does not have properties that are in any way similar to
anything that we know. Ultimate Being is entirely transcendent; it is not a person or even a conscious
being. It is not even a force because a force implies power, and power is something that can be
experienced and talked about. Even the phrase Ultimate Being is merely an empty symbol that points to
something that is beyond being altogether. It is beyond existence or being. What is it? The point is, we
cannot know.

The Inconsistency of an Unknowable God

This leads to a major inconsistency. If we cannot know God, if God cannot even know Himself,
and if God cannot communicate Himself to us, then we cannot know that God is unknowable in the first
place. To say that God transcends all knowable concepts is at best wild speculation. Even if an
unknowable God did exist, it would be impossible to know that He existed. Thus, what guru has the right
to say that this Ultimate Being transcends all conceivable concepts? How does he know God is

unknowable? Did God tell him? Did the guru see this unknowable God behind a rock? Did he have a
magical encounter with this unknowable being?
Moreover, if a guru says that he has experienced this unknowable God, does he not deny the
unknowablity of God? An experience with God is at least a connection with God. Any connection
demands that there is at least a point of similarity between God and man. To connect with God there has
to be some kind of analogous relationship with God be it ever so slim. Wherever this point of similarity
may lie, it means that God cannot be absolutely transcendent from man. If God is utterly unknowable, it
is a contradiction to claim that there is a path to enlightenment. Is the guru not talking out of both sides
of his mouth when he says, God is unknowable, but here is how you can know/experience him? I guess
that these are the same gurus that enjoy listening to one-handed people applauding their teachings.
Without an authoritative revelation from a personal God, who is to say that mysticism,
contemplative prayers, yoga, asceticism, self-flagellation, Upper Way, Middle Way, or Lower Way brings
enlightenment and union with the unknowable God. Without a God who can communicate, finite and
fallible man is left to grope around aimlessly in the darkness. Man may arbitrarily articulate various
conjectures on how to live, but without any concrete authority, impersonal-supernaturalism (in any of its
forms) is basically no different than the absurdity of naturalism, for knowledge is restricted to only that
which is contained in the visible universe. Thus, because the mystical worldviews are existentialist in
practice believing they must find meaning on their own because their God has restricted access to
them from finding it it is no wonder that many succumb to agnosticism and atheism. For if God is
unknowable, then whats the point in trying to know God. However, once agnosticism and atheism are
admitted, all knowledge ends in relativism and nihilism, which causes impersonal-supernaturalism to be
inconsistent with itself.

The Inconsistency of Confusing God with Nature

Somehow this ineffable God, who is beyond existence and being, is the ground of all existence
and being. God is supposedly the ground of all that is conceivable but is one which cannot be conceived.
In other words, an Ultimate Being that does not exist created all that does exist, and this leads to a host
of internal contradictions.

A Blind Unintelligent Force

This Ultimate Being is not a conscious and intelligent being, but somehow is the ground of all
intelligence. The laws of logic, the laws of physics, mathematics, and willful intent within the human
race is all rooted in a blind, unconscious, unintelligent force. How does an unintelligent power create (or
emanate) a universe that is full of intelligence? If an enlightened guru says that the intelligence that is
evident throughout the universe is the intelligence of the unintelligent force, then where is this
intelligence located?
Mother Nature and Father Time are anthropomorphic terms that impart human intelligence into
nature itself. But does the universe have a soul? Does it have a brain? Does it think? Does it have a plan?
Does it have a design? If the universe is a force, does it blow around blindly without any direction or
intent? How can there be a supernatural element to the universe that is dumber than a dog or a
cockroach? How can the supernatural be unintelligent?
If we seek to answer this dilemma by saying that there is no supernatural element behind or
within the universe, then we abandon impersonal-supernaturalism and are forced to embrace the

absurdity of naturalism.
Pantheism
Pantheism is the belief that God and nature are one and the same. Paul Harrison, the President of
the World Pantheist Movement, gives a simple definition of pantheism: All is God.[17.1] Benedict de
Spinoza (1632-1677), the great prophet for pantheism, preached that, besides God no substance can be,
nor can be conceivedHence it follows with the greatest clearnessthat God is one, that is to say, in
nature there is but one substance.[17.2]
The key to Spinozas philosophy is his monism: that is to say, the idea that there is only one
substance, the infinite divine substance which is identical with Nature: Deus sive Natura, God or Nature.
The identification of God and Nature can be understood in two quite different ways. If one takes
Spinozas message to be that God is just a picturesque way of referring to the ordered system of the
natural universe, then he will appear to be an atheist. On the other hand, if one takes him to be saying
that when scientists talk of Nature they are really talking all the time about God, then he will appear to
be, in Kierkegaards words, a God-intoxicated man.[17.3]
Though many pantheists want to hug trees as they worship the universe, at the heart of their
mystical worship is atheism. Because pantheism is simply naturalism with the term God added to their
love of Nature, pantheism partakes of the same inconsistency as naturalism. Why worship Nature, when
Nature cannot give account for its own existence?
Panentheism
Panentheism is similar to pantheism, but rather than God and Nature being one, panentheism
says that nature is separate from but located in God. Rather than being monistic, panentheism is
dualistic. Nature is in God. As the body is the house of the human soul, the universe is the house of the
World-Soul. But what are the properties of the World-Soul? If the World-Soul is impersonal, if it cannot
think or have willful intent, what good is it? Does it even exist? If the World-Soul remains an impersonal
and unknowable force that cannot communicate itself to us, then we still remain alone with no ultimate
meaning and purpose in life.
Polytheism
Many of the polytheistic religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, are rooted in a mixture of
henotheism and atheistic beliefs. Though this sounds strange, we must remember that there is one
Ultimate Being (henotheism), Brahman, which is completely unknowable and is beyond the idea of being
and existence (atheistic).
Even more perplexing is the idea that this non-existent and unknowable God created or emanated
all that exists in the universe. Because the universe is the emanation of God, God is everywhere in the
universe. The various powers of Nature are manifestations of Brahman. Because these powers are
manifestations of Brahman, they deserve worship and are given proper names. Brahma is the creator of
the universe, while Shiva is the god of destruction. Vishnu is the goddess of preservation. Ganesha, the
elephant-god, is the god of wisdom and knowledge.
These are but a few of the 33 million gods of Hinduism. Yet, these polytheistic gods are not all
together distinct deities as much as they are different manifestations of the unknowable and impersonal
being, which supposedly goes beyond existence and being. Though some of these gods are stronger

manifestations of Brahman, they all remain as expressions of the different attributes of Brahman. This
means that even the weakest idols supposedly have some spark of deity within them. As there can be
many distinctions that can be made in the universe, so there can be many gods who manifest the one
Ultimate Being.
An elephant-man can be created out of stone and placed in a temple to be worshiped. The
worshipers may believe that this idol contains within it the spirit of Ganesha, but they are worshiping a
manifestation of a god that is merely a manifestation of Brahman, which is a god that does not even
exist. Because Brahman is beyond the reach of worship, polytheists worship various emanations of
Brahman. If, however, Brahman is utterly beyond the universe, then how are these polytheistic gods
(Shiva, Vishnu, and Ganesha) emanations of Brahman? Does not an infinite gap between Brahman and
Ganesha still remain? If we can connect with the various polytheistic gods, which somehow are
connected with Brahman, would that not mean that there is a real connection between Brahman and us?
And if there is a real connection between Brahman and us (via the gods), would this not make Brahman
knowable? Is this not a fundamental contradiction?

Confounding Transcendence and Immanence

This points to the main inconsistency within pantheism, panentheism, and polytheism, which is
the mixing together of the utter transcendence with the utter immanence of God. Because God and the
universe are made out of the same ontological stuff, then epistemologically speaking, God is both
entirely separate from the universe and entirely one within the universe at the same time. In either way,
however, God is unknowable.
If one circle represents God, and if another circle represents the universe, then if God is totally
transcendent, this means there is absolutely no overlap or connection between these two circles. If God
is totally separate from the universe, with no analogous connection, then God forever remains
unknowable. According to the pantheistic philosopher Benedict de Spinoza: Things that have nothing in
common with one another also cannot be understood through one another, or the concept of the one
does not involve the concept of the other.[17.4]

On the other hand, if God is totally imminent, then these two circles perfectly overlap each other
with no distention between them. If the universe and God are one and the same, then this too makes

God unknowable and useless.

Therefore, it is not only a contradiction for God to be both transcendent and imminent, but
without God making man in His own image, it would be impossible for man to know God. For knowledge
of God to be possible, the two circles that represent God and the universe cannot either be totally
separate or be totally overlapping, but merely connecting with each other. In other words, to resolve the
tension, God and man must neither be one and the same nor totally different, but rather analogous to
each other.

Various mystics may claim that we can climb our way to enlightenment and lose our individuality
and bodily passions as we are merged into the Ultimate Reality, but whatever path they suggest we take,
afterwards they are forced to deny the validity of that path when they say that God is beyond knowledge
itself.
The Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus (204-270) would have us escape individuality and be united
with the One (Ultimate Being) by first meditating on universal concepts and afterwards having us turn off
all cognitive thought as we take a leap into the darkness. Buddha would have us travel down the

Eightfold Path before we lose consciousness and individuality as we are merged into Brahman as a drop
of water is absorbed into the sea.
The ladder reaching up to God, however, falls apart at the last step. If God is utterly unknowable,
there is no ladder long enough to reach Him. Plotinus may say that universal concepts (such as unity and
oneness) are closer to the One than particular concepts (e.g., a blade of grass and an individual oak
tree), and Hinduism may say that Vishnu is a greater manifestation of Brahman than Hanuman (an ape
like god that assists Rama, who is the seventh avatar of Vishnu), but regardless of which god or concept
is the closest to the Ultimate Reality, there remains an infinite gap between that last step and nirvana.
The gods are merely symbols, and the symbols become even less than symbols because there is
no connection between the symbol and Ultimate Reality. No matter how close together the steps at the
bottom of the ladder are, it will always remain impossible to climb our way to an unknowable God seeing
there is an infinite gap between the last step and the ineffable being. Thus, mysticism, in all of its forms,
undermines its own foundation.
In addition, if we blend Gods transcendence with His imminence, then this impersonal God
becomes the cause of evil. If God is all, or is in all, with no distinction, then this Ultimate Being is also
one with all that is evil. As long as the physical universe is an emanation of God, then evil must also be
an emanation of God as well. Ultimately, then, God is to blame for all the evil and suffering in the world.
It is not that mystical thinkers are not aware of these logical contradictions. In fact, many of them
would argue that logical consistency is merely a Western concern. Though they may say such things,
however, they dont really mean what they say. They value honesty as much as we do. If we travel to the
East, we will notice that even there, 1 + 1 = 2. In the same way that the laws of physics apply to us in the
West, they apply to those living in Asia.
No matter where we travel, we will discover that the laws of logic are universally true. A
contradiction is a contradiction no matter where it is located or who says it.

Conclusion
Like naturalism, impersonal-supernaturalism cannot give consistent answers to the three ultimate
questions of life concerning God, knowledge, and ethics. Rather than saying God is irrelevant,
impersonal-supernaturalists claim that God is unknowable. In both cases, their worldviews end in the
same place self-referentially absurd. For without a personal God who has revealed Himself to man,
there are no grounds for knowledge and ethics; and without just grounds for knowledge and ethics, there
are no grounds to justify their starting presupposition of a non-existent and impersonal God.

18. The Irrationality of Islam & Judaism

With both naturalism and impersonal-supernaturalism failing the test of coherency, all that
remains is personal-supernaturalism. Within this category of thinking, there are three major possibilities
Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. What separates Christianity from Judaism and Islam is the teaching
that salvation is by Gods grace alone. Therefore, rather than going over the particular truth claims of
each of the non-Christian, theistic worldviews, it is sufficient to show how Judaism and Islam fail to
remain consistent with themselves by showing the logical impossibility of sinners meriting their
salvation before a just and righteous God.

The Inconsistency of an Unjust God

Judaism and Islam (along with many cults within Christianity) teach salvation by good works. In
fact, every world-religion, besides Protestant Christianity, demands that we merit our way to God. There
is, however, a fatal flaw in this approach it makes God unjust.
A just God cannot allow sin, any sin, to go unpunished. The law, by its very nature, demands
satisfaction. The law demands perfection, but this is something we cannot fulfill. None of us are perfect.
I would even argue that it is impossible for us to do one perfect deed, which would include having
perfect motives. Every good act, if it is going to be a perfect act, must be done for the glory of God alone.
Because we are selfish individuals, this is impossible.
Nevertheless, for the sake of the argument, let us suppose that it was possible for us to
accumulate more good works than bad works. This still does not tip the scales in our favor. A murderer
may be perfect in every area of his life from birth until death except for the fact that he committed
murder. Yet in the eyes of the law, the murderer is still guilty and must pay for his crime. A lifetime of
goodness does not cancel out one single transgression. The law requires that we live perfectly from start
to finish. This includes loving God with all our hearts and loving others as ourselves in every thing we
think, say, and do. Sin is anything that comes short of this standard. A just God cannot say, Well, youre
close enough. Justice requires perfection, and any sin requires a penalty. This is the nature of the law.
If God, as the Lawgiver and Judge, overlooks even the slightest transgression, then He becomes
unjust. Any injustice in God makes Him a sinner. For instance, if your little girl was abducted and abused,
with all the forensic evidence, including DNA and eye witnesses, pointing to Mr. Joe Blow as the
perpetrator, it would be unjust for the Judge to dismiss the case because Mr. Joe Blow has been an
outstanding citizen and a good father. It would make no difference even if Mr. Joe Blow were deeply and
sincerely apologetic. If justice is going to be served, then Mr. Joe Blow must pay. Thus, is it just for the
Judge to let Mr. Joe Blow walk away as if he had done nothing? If you loved your little girl, then it is only
reasonable to assume that you would not be content with the Judge releasing her murderer as if he was
innocent.
It is not that good works do not merit favor and blessing from a just God, but rather that the law
requires perfection. Because none of us, besides Jesus Christ, is perfect, none of us can be saved by our
good works. We need forgiveness, but Judaism and Islam do not have any legal way for a just God to
forgive us. Thus, there is no salvation in such a flawed system.
If God is just, and we at the same time have to work our way into Gods good favor, then we are
in trouble. If God is not just, then we are also in trouble for who knows what will happen. How a just

God can forgive the unjust is safely and beautifully preserved in the Christian worldview, in which God
has sent His only begotten Son to fulfill the requirements of the law and to endure the justice and wrath
of the law on the cross for all those whom He legally represents.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the
Law and the Prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ
for all who believe . . . It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be
just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:21-26).
God can be gracious and just at the same time, for justice and mercy kiss each other at the foot
of the cross. For the sake of those who believe, God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin, so that in
him [believers] might become the righteousness of God (1 Cor. 5:21). We can do nothing to earn or gain
Gods legal approval, but by faith alone, in Christ alone, we may be forgiven of all our sins. In Christ
alone we may be declared innocent and righteous before a just and holy God.
This is the gospel of free grace, which is the only answer to mans guilt. We can seek to do all the
good we want, but the skeletons in our closest will always remain behind closed doors, for our shame
and guilt cannot be washed away by religious acts of compensation.
Guilt is the problem, and good works are not the solution. We need the offended party to forgive
us. We need a legal substitute to stand in our place, to pay for our crimes, and to merit the
righteousness that we need to stand before a just God. We need God to forgive us, and only the God of
the Bible is able to forgive us while remaining true to His own righteous character. The gospel of Jesus
Christ makes forgiveness possible. For this reason, Christ is the only way to God. The Lord Jesus made
this abundantly clear when He said, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me (John 14:6).

The Inconsistency of a Monistic God

Moreover, the injustice in these non-biblical gods is only half of the problem. For God to be just,
He must be righteous, loving, relational, and able to communicate His law to man. Yet, only the triune
God of the Bible possesses such attributes.
The Problem of Righteousness
For instance, sin and guilt come from the failure to obey Gods moral law. But where does the law
come from? What makes the law good? In Platos Euthyphro, Socrates asked if the law is good because
the gods have declared it so, or if the gods have declared it good because it is good. This however is a
false bifurcation. The first option diminishes the law as it makes the standard of goodness merely
arbitrary in the thoughts of God. The second option overly exalts the law as it places God underneath its
rule. What Socrates failed to understand is that there is a third option that is rooted in the trinitarian
nature of God.
Gods moral law is not an external or abstract code of conduct that exists outside of the character
of God. God is not under law, but rather the law is a reflection of the moral character of God. God is love.
God is righteous. Thus, it is God Himself who is the standard of morality. This also means that the law is
not an arbitrary construction in the mind of God.
Because God is love, love is the essence of the law. The law demands love and prohibits
selfishness. With this in mind, both law and love layout the terms for a right relationship with God and

others. If there were no God and only a single person existed, sin and selfishness could not exist. A
single individual in complete isolation could not steal, cheat, gossip, lie, covet, or kill. He also could not
be unselfish or selfish. He could not be bad, but neither could he be good. It takes at least two persons
for morality to exist. In this way, the law and love exist because of relationships.
Thus, the purpose of the moral law is to create and sustain happy and meaningful relationships
with God and with one another. Because we were made for relationships, the key to our happiness is
found in loving God with all of our hearts and loving our neighbors as ourselves.
The Problem of Love
In like manner, though there is only one God, there are three persons in the Godhead. God is one
in nature but three in persons. This, I believe, not only makes God eternally complete and happy in
Himself, but also provides God an avenue to eternally express His love a love that is not inwardly
focused. God the Father eternally loves and seeks the glory of the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Likewise, the Son and Holy Spirit eternally seek the glory of God the Father (John 16:14-15). Each
of the three persons know and love each other perfectly. This love is not inwardly focused, for God, by
His very nature, is the ultimate giver. As Michael Reeves points out: If God were just one person, then
love of the other would not be central to his being.[18.1]
Jonathan Edwards also recognized that Gods goodness required for Him to be more than a
monistic being:
It appears that there must be more than a unity in infinite and eternal essence, otherwise
the goodness of God can have no perfect exercise. To be perfectly good is to incline to and
delight in making another happy in the same proportion as it is happy itself, that is, to delight as
much in communicating happiness to another as in enjoying of it himself, and an inclination to
communicate all his happiness; it appears that this is perfect goodness, because goodness is
delight in communicating happiness.[18.2]
Augustine, in his book The Trinity, went a step further and said not only must God not be
monistic, but he must be triune for Him to love.[18.3] Not just two, but three persons are needed for God
to be love because, as Augustine explains, love requires three things: a subject, an object, and an
expression. That is, love involves a person who loves, a person who is loved, and a channel of
communicating love from the lover to the beloved, and that these three requirements, can truly only be
eternally satisfied by the Father who loves the Son through the Holy Spirit, and visa versa.
How does the Father love the Son? He loves by giving Himself. But how does the Father give
Himself to the Son? He gives Himself to the Son by the operation of the Spirit. The Spirit exhaustively
knows the Father (by His co-indwelling in Him) and takes what belongs to the Father and communicates
it to the Son. In other words, God loves by giving Himself to the Son by the means of the Holy Spirit.
The Problem of Relationships
But even though this view is appealing, I remain unconvinced that only a triune could God have
the propensity to love. So really, it is not so much as three persons (as we would recognize the term)
are necessary, but two, for there must be at least two eternal and coequal persons subsisting within the
Godhead, giving and receiving love with each other, for God to be love. According to C. S. Lewis:

All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that God is love. But
they seem not to notice that the words God is love have no real meaning unless God contains at
least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single
person, then before the world was made, He was not love.[18.4]
In reference to this statement, Robert Letham, senior lecturer in systematic and historical
theology at Wales Evangelical School of Theology, states, If he were not love, he could not be personal,
either.[18.5] Letham went on to say:
Only a God who is triune can be personal. Only the Holy Trinity can be love. Human love
cannot possibly reflect the nature of God as a Trinity of persons in union and communion. A
solitary monad cannot love and, since it cannot love, neither can it be a person.[18.6]
Furthermore, Gods glory is not a single attribute as much as it is the radiance of all Gods
attributes. Glory shines forth out of God. Gods glory is the proper value that comes with knowing and
appreciating God, therefore, Gods glory requires an eyewitness. It requires appreciation. These
requirements can only be eternally satisfied by a multiplicity of persons within a Godhead who perfectly
appreciate each other.
So the eternal glory that is shared within the Godhead consists of each of the three persons
giving Himself to the other persons, and the other persons properly admiring the beauty, majesty, and
honor of the other. The glory of God is the infinite value that each of the three persons of the Trinity
place on one another. Or to put it another way, it is this appreciation between the three persons of the
Godhead that allows the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to love and glorify each other perfectly.
This means that the intertrinitarian love is not selfish. The Fathers love does not seek its own,
but rather the glory and honor of the Son, and likewise the desire of the Son and Spirit is to shine forth
glory and honor upon the other persons of the blessed Trinity. In this we see the perfect relationship that
is rooted in love and righteousness.
The Problem of Communication
Love, by its very nature, seeks to give and share. Yet, if God was a single person, the desire to
share and communicate would not be essential to His nature. And if sharing was not essential to Gods
nature, why would He share and reveal Himself to us? For this reason, Michael Reeves asks:
If God is a single person, and has always been alone, why should he speak? In the
loneliness of eternity before creation, who would he have spoken to? And why would he start
now? The habit of keeping to himself would run deep. Such a God would be far more likely to
remain unknown.[18.7]
In other words, if God was not essentially a relational and personal being, there would be no
inherent motive to share, love, and communicate Himself to us. But God is love because God is
trinitarian. Thus, it is inherent within His nature to communicate and share Himself.
Because God is love, the Father loves by communicating and sharing the greatest object of His
affection His Son (Matt. 16:17). The Son, in turn, loves us by revealing the Father (John 14:6), and the
Spirit loves us by sharing the Father and the Son (1 Cor. 1:30). Each person, it is seen, finds pleasure in
revealing the glory of the other persons. Therefore, we can know God because God is triune and He
naturally gives, shares, and communicates Himself to others something that could not be said about a

monistic deity.
Moreover, when God communicates love and joy to us, according to Jonathan Edwards, He is not
simply conveying the concepts of love and joy, but rather He communicates in such a way that he
bestows the affections of love and joyfulness.[18.8] Philosophers and theologians can seek to explain
the theoretical meaning of these concepts, but they cannot actually give the experience of love and joy
to their readers. God, on the other hand, because He is the source of all love and joy, can bestow these
things by giving us Himself. God is love and in Him is unspeakable joy.
Therefore, to the degree we know and experience God will be the measure in which we will know
and experience love and joy.
God delights in communicating happiness to others as much as He delights in enjoying happiness
for Himself. For God enjoys sharing the enjoyment that He enjoys, and since God finds enjoyment in
Himself, He thus loves communicating Himself to others.
So what is Gods love? It is the three persons of the Trinity investing their happiness in the
happiness of each other by seeking to share their happiness with each other so that they remain united
together in a single happiness. As we like to share our favorite things with the people we love the most,
each person of the Godhead loves to share their life, glory, love, and joy with each other. Because God
loves the Son, He loves to share His Son with the Spirit. They each love to share themselves and each
other. And this is how God loves us. God shares His life, glory, love, and joy with us so that we too can
be satisfied in the life, glory, love, and joy that comes from a saving knowledge of Him (John 17:22).
In other words, the loving relationship that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share with each other
from all eternity is the relationship that God has freely chosen to share with His people (John 17:26). The
Father gives His Son to His people. The Son, as the eternal Word, reveals the Father. And the Spirit brings
believers into communion with the Father and the Son. The greatest gift of all has been offered to
mankind an invitation to join in and experience the glorious joy and unending love found only between
the Mosh High Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, this is love!
Without the Trinity, morality and love would only be an abstract concept in the mind of God.
Allah may be a god who can command obedience, but his commands would not be rooted in love. As
single-person god, Allah is inherently selfish. In eternity past, Allah may have admired himself, but he
could not have enjoyed or loved anyone else. Allah is left to his own self-consciousness.
Self-appreciation is warranted if you happen to be God, but self-appreciation alone does not
warrant an eternal morality, for it lacks any meaningful relationship since there is no essential and
inherent desire to personally communicate and share with others. So indeed, since Allah cannot account
for his own eternal righteousness, he fails to be a god of love.

Conclusion
Gods law, Gods love, Gods personhood, and Gods communicativeness are essential and
eternal because God is triune. Only the God of the Bible can explain why there is an universal moral
standard and only the God of the Bible is able to justly forgive all those who come to Him in repentance
and faith through the work of His Son dying on the cross. In short, no other worldview, philosophy, or
religion has a coherent answer for mans guilt.

19. The Irrationality of Non-Trinitarian Religions

Guilt remains the problem. A guilty conscience not only testifies that we know there is a just God,
but it also testifies why we are unreceptive to such knowledge. Because we stand guilty before a holy
God, we would prefer either that God be impersonal or that He not exist at all.
Because of our sins, we have a hostile relationship with God. The previous chapter explained why
Christ is the only remedy for a guilty conscience. Only in Christ can sinners be forgiven and reconciled to
God. But this reconciliation with God raises another dilemma for non-trinitarian religions. Namely, a
relationship with God requires an analogous correlation between similar yet different things. That is,
there must be both unity and diversity for relationships to exist in the first place. But where does the
unity and the diversity come from?

The Problem of the One and the Many

The problem begins by asking which is ultimate or primary unity or diversity? No matter
which one we choose, we end up destroying the other in the process.
Though William of Ockham (1288-1347), an English Franciscan philosopher, claimed that only
particulars existed, it appears that most people have chosen unity as the ultimate reality. For example,
Muslims view the oneness of God (Tawhid) as ultimate reality. In Judaism, it is the indivisibility of
Yahweh. Brahma is Ultimate Reality in Hinduism and Buddhism. The oneness of Gods essence is the
unifying force behind pantheism. For Aristotle, it is the pure impartible and indivisible substance of the
Unmoved Mover.[19.1] And the unifying concept in Neoplatonism is the One.
Choosing unity as ultimate means that everything (all forms of diversity) can be reduced to the
one. But this type of reductionism has its consequences.
Though we naturally want to classify things together, like the 37 different species of cats (e.g.,
lions, tigers, and house cats) into the cat family (felis genus), it is impossible to find a single unifying
component or concept that unifies all cats together. We cannot reduce the cat family to fur, tails, or
pointed ears because fur, tails, and pointed ears are not restricted to the cat family. Not only that, if we
seek to identify them as a distinct genus, cats are more than just a ball of fur, or a wagging tail, or
pointed ears. If we reduced things down to a single trait or a single idea, we end up destroying that
which we were trying to explain. Once a cat is reduced to a ball of fur, then we no longer have a cat.
Thus, those religions that seek to make their monistic god the ultimate reality have a hard time
explaining why there is diversity in the world. And this is not to mention that this reductionism must be
applied to God as well, and when God is reduced to a single attribute or a particular trait, he/it is nothing
more than a mesh of unknowable substance.
On the other hand, if we seek to do away with any unity principles or classifications, making
diversity the ultimate reality, then God disappears from existence. Not only that, we destroy knowledge
altogether, seeing that knowledge of the world comes from classifying and contrasting different and
similar things together. If there is only diversity, as postmodernism would suggest, then there is no
similarity and analogous relationship between things. But, if there are no similar or analogous
relationships between things, then it becomes impossible to know those things.
Though this may only seem like a philosophical knot, there is an answer found in the Bible.

Ultimate reality is both unity and diversity, such as we discover in the doctrine of the Trinity. The one
and the many are equally ultimate as there is only one God who subsists in three distinct persons. We
can have both unity and diversity as ultimate because we have a triune God who is ultimate.
The equal ultimacy of God is important, even vital, for a cohesive worldview. Though some argue
that the Trinity is a contradiction, it is the doctrine of the Trinity which provides the coherency of the
Christian worldview. Without the Trinity, everything deconstructs into meaninglessness.
For instance, Allah is one. In the Quran it reads: He is Allah, the One (Sura 39:4). But this does
not mean one in number, for that which has no second cannot exist in a numerical form. According to
Vincent J. Cornell, a scholar of Islamic studies and director of the King Fahd Center of Middle East and
Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas: God is one in the sense that there is no multiplicity or
division conceivable in Him, neither outwardly, nor in the mind, nor in the imagination. God alone
possesses such unity.[19.2]
Concerning Judaism, the renowned Rabbi and Torah scholar Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides,
1135-1204) stated:
This God is one; He is neither two nor more than two; He is simply one. His unity is not
like any other oneness that exists in the world. His is not the unity of a kind that encompasses
many other single particulars; and it is not like the unity of a body that is divided into parts and
extremities; rather it is a unity that is entirely unlike any other sort of oneness in the universe.
[19.3]
Likewise, the theistic god of Aristotle, the Unmoved Mover, is an immaterial, infinite, eternal,
immutable being who is pure actuality. Because He is immaterial, He is a simple being without body,
parts, or composition. Because He is eternal, He exists in a timeless and motionless state. He is pure
actuality (actus purus) that is without any movement whatsoever. He is not like man who is in flux and
ever changing. God is perfectly immutable. God is not becoming He is what He is and all that He is
without any change or differentiation.
Man knows there is an infinite, eternal, and immutable God, but without special revelation,
natural theology will never properly lead us to believe God is a Trinity. All these wonderful attributes
(immateriality, infinity, eternality, and immutability), however great they are, without the balance of the
Trinity, logically lead to the inconsistency of monistic pantheism.

The Problem of Differentiation

If God was not triune, then Aristotle is right there are no grounds for any distinctions within God
at all.[19.4] Without any inherent distinctions, God would not only be timeless (for that requires a
separation in the mind of God between successive and distinct thoughts), but He would be one with His
attributes, which is Biblical.
However, all of His attributes would also be one with each other without any differentiation at all,
which is problematic.[19.5] It is problematic because without distinctions between His attributes there is
no difference between Gods omniscience and Gods omnipotence. Gods acts of power would be
identical to His thoughts and decrees. As Aristotle argued, If they are one in number, all things will be
the same.[19.6] In fact, all of Gods attributes, as in pantheism, would become one single attribute
without any differentiation (which is an extreme and unbiblical view of divine simplicity).[19.7]

The Problem of Movement

For Aristotle, immutable means immobile. To be purely simple without parts or differentiation
means that there can be no movement of self. And by the word movement, Aristotle is not only referring
to a change of physical location but also to any temporal change occurring through the intentional
exertion of power. Any intentional exertion of power requires a differentiation between the moment
before and the moment after the act of power. This differentiation brought about by sequence,
succession, or time is impossible for a simple, immutable God without parts.
Even if He wanted to, God cannot enter into space or time at all a God of pure unity is
completely locked out. Thus, immutability is not merely the idea that Gods essence does not change, but
that God cannot create change. God cannot create the universe or anything else, for this implies
movement or succession within God.

The Problem of Thought & Emotions

Moreover, without any differentiation, there is no difference between Gods mind, heart, and will,
for they are all immutability one. This would indicate that it is impossible for God to emotionally interact
with creation without there being a change in His eternal state of being. According to the preeminent
medieval Jewish Rabbi, Maimonides, there cannot be a change in Gods emotions without there being a
change in Gods nature: It is written, I am God who does not change (Mal. 3:6). And if He were
sometimes angry and sometimes happy, He would be changing.[19.8]
Not only is God without any emotional change, Gods emotion must be singular. He cannot single
out and focus on an individual event in history and have an emotional opinion or judgment about it. He
knows nothing of time related events and therefore He has no new experiences.
Consequently, God cannot have what Jonathan Edwards identified as a will of decree and a will of
command. Biblically speaking, these two wills are unified in that they both seek Gods glory, but they
seek Gods glory from different perspectives. Gods will of decree is God seeking His own glory in the
grand scheme of things, which is Gods eternal plan that cannot be violated. Gods will of command is
God seeking His own glory in every particular event in history, which is often violated.
Nevertheless, if God cannot differentiate between temporal events, He does not have a will of
command. He is not inflamed by the unjust acts of men because these acts are undifferentiated from the
rest of Gods knowledge and emotions. He is completely apathetic to the affairs of men.
If God is angry with the wicked, then He must have been timelessly angry with them before the
foundation of the world. Whatever Gods emotional state is from eternity past, He must remain in that
state without change. It is impossible for God to be appeased or provoked, for it is impossible for Him to
have emotional opinions about any single event in time. God is timeless, thus He must be timelessly
angry. In Gods motionless state, He only perceives all things in one continuous gaze without any
cognitive and emotional differentiation about any particular incident in history.
But then again, if there is no differentiation in God, there is no difference between Gods anger
and Gods satisfaction. What does it mean for God to be angry if Gods wrath is identical to Gods love
and pleasure?

The Problem of Consciousness

But this not only robs God of any emotional and personal interaction with creation, it robs God of
all cognitive interaction. Once Gods emotions are limited by Gods heart being absorbed into the sea of
Gods simplicity, Gods mind must be absorbed into this same ineffable sea as well.
If God cannot distinguish between His attributes, according to Pseudo-Dionysius, as pointed out
in chapter 3, God cannot distinguish between Himself and that which is not Himself. Such contemplation
implies a distinction between the self-awareness of the one who is thinking and that which is being
thought upon.
For Aristotle, though God is pure thought, he cannot think in any true sense of the word because
thinking consists of composite thoughts. Thinking is differentiating between things. And because
thought is moved by the object of thought,[19.9] contemplation cannot be contributed to the
unmovable God. Consequently, God cannot know the particulars of the universe, for He can only know
that which is indivisible. Because the only indivisible substance is God, God can only know Himself.
[19.10]
Thus, the god of Aristotle, according to B. A. G. Fuller (1879-1956), a former president of the
American Philosophical Association, knows only himself with a knowledge in which there is distinction
neither of self from not-self, nor of the activity of thought as such from its content.[19.11] Fuller went
on to explain: All Gods life and thought are locked up. He knows nothing but it, nothing but
himself.[19.12] For this reason, Aristotle said that God is thinking upon thinking.[19.13] That is to
say, Gods essence cannot be distinguished from Gods thought. If God is what He is, then He is that
which He contemplates. God is what He is without any differentiation, then whatever information is in
the mind of God is the very essence of God. Pure simplicity, without any inherent diversity of any kind,
leads to this conclusion a God who cannot consciously think.

The Problem of Divine Revelation

We have already seen, in chapter 18, how a non-trinitarian God would have no intrinsic motive to
communicate and reveal Himself, but even if He did try to reveal Himself, it would be impossible.
Without any differentiation, Gods knowledge of Himself is ineffable. A God who cannot separate one
thought from another thought can only know Himself in one simple and indivisible pure act. But with all
particulars removed from the mind of God, what is left? Something completely unknowable. For this
reason, Fuller concluded: It is like consciousness without anything but its mere name to be conscious of,
and therefore meaningless.[19.14] And if Gods knowledge of Himself is bound to a pure act of thought
without distinctions, how can he speak to man in an intelligible way? At best, the inconsistency found in
mysticism is all that remains when Gods knowledge of Himself is indivisible and unknowable.

The Problem of Creation

Moreover, if there is no distinction between Gods thoughts, there also can be no distinction
between Gods knowledge of Himself and Gods acts. If there are no distinctions between the various
attributes of God, then Gods creative acts of power must be eternal in the same way Gods knowledge is
eternal. Gods mind is ineffably united, without any distinctions, to Gods will, to Gods emotions, and to
Gods acts of power. God does not have passions because God does not have parts, but neither does He
have a mind or a will. With no differentiation within the mind of God, there is no intentionality with God.
This means that God did not choose to create, for He has always been and remains in a timeless state of
creating. Because He is barred from time, as Aristotle argued, the universe must be eternal.[19.15]

Again, according to this view of God, there can be no movement or motion in God without there
being a distinction within the essence of God. Consequently, this not only makes the universe eternal, it
makes the universe necessary and essential to the essence of God. That is, if the act of creating cannot
be separated from the undifferentiated attributes of God, then Gods act of creating the universe
becomes timelessly and eternally one with the essence of God. God and the universe are blended
together where the one becomes the other. This would also mean that there was never a time before the
foundation of the world where nothing existed but God alone. As in monistic pantheism, creation is an
essential property of God. God and creation are eternally united and inseparable. This ceases to make
creation a free act of Gods will that is subject to time, but merely an eternal emanation that cannot be
separated and distinguished from Gods essence. For God to be who He is, creation has to be what it is
making both God and the universe necessary and essential to one another.

The Problem of Transcendence and Immanence

With God being completely unknowable in His unified essence He becomes wholly other. Yet, His
transcendence is conflated oddly enough with His immanence because the universe is a timeless
emanation of Gods being. Of course this leads to a clear contradiction: God cannot be both entirely
other and entirely the same with the universe.

Conclusion
Not only is the god of pantheism one with the universe, the god of pantheism ceases to be loving
and personal. He is a simple being who apathetically and blissfully exists in a cemented state of pure
and indivisible thought of Himself without any personal concern or contemplation of the ever changing
affairs of the universe that is full of particulars.
One may argue that this god of Aristotle is not Allah or the god of Judaism, but this is where a
pure unitarian/monistic god leads. For instance, the Arab-Islamic scholar Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (11651240) reduced the oneness of God (Tawhid) in Islam to its logical conclusion pantheism. Ibn Arabi
believed that the single and indivisible reality simultaneously transcends and is manifested in all things.
Likewise, the Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza did the same with Judaism in his book Ethics.[19.16]
And though many Muslims and Jews do not agree with Ibn Arabi or with Spinoza, this is where the
ultimacy of Gods oneness logically ends.
If we start with pure unity without any intrinsic diversity, then Ultimate Reality becomes more of
a blind, unknowable, and impersonal force than a personal and loving God who remains distinct from the
universe. A single-person god, if he/it could even be defined as a person, cannot love, care, and express
a diversity of emotions because there is no differentiation within his/its essence, thoughts, or acts. Such
a god as Allah or the god of Judaism becomes the god behind pantheism. And, as we have already seen
in chapter 17, pantheism is an incoherent worldview.

20. The Irrationality of Unitarian Monotheism

We have already seen the irrationality of pantheism in chapter 17, but thankfully we are not
abandoned to merely the light of natural theology the god of Aristotle. God has revealed Himself to us
in His Word, where we learn that He is one God subsisting in three distinct persons that remain eternally
united and separate from each other. God is personal, loving, and caring because there are three distinct
loving and caring persons within the Godhead that internally (ad intra) and relationally interact with each
other.

The Solution for Differentiations

It is true that God is a simple being that is not composed of non-divine parts. For instance, if the
attribute of power was not essential to Gods nature, then power would cease to be divine, which would
cause God to be dependent on something outside of Himself for Him to be omnipotent. Because God
cannot be dependent on anything other than Himself, He cannot be composed of any non-divine parts.
Gods simplicity implies that His nature consists of His attributes, and His attributes do not exist
independently or outside of God. This also implies that each attribute is inseparably necessary and
essential to the other attributes of God. That is, it is logically impossible to separate or remove any of
the attributes of God without destroying God in the process. Each of Gods attributes properly describe
each of the other attributes of God in the same way that they each describe God. Because God is love,
Gods love is sovereign, eternal, and omniscient in the same way that God is sovereign, eternal, and
omniscient. Finally, this implies that each and every attribute of God (in-and-of-itself) consists of the
fullness of God. In this way, God is a simple being without non-divine parts. He is what He is.
God being simple, however, does not mean that He is without any formal differentiations within
Himself. [20.1] Saying that God cannot be a collection of non-divine parts (i.e., parts that are not in-andof-themselves fully God) is not the same as saying that God cannot subsist in different divine persons
that are (in-and-of-themselves) fully God (i.e., autotheos). For instance, because each of the three
persons of the Godhead are (in-and-of-themselves) fully God, formal differentiations and relations are
inherent and necessary in God. According to Oliphint, These personal distinctions and relations are all
identical with him; they are not added to him from the outside.[20.2] In other words, the
differentiations within God are essential to who God is.
Formal differentiations within the Trinity imply that God is not only able to distinguish between
things outside Himself, but that He is able to distinguish between different things inside Himself. For
example, God the Father knows that He is neither the Son nor the Spirit, the Son knows that He is neither
the Father nor the Spirit, and the Spirit knows that He is neither the Father nor the Son.
Moreover, the formal differentiations between the three persons of the Trinity are not merely
conceptual distinctions within the mind of God; rather, they are an essential part of His ontology.[20.3]
Jay Wesley Richards, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, reminds us that the Father and the Son
could not change places.[20.4] Richards went on to elucidate:
There is some fact about the Father that makes him the Father and not the Son, and some
fact about the Son that makes him the Son and not the Father, even if we can refer to these
separate facts by means of single asymmetrical relation. Moreover, the relation of the Father to
the Son is not the same as the relation of the Father to the Spirit. Therefore, if one wishes to

retain the trinitarian distinction, one must deny that every essential divine property or relation is
strongly equivalent.[20.5]
Consequently, there can be and there are essential and eternal distinctions within the very being
of God.[20.6] This implies that Gods simplicity must be understood in light of the diversity found in the
Trinity.[20.7] Specifically, Gods simplicity does not cancel out His multiplicity. To avoid the blank
identity of pantheism, Van Til claimed, we must insist on an identity that is exhaustively correlative to
the differentiations within the Godhead.[20.8]
If there were no formal differentiations within God, as with Allah, the Aristotelian Unmoved
Mover, and the god behind pantheism, then God would become pure unity without any diversity at all. In
fact, as pointed out in the last chapter, unitarian monotheism, in all of its forms, is reducible to monistic
pantheism.

The Solution for Divine Revelation

Furthermore, if there are no differentiations within God, then there cannot be any differentiations
within the mind of God. Consequently, without God being able to distinguish between His various
thoughts and attributes, then, as in monistic pantheism, God would be utterly unknowable even to
Himself.
And if God cannot know Himself, what hope do we have of knowing God? If God cannot
distinguish His knowledge from any of His acts of power, it would be impossible for Him to reveal
Himself to man. For instance, what does it mean to say that God is love if Gods love is identical to Gods
omniscience? What would Gods omniscience mean if it was one and the same with Gods hatred? Terms
describing God would cease to mean anything if they can mean everything. Thus, if Gods knowledge of
Himself was restricted to a single attribute, then our knowledge of Him would be no knowledge at all.
[20.9] Without distinctions within God, says Calvin, only the bare and empty name of God flits about in
our brains, to the exclusion of the true God.[20.10]
Commenting on this, the Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield (1851-1921) remarked: According to
Calvin, then, it would seem, there can be no such thing as a monadistic God; the idea of multiformity
enters into the very notion of God.[20.11] In this, Calvin understood that for God to reveal Himself to
man, He must be tripersonal. Only a God whose diversity is equally ultimate with His simplicity is a God
that can be known.
Jonathan Edwards also rooted divine revelation in the doctrine of the Trinity. According to
Edwards, God is a communicative being. Expounding upon Edwards view, William Schweitzer writes: In
asserting that God is a communicative being, Edwards is referring to a logically and temporally prior
theology whereby God is inherently communicative ad intra (i.e., internally) among the persons of the
Godhead.[20.12] That is, although the economic Trinity communicates to man and angles ad extra (i.e.,
externally), Gods essential communicativeness is not dependent upon man or angels or anything else
outside of Himself. This is because, ontologically speaking, the Father communicates to the Son, and the
Son and the Father communicate to the Spirit. In this, communication is essential to the very nature of
God.
Therefore, the economic Trinity is able to communicate ad extra (i.e., externally) to man, only
because the ontological Trinity communicates ad intra (i.e.., internally) with Himself. The Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit love, enjoy, and glorify each other by revealing themselves to one another,

communicating to one another, and sharing themselves with one another. And it is only because they are
inherently able to communicate and share themselves with each other like this that they are intrinsically
able to communicate and share themselves with us, who are made in the image of God.
In other words, divine communication is possible because God is triune. As all three persons of
the Godhead are involved in the process of communication: The Father reveals the Son (Matt. 16:17), the
Son reveals the Father (John 14:6), and the Spirit reveals the Father and the Son (1 Cor. 1:30). Each
person finds pleasure in revealing the glory of the other persons. Hence, we can know God because God
is triune something that could not be said about a monistic deity.

The Solution for Thoughts & Emotions

Also, a multi-personal God is required for a God who can differentiate between His different
attributes, thoughts, emotions, and acts. Only a multi-personal God can have a will of decree and a will
of command that allows Him to be both impassibly at peace in regard to the grand scheme of things and
emotionally grieved in regard to particular sinful acts as they transpire in history. Like a 1,000 piece
jigsaw puzzle that can either be fully constructed into a single picture or broken apart into its individual
pieces, God is able to see all of history at one glance and also examine each singular event separately.
When He considers the complete historical picture, He is eternally happy. He is impassibly satisfied with
the outworking of His will of decree because ultimately, all things are working together for His glory as
planned. And while God is able to examine single pieces of the puzzle independently from the whole, and
be grieved accordingly, He is also able to be angry with those who transgress His will of command
because in those temporal moments He ceases to be glorified.
Gods essence does not change, but this does not mean that He does not have particular
opinions/judgments about things that do change. The English puritan Stephen Charnock (1628-1680)
understood that a display of changing emotions is not only consistent with the immutability of God but is
required:
God is not changed, when of loving to any creatures he becomes angry with them, or of
angry he becomes appeasedGod always acts according to the immutable nature of his holiness,
and can no more change in his affections to good and evil, than he can in his essence Though
the same angels were not always loved, yet the same reason that moved him to love them,
moved him to hate them. It had argued a change in God if he had loved them always, in
whatsoever posture they were towards him.[20.13]
Consequently, God can be grieved after the fall of man and be appeased by the atoning work of
Christ on the cross because He, who controls time, can differentiate between time related events.

The Solution for Relationships

The differentiation within the Trinity is also what allows God to be personal and relational in His
nature. God did not have to take on relational properties when He created man; rather, He is eternally
and inherently relational. Hence, without any change taking place in His nature, He is capable of
personally interacting with those whom He created in His own likeness.

The Solution for a Separate Universe

The ontological differentiation between the Father, Son, and Spirit is as vital as Gods oneness.

The ontological differentiation within God is vital in keeping the essence of God from becoming
conflated with the universe. This is because the equal ultimacy of God not only allows for diversity-inunity, but it also explains why an immutable God was able to create a distinct universe out of nothing (ex
nihilo) at a particular point in time.
Aristotle believed that motion (e.g., the pure motion of the stars) was eternal, for every act of
motion within the universe must be caused by a previous act of motion, which must be indefinite. Though
motion is infinite, there must be a prime mover to prevent the logical inconsistency of an eternal
regression. The solution, according to Aristotle, is that motion is the eternal effect of the eternal
Unmoved Mover making the unmovable God and the forever moving universe coeternal and
coessential.
Aristotle was right motionlessness and motion must both be eternal. There is no way around
this. For instance, if motionlessness (i.e., an Unmoved Mover) was not eternal, then we would be left
with an eternal regression of causes with no explanation of what or Who set off the first cause. On the
other hand, if motion was not eternal, then motion would not be essential to Gods nature. And if motion
was not essential to Gods nature, then God would depend upon something outside of Himself to move
and act. And if God was immobile and unable to exert acts of volitional power, then He could not have
created a temporal universe out of nothing. So, motionlessness and motion must both be eternal.
But how can both realities be eternal without God and creation being coeternal and coessential?
How can an unmovable God create something temporal if creating the universe requires an act of
movement within God? How can God be unmovable, yet capable of moving Himself to create? How do
we have a God who is above time and space, but is not locked out of time and space? How do we have a
God that is immutable to time-bound events, but is also able to carry out time-bound events, such as
creating and governing the universe?
The only solution is found in the triune God of the Bible. God is immutable without being
restricted to a static and motionless state. This is because God is one in His essence and three in His
persons. He is unchanging in His essence (which safeguards us from open theism).[20.14] However, in
this immutable and eternal state of perfection, the Father, as a distinct person, is intrinsically and
internally (ad intra) moved to love and glorify the Son, and likewise the Son and the Spirit are moved to
love and glorify the Father. They each are incited to share, communicate, give, love, and glorify the other
by the infinite worth that they consistently see in the other. They are in an eternal state of interacting
and sharing their glory with each other. That is, within the Godhead there is an eternal state of
movement (i.e., interaction) between the three persons without any change taking place in the unity of
Gods immutable essence.
The word automobile originated from the compound of two French words auto, which means self,
and mobile, which means movable. Thus, an automobile is something that moves itself. But truly this
cannot be said of man-made vehicles that require a driver and fuel. Vehicles dont move themselves.
Strictly speaking, the word automobile applies only to God. Only the triune God is autonomously selfmoving. Unlike Aristotles Unmoved Mover, the God of the Bible does not need the universe as a vehicle
of movement. God is not dependent on anything outside of Himself. God is not cemented in an
immovable state, for He can act, move, create, and do as He pleases.
To think, to love, to share, to communicate, and to act are all intrinsic abilities within a triune
God. Because the triune God is not restricted from having acts of motion within Himself, creating and
governing a universe that is separate and bound to time is not an impossibility. Creation does not have

to be eternal. Although God is not bound by time and space, He is not locked out of time or space either.
The God of the Bible is Lord of time and space as He is personally ever-present in all the particular
affairs of this world.[20.15] In short, because the three persons of the Trinity interact internally (ad intra)
with one another, the Godhead was able to create externally (ad extra) a temporal universe out of
nothing at a particular moment in time.

The Solution for God and Time

This brings us to one of the most difficult questions of theology: What is Gods relationship to
time? If time is the measurement of movement, then Gods relationship with time is unlike our
relationship with time.
We are restricted by time because movement exists independent of our own existence. We cant
slow down the rotation of the earth or speed it up. Time ticks at the same rate regardless of how we feel
about it. Moreover, movement changes us. We grow from young to old, with our bodies changing along
the way. The older we become, the more we realize that our lives are slipping away from us. And there is
nothing we can do about it. In short, we are bound to time because our existence is bound to causation
or movement outside of our control.
God, on the other hand, is not moved or changed by any external causation or movement. This is
because there is no causation or movement outside of Gods control. The causation within a solar system
or the falling sand within a hourglass do not move (or even exist) independently from Gods will and
power. Because Gods ontological existence stands independent of any external movement, His nature
cannot be changed by movement or time. With this in mind, Gods nature is timelessly changeless.
The timeless and immutable nature of God, however, does not mean that God is restricted from
moving Himself. Even though God cannot be moved or changed by external causes, He can internally
move Himself in accordance with His immutable nature. This is because motion all motion occurs
directly or indirectly by the power of God who does all things according to His predetermined counsel. As
we have seen, God is capable of temporal acts of power (i.e., creating and governing the universe)
because movement is inherent within His multi-personal existence.
So then, Gods relationship with time must be understood in light of His triune nature. While God
is changeless in the singularity of His immutable nature, the interaction between the plurality of the
divine persons is not static. In other words, God can be both timelessly changeless within His unified
essence and capable of moving Himself due to the inherent interaction between the three divine
persons.
Thus, time, as with movement, is neither something that exists independently of God nor is it
something that restricts God. Rather, both time and movement are ultimately controlled by the
interaction between the diversity of divine persons as they think and act in accordance with the oneness
of their immutable nature.

The Solution for Gods Transcendence and Immanence

A monistic deity, on the other hand, would be completely locked out of time. An atemporal god,
such as Allah, has its consequences. The consequence in this case would be that, since a monistic deity
cannot display intentional and temporal acts of power, the universe would have to be eternal. That is,
seeing that there is a universe, there could not have been a time when there was nothing but God if God

was atemporal.
If God is bound by timelessness, where did the universe come from? The only possible answer
that retains God as Creator is the notion that the universe has always existed as an eternal emanation
flowing from the undifferentiated essence of this Unmoved Mover. As light flows from the sun, the
universe has to be timelessly flowing out of God. Ultimately, without the Trinity, God and the universe
would be one and the same, as light is made of the same stuff as the sun. Consequently, even though an
atemporal god would be wholly other in His unknowable transcendence, He would be one with the
universe in His ontological immanence. While this is a blatant contradiction, it is the result of a god who
is barred from any temporal movement.
This obvious inconstancy, however, is safely resolved with the God of the Bible. With the Trinity
there is a clear Creator/ creature distinction, since God created the universe out of nothing at a
particular point in time. God alone existed before the foundation of the world. There was nothing else
but God until God (at a particular point in time) freely and intentionally spoke the universe into existence
out of nothing.And because the universe and God do not consist of the same ontological substance, God
remains transcendent. But He is also immanent because He is not barred from time as He personally
interacts with those whom He has made after His own likeness. This unity and diversity between God
and creation is possibly only because there is unity-in-diversity within the Godhead.

Conclusion
Only the trinitarian God of the Bible can be both ultimate and personal. For this reason, the
Trinity is the only solution to the ultimate questions of life relating to (1.) metaphysics, (2.) epistemology,
and (3.) ethics. First, as already pointed out, metaphysics is concerned about what is real or ultimate; and
only the equal ultimacy of unity and diversity within the Trinity can properly explain the eternality of God
and the existence of the temporal universe. Second, the epistemological problem of how we know what
we know is exclusively resolved with the triune God of the Bible who is able to reveal Himself to man. As
we have seen, all knowledge is rooted in the revelation of God, and only a trinitarian God can reveal
Himself to man. Third, and finally, ethics can only exist if God is inherently personal and relational, which
cannot be said of any monistic deity. And because the multi-personal God of the Bible is inherently
relational, in Him we have an absolute standard to follow.
Non-trinitarian religions, such as Judaism and Islam, cannot give an account for the one and the
many, the distinction between the thoughts and acts of God, a temporal universe, and standards for
moral righteousness that are vital for loving relationships. In short, non-trinitarian worldviews cannot
coherently tell us (1.) what is real, (2.) how we know that its real, or (3.) how we should live.[20.16]
If we dont have a trinitarian God who remains ontologically distinct from creation and who is
able to reveal truth to man, then we must conclude that truth, all truth, is impossible to discover. The gist
of the argument is that, without anchoring our beliefs in the God of the Bible, absurdity is all that
remains. Christianity, as it has proven itself to be, not merely supplies the least contradictory worldview
available, but truly, it gives the only worldview that is not contradictory. Because the Christian worldview
is the only worldview that maintains coherency, it then is logically deducible that it is the one and only
appropriate way to perceive Ultimate Reality. Believing in the Bible does not take a blind leap of faith,
but rather the opposite it is the only rational thing to do.

PART V. The Grounds for Belief

Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
Isaiah 1:18

21. Supported by Presuppositionalism

There are three primary and interconnected presuppositions to every worldview, which, as we
have already noted, are the answers we give to the God, knowledge, and ethics questions. These are
foundational and necessary questions that must be answered. We have also seen how every possible
combination of answers to these three ultimate questions are reducible to one of the three overarching
worldviews naturalism, impersonal-supernaturalism, and personal-supernaturalism.
But the problem with naturalists and impersonal-supernaturalists is that the answer they give to
the God question inadvertently undermines any possible answer they can give to the other two questions
about knowledge and ethics. Without a personal God who has spoken to man, there is no solid
foundation for knowledge or ethics. And if naturalists and impersonal-supernaturalists have no foundation
for their knowledge and ethics, it would be absurd to trust a naturalist or impersonal-supernaturalists
beliefs about a God they dont know or dont think exists. Such knowledge is truly mere subjective
though and opinion. Indeed, it is absurd to think they are right about the God question when they have no
right to think they are right about anything.
This leaves us with personal-supernaturalism, but within this system of thought, only the
trinitarian God of the Bible is able to supply us with mutually cohesive answers to lifes ultimate
questions. This is because a non-trinitarian deity (as we find in Islam and Judaism) logically leads back
to an impersonal god that cannot communicate or have any inherently ethical values.
Thus, only when we have the trinitarian God of the Bible do we have grounds for knowledge (how
we know what we know) and ethics (how we should live). Only the Christian worldview stands up against
the test of logical cohesiveness.

The Transcendental Argument

So it is clear, in order to maintain a cohesive worldview, we must presuppose the God of the
Bible, and this brings us to the main thrust of this book the transcendental argument (a.k.a.,
presuppositionalism), which asks, what are the necessary preconditions for the existence of knowledge?
As we have noted throughout the book, logical and ethical absolutes must be presupposed in
order to construct a trustworthy worldview. This is why all non-biblical worldviews are inherently flawed
they begin with faulty presuppositions (Part 4). And as we have also showed, logical and ethical
absolutes can only be cohesively maintained within the biblical worldview, which shows (1.) divine
communication (2.) from a personal/trinitarian God (3.) that is directed to those who are ontologically
distinct from God (4.) but also are made in His likeness.
Divine Communication
We need a God who is capable of communicating to us, for without divine communication, there
is no grounds for logical and ethical absolutes, and without absolutes, the absurdity of nihilism and
relativism is all that remains.
Because naturalism begins by ruling out any form of divine intervention, supernatural
communication is not even a consideration. Impersonal-supernaturalism is also unable to supply the
necessary preconditions for knowledge and ethics because impersonal-supernaturalism says God and the
universe consist of the same ontological stuff God becomes one with nature and ceases to be

personal. Without a personal God who can communicate, as with naturalism, impersonalsupernaturalism leaves finite man completely to himself (in a closed universe) to vainly search for
objective meaning that is nowhere to be found.
A Trinitarian God
As indicated above, for divine communication to be possible, we need a personal God, but, as
chapters 18-20 show, the only way for an Ultimate Being to be both ultimate and personal is for Him to
be multi-personal.
The Ultimate Being must be both one and many for Him to be a communicable being. For
instance, without unity, there would cease to be any one thing that was Ultimate. Without diversity,
there would cease to be any formal differentiation within God, which would hinder God from
distinguishing between things and communicating accordingly. Thus, only the trinitarian God of the
Bible, who is both one and many, meets the necessary preconditions for divine communication.
A Creator/Creature Distinction
Another necessary precondition for divine communication is the Creator/creature distinction. This
is because when unity is ultimate, as with Islam and Judaism, everything is reducible to pantheism.
Because pantheism destroys the possibility of divine communication, as we have seen in chapter 19,
Islam and Judaism cannot consistently give an account for divine communication.
The God of the Bible, on the other hand, is capable of speaking not only because He is trinitarian,
but also because He is ontologically different from man. God is an eternal and self-existing spirit, while
man was made from the dust of the ground, and the dust of the ground was ultimately created out of
nothing (ex nihilo). This distinction is vital to prevent God and the universe from merging together into
one substance. And this ontological distinction must be maintained for God to be both personal and
capable of speaking.
An Analogy of Being
There must be a Creator/creature distinction, but there also must be a real point of connection
between God and man if communication is to take place.
A link between God and man is possible because ontology (i.e., the nature of being) cannot be
separated from epistemology and ethics within Gods essence. This is because God is, in His essential
being, epistemologically omniscient and ethically righteous. In other words, God is what He is. As Gods
ontological existence is the foundation behind everything else that exists, His knowledge is the
foundation for epistemology, and His righteousness is the foundation for ethics. God is the standard and
measure of all things. Therefore, because God is all-knowing and perfectly righteous, it is impossible to
disjoin His being/essence (ontology) from His knowledge (epistemology) and from His righteousness
(ethics).
This is important to note, because even though man is not made from the same ontological stuff
as God, man is made in His epistemological and ethical likeness. What God formed from the dust of the
ground, He also made a living soul by breathing the breath of life into him (Gen. 2:7). By this, I believe,
mans original righteousness and knowledge of God (i.e., sensus divinitatis) was facilitated by the very
breath and life of God. God not only created man ethically upright, He implanted within man the
epistemological knowledge of Himself. Unlike the animals, man shares the communicable attributes of

God. Because of this, there is an analogy of being between God and man.
This similarity between them establishes a real link. Being made in the image of God (Imago Dei)
not only allows for man to know God, but more importantly, it allows for man to have fellowship with
God.
It is true that the fall has separated man from the life of God, and that sin has defaced the Imago
Dei within man, but nonetheless, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of right-and-wrong remain
stamped on his conscience. Consequently, even with the unregenerate, there remains an analogous
relationship a real point of connection between God and man.
Fallen man will never love God without being reconciled to God through Christ. As chapters 26
and 27 will show, only the spiritual illumination of the Holy Spirit can communicate to fallen man in such
a way that they will lovingly embrace the truth of Gods existence. This is because spiritual illumination
restores the Imago Dei within them. By the Holy Spirit spiritually indwelling those whom He illuminates,
He effectually imparts the love of God, the righteousness of God, and the (experiential) knowledge of
God within them. In this way, the renewed man can personally know God because he has entered into
spiritual fellowship with God.
Nevertheless, if there were no analogy of being, then God would be ineffable; and if God was
ineffable, as explained in chapter 1, communication between God and man would be impossible. For this
reason, a real point of connection between God and man is a necessary precondition for divine
communication, and this necessary condition is only discovered within the biblical worldview.

Conclusion
Therefore, without logical and ethical absolutes, knowledge all knowledge deconstructs. The
necessary conditions for logical and ethical absolutes are only met by the trinitarian God of the Bible
who communicates to those whom He has made in His likeness. The biblical worldview is the only
coherent worldview because of the impossibility of the contrary. It is the only coherent worldview
because it alone meets the necessary preconditions for logical and moral absolutes.

22. Supported by Cohesiveness

How can an all-benevolent and all-powerful God create a world filled with so much evil? If God is
good, why did He not create an eternal and perfect world where evil is impossible? If God wanted, He
could have made man eternally good. He could have prevented the fall. He could have prevented all the
sorrow, disease, crime, exploitation, slavery, sex trafficking, murders, and war that have plagued the
world for all these years. But He didnt. How can this be? How can an all-knowing and all-powerful God
still be considered holy if He knowingly created a world such as the one we have a world full of evil?
The contemplation of this question has caused many to abandon belief in God. The atheism of C.
S. Lewis was based on this dilemma: My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel
and unjust.[22.1] This lead John Stuart Mills father to reject the God of the Bible. As we have already
seen in the testimony of Mill:
My fathers rejection of all that is called religious belief was not, as many might suppose,
primarily a matter of logic and evidence: the grounds of it were moral, still more than intellectual.
He found it impossible to believe that a world so full of evil was the work of an Author combining
infinite power with perfect goodness and righteousness.[22.2]
It is true that Lewis abandoned atheism after further contemplation of this dilemma. Lewis
realized he had no grounds to judge God as being evil because atheism cannot give account for moral
distinctions in the first place.[22.3] But even so, the dilemma still remains within the Christian worldview
how can a good God create a world full of evil? This is supposedly where the Christian worldview falls
apart.
Those who use this argument as a means to undermine Christianity do not realize that the
theological solution to the problem is the very thing that saves the Christian worldview from incoherency.
The theological answer to this problem is what makes the Bible coherent and perfectly compatible with
science.
The naturalistic worldview only makes room for nature and science, and thus it does not remain
consistent with its own presuppositions. Not only is there is no room for moral distinctions and right and
wrong in this system, there is no room for any immaterial absolutes. Without immaterial absolutes, there
is no room for mathematics and the laws of physics that undergird science. Moreover, the various
impersonal-supernaturalist worldviews (such as pantheism, panentheism, monism, and dualism) also
confuse the relationship between God and the universe, and thus fail to be cohesive and trustworthy.
They, too, cannot properly explain moral injustice and evil without an absolute standard or without
blaming God in the process. The power of God and the laws of physics become one and the same. In the
end, those holding to naturalism or impersonal-supernaturalism have no grounds to complain about
suffering and evil.
In other words, in non-trinitarian worldviews, there is ultimately no such thing as good or evil. The
Christian worldview, on the other hand, makes room for both God and nature, for the supernatural and
the natural, for metaphysics and physics, for religion and science, for God and man, and for primary and
secondary causes.
The two realms are not confused nor mixed together, for in their relationship with each other,
God and the universe remain united but distinct. For this reason, Gods supernatural power is perfectly
compatible with the laws of nature, and this is the beauty of the Christian worldview. This is what allows

it to be consistent with itself. Because of this, God remains perfectly good and all-powerful, while man is
fully responsible for his own transgressions. There is an all-powerful and all-benevolent God who will
hold man accountable for all the injustice, sorrow, and crimes that have turned the world upside down.

God is Good
God is good in His nature (Jer. 12:1), His law (Ps. 19:7-11), His works (Ps. 145:17), His judgments
(Ps. 119:137), and in His mercies (Rom. 3:21-26). God is good because He seeks His own glory in all
things (Col. 1:16-18). Each person of the triune Godhead loves the other persons of the Godhead
perfectly. They each place the glory of the others above everything else (John 17:5-32). Because nothing
is greater than Gods glory, for God to be good He must seek His own glory above all things. To not
glorify the most glorious being is to come short of the glory of God. Each of the three persons of the
Godhead seeks to glorify the others. God loves humanity, but not above His own glory this is why God
is good.
Motives matter, even in God. Everything that God does is good because everything He does is
done for His own glory. The chief motive behind every action of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is to
glorify one another. God created the universe for His own glory, All things were created through Him
and for Him (Col. 1:16). He saves sinners for His own glory (Isa. 43:7; Eph. 2:6-7). And He answers our
prayers for His own glory (John 14:13). Even sin is permitted because it will indirectly bring glory to God
(Ps. 76:10). So, when we think about Gods goodness, we must remember that His goodness is not
principally derived from His love for man (though He does love man), but from His love for Himself, or
otherwise God would cease to be good.

God is All-Powerful
In addition to being good, God is omnipotent. He is absolutely sovereign. He controls everything
from the number of hairs on each of our heads (Matt. 10:30) to the timing of each little sparrow that falls
from the sky (Matt. 10:29). He controls the rise and fall of the nations of the world and the rise and fall
of the birds of the air (Dan. 2:21). God appoints when and where each of us is born into this world (Acts
17:26); and He determines when each of us will depart from this world (Heb. 9:27). He tells the sea
where it can go and where it can go no further (Job 38:11). He clothes the lilies of the field, and He feeds
the mouths of the lions in the wilderness (Luke 12:27; Ps. 104:21). He controls the hearts of all men, for
even the kings heart is in the hands of the Lord, and He turns it where ever He wishes (Pr. 21:1). He
hardens whom He wants to harden and shows mercy on whom He wants to pardon (Rom. 9:18). Not one
blade of grass is blown about in the wind without being obedient to Gods eternal and predetermined
counsel.
God determines everything that takes place in history, for His counsel shall stand. No one can say
to Him, What are you doing? (Dan. 4:35). For does not the potter have the right to do what He wants
with His own clay (Rom. 9:21)? Does a hammer have the right to say to Him who wields it, dont swing
me here or there (Isa. 10:15)? Of course not. He is God and He does all things according to His own
pleasure (Ps. 115:3; Eph.1:11). God would cease to be God if He ceased to be in control of all things.
Gods sovereignty ensures that everything works together for His own glory. Though not all acts
in-and-of-themselves, such as sin, bring glory to God, they do work together to accomplish a greater
purpose. Everything, including Adolf Hitler and the terrible crimes of Lenin, Stalin, and Pol Pot, will bring
praise to God, or otherwise God would not have orchestrated such calamities. Mans wicked plans will all
be thwarted and turned around before it is all said and done, so that the name of the all-wise, all-good,

and all-powerful God will be exalted. Anything less than an all-powerful God could not bring all things,
including evil, to a glorious conclusion.

Compatibility
But, this brings us back to our alleged dilemma if God is good and sovereign, how is He not
responsible for all the evil in the world? We must also remember that within the Christian worldview,
God is both transcendent and immanent. Unlike pantheism, God is not one with the universe. If that was
the case, then evil could be directly assigned to the actions of God. Conversely, unlike deism, God has
not abandoned or left the universe to itself where evil has no greater purpose. This would make God
negligently irresponsible.
Only the biblical worldview has the answer to why there is evil in the world. Because God is in
control of all things, evil works together with all the other events in history for the glory of God and the
good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28).
According to the Scriptures, God does not control all things directly. He controls the universe, but
He is not one with the universe. He has delegated and invested a measure of His power into nature
itself. The physical universe is established with the laws of nature; and humans have been endowed with
the power and volition to choose between right and wrong. In other words, God controls the laws of
nature and the free actions of men, but He is not one with these things. God has created the universe to
operate in an orderly and precise fashion, and He has created man to operate in accordance with his
human nature. As gravity does what gravity does, and dogs do what dogs do, so men will act the way
men act. Nature will function according to its established laws, and creatures including humans will
function according to their established natures.
So, according to the Scriptures, God governs all things according to His own counsel and purpose
but does so in a way that does not violate the laws of nature and the volition of man. As the AmericanDutch theologian Louis Berkhof (1873-1957) explains, In the physical world He has established the laws
of nature, and it is by means of these laws that He administers the government of the physical
universe.[22.4] Thus, the direct power of God and the indirect powers of nature cooperate and work
together without mixture and confusion. God and the laws of nature (religion and science) are not one
and the same, but they are perfectly compatible with each other. Theologically, this is known as
concurrence, which Berkhof defines as follows: Concurrence may be defined as the cooperation of the
divine power with all subordinate powers, according to the pre-established laws of their operation,
causing them to act and to act precisely as they do.[22.5]
Though God has overruled the laws of nature on a few special occasions, as when He caused an
axe head to float on water (2 Kings 6:6), He typically and almost always utilizes the laws of nature to
carryout His purposes. This frees God from being morally responsible for evil, but it also prevents evil
from undermining and thwarting His eternal purposes. Moreover, this means that man is not a machine;
the impersonal laws of physics do not determine his will. The divine activity, according to Berkhof,
accompanies the action of man at every point, but without robbing man in any way of his
freedom.[22.6] This means that God is sovereign and man is responsible.
Man was originally created innocent, but due to his own will, he fell from his original state (Ecc.
7:29). For this reason, God is not the author of sin, for evil is derived from the heart of man (Jam. 1:1314). Man is responsible for departing from God. Though God permitted it, in no way did God push, tempt,
or incite man to leave his original position of innocence.

Once man chose to leave his original upright state, his original nature was defaced. He was made
in the image of God, but this image was marred when he no longer loved God with all of his heart. He no
longer could love God because He no longer wanted to love God love of self was now the dominant
factor in mans heart.
Man remained free to do what he wanted to do, but this also means that he was bound to do only
what he wanted to do. Because man had become enslaved to his own sinful nature, it was impossible for
him to please God (Rom. 8:5). As a polluted spring cannot produce fresh water or a bad tree bear good
fruit, a depraved man will not love God above himself. As the leopard cannot change his spots, a selfish
man will never surrender all to God (Jer. 13:23).
On his own, man has forsaken God, and now man can never come to God on his own. Fallen man
always moves away from Gods glory. Because even mans best acts are not done for the glory of God,
God considers these acts as sinful (Rom. 3:23). Just as methamphetamine pulls the addict deeper into
the addiction, self-love draws depraved souls deeper into selfish and sinful behavior. Down, down, down
man spirals out of control. As gravity pulls objects downward, mans heart pulls him away from God.
Though selfishness pulls man away from God, God remains in control over the selfishness of
men. Mans nature pulls him downward, but only to the level or degree God allows. As padlocks and law
enforcers prohibit many crimes from taking place, God has sovereignly placed many external restraints
upon the human race to prevent society from nose-diving completely out of control. Mans conscience,
the structure of the family, governments, social acceptability, police officers, and many other such things
keep depravity in check. God controls the restraints, and thus indirectly controls the degree to which man
is able to fall into sin.
Only in judgment does God remove His restraining hand and give people over to themselves. His
righteousness is revealed from heaven each time He hands people over to their own lawlessness (Rom.
1:18). As Paul explained, the consequence of sin is God removing His outward restraints and giving man
over to his own sinful desires. Isaiah understood this as well. In his prayer to God, Isaiah cried out:
There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden
your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities (Isa. 64:7).
Thus, sin is the just punishment for sin. If we dont want to live for God, then God justly takes a
step back from us and leaves us to our own devices. Because of sin, God gives us what we want more
sin. God does not push us into sin; He simply turns us over to our desires and down we go on our own
accord. We sin freely and willingly. The further we travel down the path of unrighteousness, the more
God gives us over to ourselves (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28). There is no end to where sin will take us. And, left
alone, we will never seek after God but will only move further and further away from Him (John 6:44).
Because sin comes from within our own hearts, we are fully responsible; because God controls
the restraints and nothing occurs without His permissive will including sin. Moreover, because He is
good, He only allows that which will bring Him glory (Ps. 76:10). Thankfully, there is not one random sin
that will not be utilized for good. Thus, God remains sovereign over sin, while we remain fully
responsible.
Gods sovereignty and mans responsibly can be seen in every act of evil, but they are most
clearly revealed in the greatest evil that has ever taken place in the history of mankind the death of
Jesus. The Apostle Peter had the boldness afterwards to look at the Jews and say, this Jesus, delivered
up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of

lawless men (Acts 2:23).

This is an amazing accusation, for Peter acknowledged that Christ was the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world when he said that Christ was delivered up according the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God. With this acknowledgment, why didnt Peter blame God for the death of Christ?
How can Peter claim that God ordained the death of Christ, and then turn around and blame the Jews for
murdering Him when he said, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men? In other words,
how can God be good and allow such evil the most evil act of all to occur?
Does this not make God evil and the Christian worldview incoherent? No, not at all. For the
answer is found in the different motives and reasons behind Gods actions and mans actions. On Gods
part, He ordained the death of His only Son out of love for His people and for the sake of upholding His
own righteousness. God was executing His justice for sin when He poured out His wrath on Christ on the
cross. Therefore, God cannot be charged with murder or with guilt, for Gods purpose was to condemn sin
and uphold His own moral law. God was making sure His goodness and justice were upheld while
providing salvation for guilty sinners. This is glorious. The eternal purpose of God in sending His Son to
die for sinners is what brings glory and praise to Himself. The Jews, on the other hand, did not have such
pure motives when they handed Christ over to be executed by the Romans. They murdered Him. They did
not seek either justice or Gods glory, for they were acting out of envy and hatred (Mark 15:10).
So in this one single act in history we can observe the sovereign hand of God and the free actions
of men taking place without mixture and confusion. The Jews committed sin while God punished sin. As
when Josephs brother sold him into slavery in order to carry out Gods purpose of saving many people
from starvation, what the Jews meant for evil, God meant for good (Gen. 50:20). In this way, we see God
sovereignly governing all things even the evil acts of men for His own glory and for the good of those
who love him (Rom. 8:28). When God removes His restraints, He does so out of justice, but when man
falls into sin, they are fully culpable.
To be upset with God for all the evil, suffering, and death in the world does not make sense when
we are the ones responsible. It does not make sense to be upset with God when it was He, the offended
party, who willingly took on human flesh and personally endured evil, suffering, and death. If anyone did
not deserve to suffer and die, it was Christ. It does not make sense to be upset with the God who bore
such evil and suffering so that He could recreate a new universe that is free from all evil, suffering, and
death. It does not make sense to be upset with God for allowing such evil, suffering, and death to exist
all the while not being willing to forsake the very sins that causes such evil, suffering, and death. In sum,
it does not make sense for the unjust to accuse the only one who is just with injustice.

Conclusion
Consequently, if there is anything good or praiseworthy in the universe, then the glory belongs to
God alone. We only have ourselves to blame for the corruptions and cruelty that have permeated the
human race throughout the history of the world. Thus, both Gods sovereignty and mans volitional
freedom prevent the world from being meaningless. Only within the biblical worldview are the
supernatural and natural powers perfectly compatible with each other. Only the biblical worldview saves
the world from meaninglessness.

23. Supported by Reason & Evidence

Because the Christian worldview makes room for the power of God and the laws of nature, it is
supported by both natural and special revelation. Because God created the universe, reason and
scientific knowledge point back to the God of the Bible, and the God of the Bible perfectly coincides with
the laws of logic and the legitimate findings of science.
As we shall see in the following chapter, because of our inherent knowledge of God and the selfverifying nature of Holy Scripture, we do not need rational arguments or empirical evidence in order to
believe the gospel of Jesus Christ; but, because the gospel is true, it is verifiable by logical
argumentation and historical and empirical evidences.

Supported by Reason
The cosmological, teleological, and ontological arguments are all valid arguments within the
Christian worldview.
The cosmological argument says that every cause has an effect, and because nothing in the
universe is without motion, the universe must have an outside cause.
The teleological argument says that everything that has a design, such as pocket watches,
pocketknives, and pockets themselves, must have a designer. This logically implies that the universe
must also have a designer, since it shows signs of design.
The ontological argument is based on the logical principle that something which is greater cannot
be produced by something which is lesser.[23.1] In this context, we would say that something greater
than our capacities to conceive could not have initially been conceived by us. For example, we may well
be able to imagine the perfect island, which means that our powers of imagination and thinking must be
greater than this perfect island. In this case, the perfect island does not have to exist. However, the idea
of God, an infinite and supremely perfect being, is too great a thought for a finite and imperfect mind to
conceive by its own powers. In other words, if God did not exist, it would be impossible for our finite
minds to have created such an infinite and perfect idea in the same way it would be impossible for the
Neuschwanstein Castle to have been built out of a single brick.
Within the biblical worldview, in which the knowledge of God, logic, and morality are basic
presuppositions, these rational arguments make sense. In fact, as we have sought to demonstrate, the
Christian worldview is the only coherent worldview, and it alone passes the test of reason. It is true
because of the impossibility of the contrary.

Supported by Scientific Evidence

Because polytheists in ancient Greece confused supernatural power(s) with the laws of nature,
they were prone to think that their gods were directly behind solar eclipses and other unusual
occurrences. Christianity is not polytheistic, however. Christians believe in secondary causes. When
atheists critique such thinking (which seems to be their main argument), they are critiquing polytheism
not Christianity. In Christianity, God and creation are distinct entities.
Long before the scientific revolution and the discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton,
Christians understood the teaching of Scripture that the universe operated according to the laws of

nature. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), for example, believed that the moon influenced the tides and he
accredited solar eclipses to the fixed laws of the suns course rather than to any direct supernatural
power.[23.2] Augustine distinguished Christianity from Greek pantheism in The City of God when he
upheld the importance of secondary causes.
We worship that God who has appointed to the natures created by Him both the
beginnings and the end of their existing and moving: who holds, knows, and disposes the causes
of things; who hath created the virtue of seeds . . . who hath created and governs the most
vehement and most violent fire of this world, in due relation and proportion to the other elements
of immense nature; who is the governor of all the waters; who hath made the sun brightest of all
material lights, and hath given him suitable power and motion . . . Therefore He governs all things
in such a manner as to allow them to perform and exercise their own proper movements.[23.3]
The God of Augustine was not a god of the gaps a god that is only needed to explain the
unexplainable. God is not needed to fill in the remaining holes of scientific knowledge, which would
make Him a god that will be slowly squeezed out of existence as scientific knowledge increases. The
God of the gaps is not the God of the Bible. Rather, the God of the Bible is needed to explain why the
laws of nature are there in the first place. God explains why there is geometrical structure that governs
the laws of nature, and no other explanation can give account for such order.
Christians understand that there is an orderly universe because there is an orderly Creator who
upholds the universe in accordance with the laws of nature. As Lennox claimed: At the heart of all
science lies the conviction that the universe is orderly. Without this deep conviction science would not
be possible.[23.4] Lennox went on to cite Nobel Prize-winner in biochemistry Melvin Calvin in his
explanation of where this conviction comes from:
As I try to discern the origin of that conviction, I seem to find it in a basic notion
discovered 2,000 or 3,000 years ago, and enunciated first in the Western world by the ancient
Hebrews: namely that the universe is governed by a single God, and is not the product of the
whims of many gods, each governing his own province according to his own laws. This
monotheistic view seems to be the historical foundation for modern science.[23.5]
In fact, a miracle would cease to be a miracle if Christians did not believe in the laws of science.
Since Christians start by presupposing the God of the Bible, they have no problems with belief in
supernatural events, such as the miracles and the resurrection of Christ, and they dont have any
problem with science either. There is nothing wrong with scientific knowledge. Christians are not at war
with science. They are not at war with the laws of nature. Many of the great scientists of the past were
devout Christians Sir Isaac Newton being the chief among them. Christians can thank God for an
orderly universe that allows us to learn from our past experiences and helps us to plan for the future. A
transcendent and imminent God, whose sovereign rule is perfectly compatible with the laws of physics,
provides us with a perfect foundation for all of our empirical and rational knowledge.
Seeing that all truth comes through general and special revelation, scientific and biblical truths
are not at odds with each other. That is, as Francis Bacon maintained years ago, the book of Gods word
is not in conflict with the book of Gods works. As Charles Hodge said: All that the Scriptures teach
concerning the external world accords with the facts of experience.[23.6]
Christianity is not at war with science, nor is science at war with Christianity, according to
Richard Swinburne. Swinburne believes the scientific evidence of an orderly universe can only be

understood when God is presupposed. It is not beyond the realm of science to postulate the existence of
something that is unverifiable by sense perception (such as gravity) in order to make sense of the
evidence at hand.[23.7]
For instance, Newton did not discover gravity by observing its immaterial properties. This is
because gravity is an invisible force that cannot (in-and-of-itself) be observed. Though Newton could not
give any direct empirical evidence for its existence, he concluded that an invisible force, such as gravity,
must be presupposed if we are going to make any rational sense of the motions of the planets and
objects falling to the earth.
According to Newton, gravity is the best explanation for the movements of the heavenly bodies.
Moreover, once the force of gravity was presupposed, it was possible to locate Neptune prior to its
discovery in 1846. By observing the movement of Uranus, astronomers noticed a perturbation at a certain
point in its orbit. It appeared that, in addition to the Sun, another large mass was pulling on it. The only
hypothesis that could give an account to the irregularity in Uranus orbit was the gravitational force of an
unknown planet. By this means, without any direct sensory confirmation, the existence, basic size, and
location of Neptune were predicted.
In the same way gravity is needed to make sense of the motion of the planets, God is needed to
make sense of an orderly universe. Newton understood that for science to work there needed to be a
God: Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in
motion.[23.8]
According to Swinburne, though there is no direct sensory evidence for the existence of an
invisible and incorporeal God, the physical evidence of an orderly universe presupposes Him. The
theists starting-point, according to Swinburne, is not that we perceive order rather than disorder, but
that order rather than disorder is there.[23.9] What hypothesis can make sense of such order? It is only
when we presuppose God that we have an explanation that makes senses. Theism leads us to expect to
find the things which we do find when we would not otherwise expect to find them.[23.10] If there is
an Intelligent Designer, then the order and design of the universe is what we would expect to find. Again
he says: The hypothesis of theism is a simple hypothesis which leads us to expect these observable
phenomena, when no other hypothesis will do.[23.11] For this reason, Swinburne concluded that God
exists: Because theism satisfies the criteria well, the existence and regular behaviour of material
objects provide good evidence for the existence of God.[23.12]
Likewise, Stephen Meyer explains that intelligence is the only scientific explanation for the
specified information within living cells.[23.13] Given the criteria used by historical scientists to explain
past events, Meyer asks: What causes now in operation produce digital code or specified
information?[23.14] The obvious answer, according to Meyer, is intelligence: Because we have
independent evidence uniform experience that intelligent agents are capable of producing specified
information. Intelligent activity is known to produce the effect in question. The creation of new
information is habitually associated with conscious activity.[23.15] Yet, according to Meyer, an
intelligent mind is not merely an explanation; its the only scientific explanation.
First, there is no other causally adequate explanation for the semantic language coded in DNA.
[23.16] Undirected chemical processes do not produce large amounts of specified information starting
from purely physical or chemical antecedents.[23.17]
Second, the experimental evidence confirms the causal adequacy of an Intelligent Mind.[23.18]

In biology, where differential survival depends upon maintaining function, selection

cannot occur until new functional structures or sequences actually arise. Natural selection cannot
select a nonfunctional sequence or structure based upon the knowledge that it may prove useful
in the future pending additional alterationsThe causal powers that natural selection lacks
foresight and creativity are attributes of consciousness and rationality, of purposive
intelligence.[23.19]
Third, intelligent mind is the only known cause of specified information.[23.20] Undirected
materialistic causes, says Meyer, have not demonstrated the capacity to generate significant amounts
of specified information. At the same time, conscious intelligence has repeatedly shown itself capable of
producing such information.[23.21] With this, Meyer concludes by saying, Since intelligence is the only
known cause of specified information (at least starting from a nonbiological source), the presence of
specified information-rich sequences in even the simplest living systems points definitely to the past
existence and activity of a designing intelligence.[23.22]

Conclusion
Alvin Plantinga is right when he says that there is no conflict between science and theism.
Natural law and a supernatural Christianity are perfectly congruent. The real conflict, according to
Plantinga, is between science and naturalism.[23.23] We do not need God in order to explain how
secondary causes work together within the universe, we need God to explain why there is such a thing as
secondary causes in the first place. Why is there an orderly universe which makes science even
possible? The evidence points us to the only plausible answer God.

24. Supported by Historical Record

Not only is the biblical worldview supported by reason and scientific evidence, it is verified by
historical evidence. Christianity is not merely theoretical dogma or a philosophical system of thought, but
belief in real life, historical events that took place in time and space. The birth, life, miracles, death,
resurrection, and ascension of Christ, which are essential to the gospel, were not secret events done in
the darkness. Rather, they were performed in the open. Christ as a historical figure is well documented.
The Apostle John gives his own personal testimony of His existence:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life the
life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life,
which was with the Father and was made manifest to us (1 John 1:1-2).
The miracles of Christ, which testified of the divine power and veracity of Christ, were done for all
to see. Over 500 people saw Him after He rose from the dead (1 Cor. 15:6). The empty tomb proved He
was who He said He was the Son of God. Not only did Christ Jesus raise Himself from the dead, He
taught others about this reality. So if He did not come back to life, then He is truly the biggest fraud who
has ever lived. But His closest followers were convinced of His resurrection. His followers were so
convinced of His resurrection that they were willing to die for Him in fact, many of them did lay down
their lives for Him. Why would Peter, Paul, and John be willing to die for something they knew was a lie?
Christ gained over 8,000 plus followers in just a few months after His resurrection. This seems
impossible if the evidence did not substantiate the claims of Christ. Even Saul of Tarsus, who did not
want to believe, not only stopped persecuting the followers of Christ, but he became the chief advocate
for Christ after seeing the risen Lord.
In The Resurrection of the Son of God, N. T. Wright, the former Bishop of Durham, has provided
the definitive apologetic on the historicity of Christs bodily resurrection. All critics of the Easter Story
who want to be taken seriously will be forced to interact with this massive and formidable work. After a
thorough and almost painstaking review of the ancient literature dealing with the resurrection, from
Homers Hades to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Wright concluded that the Easter Story is not what we would
expect if it were merely a fabrication or a later pollution of the original text. At least four unusual details
are recorded in the gospel stories that do not make sense if they didnt take place.
The first surprise, Wright says, when we read the resurrection stories in the canonical gospels
ought to be that they are told with virtually no embroidery from the biblical tradition.[24.1]
The second feature of the resurrection narratives which should cause us considerable surprise
has also to do with something they lack.[24.2] Wright explained, that at no stage do they mention the
future hope of the Christian.[24.3] Almost every time Paul or the other Apostles speak of Christs
resurrection, they link it with the hope of believers overcoming the power of the grave. If the gospels
were somehow reworked at a later date (as some have suggested), it is strange that they dont resemble
the resurrection stories provided by Paul and Peter.
The third unusual detail is that the gospel stories of the resurrection of Christ are not influenced
by any of the important Old Testament resurrection texts. First century Jews believed that those whom
God would raise from the dead would come forth from the grave shining brightly as heavenly stars (Dan.
12:2-3). Resurrected bodies were thought to be glittery or shiny. Though this was ancient Jewish belief,

the gospels do not depict Christs resurrection in such a fashion. This is not the sort of thing one would
expect if the evangelists or their sources had wanted to say that Jesus had been exalted to a position of
either divinity or heavenly glory.[24.4]
The fourth detail, which would not have been admitted if the resurrection of Christ were merely
made up, is the presence of women at the empty tomb. This is because the testimony of women in that
day was not considered valid in a court of law. It is, frankly, impossible to imagine that they were
inserted into the tradition after Pauls day.[24.5] Wright went on to explain:
Even if we suppose that Mark made up most of his material, and did so some time in the
late 60s at the earliest, it will not do to have him, or anyone else at that stage, making up a
would-be apologetic legend about an empty tomb and having women be the ones who find it. The
point has been repeated over and over in scholarship, but its full impact has not always been felt:
women were simply not acceptable as legal witnesses. We may regret it, but this is how the
Jewish world (and most others) worked. The debate between Origen and Celsus shows that critics
of Christianity could seize on the story of the women in order to scoff at the whole tale; were the
legend-writers really so ignorant of the likely reaction? If they could have invented stories of fine,
upstanding, reliable male witnesses being first at the tomb, they would have done it.[24.6]
Wright concluded by saying, If you try to imagine three such people doing it independently and
coming up with three different stories which nevertheless all share this remarkable feature, in addition
to the others we have noted, I think you will find it incredible. I certainly do.[24.7] The only apparent
reason for the gospels to record these unusual details is the fact that they did indeed occur in history.
Not only are the unlikely details recorded in the gospels, of which the earliest manuscripts date
back to the second century,[24.8] but the life of Christ is testified to by many non-canonical texts, such
as the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (AD 37-120). In the year 93, Josephus published a history of the
Jewish people in which he testified of the life of Christ:
About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For
he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth
gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. And when, upon
the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who
had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to
life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him.
And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.[24.9]
The Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (AD 55-120) gave not only an early second century
testimony of the life of Christ but a vivid account of the persecution experienced by the followers of
Christ when he explained how the Emperor Nero falsely accused Christians of the burning of Rome in AD
64:
Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their
abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin,
suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators,
Pontius Pilate, and a deadly superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only
in Judea, the source of this evil, but also in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from
every part of the world meet and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all
who confessed; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much

of the crime of arson, as of hatred of the human race. Mockery of every sort was added to their
deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to
crosses, or were doomed to the flames. These served to illuminate the night when daylight failed.
Nero had thrown open his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus,
while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or drove about in a chariot.[24.10]
According to professor of New Testament studies at Acadia Divinity College, Lee Martin
McDonald, even though the historical critical approach (due to its starting presuppositions)[24.11]
cannot verify the divinity of Christ, it does without a doubt substantiate the life of Christ as an historical
figure:
Of course, historians as historians will never be able to affirm the christological
affirmations or interpretations about Jesus in the churchs earliest documents, but it is important
that Christians know their faith in Jesus is not contrary to the available evidence from antiquity.
[24.12]
In addition to the historical record, the overwhelming archaeological evidence, also, supports the
reliability of the Scriptures. The ancient history of Northern America as recorded in the Book of Mormon
has yet to be substantiated by any archaeological findings. Joseph Smith (1805-1844) apparently
included a lot of fiction in his story. Yet, the Bible has not only been proven trustworthy by archaeology,
it has proven to be a valuable resource for pointing archaeologists in the right direction. And even when
the reliability of the biblical history has been challenged, these challenges have been answered by later
archaeological findings. For instance, it was once thought that the Hittites were a biblical legend until
their capital and many of their records were unearthed in Bogazkoy, Turkey. The Assyrian king Sargon,
who is mentioned in Isaiah 20:1, was also considered fictional until Sargons palace was discovered in
Khorsabad, Iraq. Moreover, the capture of Ashdod, which is mentioned in Isaiah 20, was recorded on the
palace walls. These are but a few of the thousands of archaeological evidences that validate the biblical
record.
Not only have many of the ancient cities and civilizations of the Old Testament been unearthed,
which provide empirical and historical evidence of the reliability of biblical history, the accuracy of the
New Testament has also been firmly established by archaeology. James Charlesworth of Princeton
Theological Seminary concluded:
It would be foolish to continue to foster the illusion that the Gospels are merely fictional
stories like the legends of Hercules and Asclepius. The theologies in the New Testament are
grounded on interpretations of real historical events, especially the crucifixion of Jesus, at a
particular time and place.[24.13]
History is no enemy to the gospel. Historical documents and archaeological evidences confirm, as
external witnesses, that Scripture is trustworthy in its historical testimony. Moreover, the historical
record verifies that the Scriptures have been faithfully transmitted. Of course there is Bart Ehrman who
not only claims that the Greek New Testament text has been corrupted, but that all the extant
manuscripts are polluted to the point that it is impossible to reconstruct a trustworthy critical Greek text
of the New Testament. Ehrman is quick to point out the 400,000 variants within the extant New
Testament Greek manuscripts, and how there are no two manuscripts in perfectly agreement with each
other.[24.14]
Yet, Ehrman stands in opposition to the consensus of the community of textual scholars and the

overwhelming textual evidence. In fact, no ancient piece of literature can boast of a more faithful
transmission than the Scriptures. First, no other ancient book has more extant manuscripts than the New
Testament close to 6,000. Second, no other ancient work has extant manuscripts that are so close to
the original autographs P52 dates between 100-115 AD, and we have a host of papyri manuscripts that
date back to the 3rd and 4th centuries. Third, of the 400,000 variants, 75 percent are spelling errors,
which do not do any damage to the faithfulness of the Greek text. Fourth, another 24 percent of the
variants are concerned with word order, but this too does not create much of a problem seeing that the
subject of each sentence in the Greek is determined by word endings rather than by word placement.
Fifth, that leaves only 1 percent (around 400) of variants that are any importance, yet of those 400
variants, the majority are concerned with minor issues such as gospel harmonization. Sixth, only around
15 percent of the 1 percent of variants (about 50) is considered of any major significance, yet there is no
doctrinal compromise in any of the variant readings. With such evidence, it is safe to say that the
Scriptures have been faithfully persevered throughout history.[24.15]

Conclusion
The biblical worldview is not supported by the evidence, but as we shall see in the next chapter,
it also is the only worldview that can be faithfully implemented in everyday life.

25. Supported by Experience

As with the scientific and historical evidence, our present and every day life experiences
correspond to the truth claims of the Bible. All we have to do to verify the truth of Scripture is look at the
world around us. The Bible says that people are depraved and selfish by nature. This is evident not only
when we read our history books and local newspapers, but also when we go Christmas shopping. The
spirit of giving has turned into the spirit of receiving. Commercialism, materialism, and greed deck the
halls. Selfishness and greed is what we see in others and what we see hidden away in our own hearts.
The Bible is not painting an unrealistic story about humanity. Not only does it explain the origins
of sin, but also why people behave the way they behave. And who but Nietzsche is against the golden
rule? Who in their right mind is opposed to others loving each other as they love themselves? The Bible
reinforces our inherent knowledge of right and wrong, it explains why we come short of this standard,
and where our guilt comes from. The way the Bible explains our human nature and the world around us
seems to be the way things actually are a total mess.
Moreover, the Bible tells us that those who are supernaturally born again, though they are not
perfected in this life, do have a true love for God and for one another. The love Christians have for each
other is evidence that Christ has come to save sinners (John 17:21, 35). Christ followers, those who truly
believe, have an observable testimony of a changed life. Believers have been inwardly transformed; this
is evident by some who have been converted from various selfish addictions to unselfishly seeking to
give all that they have to the service of God (1 Thess. 1:4-10). I dont know if you know any true believers
in Christ (not merely professing believers), but if you do, then you cannot help but notice something is
different about them.
Likewise, the Lord promised that His followers would be persecuted for their faith (John 15:20).
And this is evident not only by the historical accounts, but also by the overall disdain Christians receive
when they publicly express their faith before the unbelieving world.

The Practicality of the Christian Worldview

But, most importantly, the Christian worldview is the only worldview that we can implement in
our daily lives without intellectually contradicting ourselves in the process. As in the words of Francis
Schaeffer:
The truth of Christianity is that it is true to what is there. You can go to the end of the
world and you never need be afraid, like the ancients, that you will fall off the end and the
dragons will eat you up. You can carry out your intellectual discussion to the end of the
discussion because Christianity is not only true to the dogmas, but it is also true to what is there,
and you will never fall off the end of the world![25.1]
Other worldviews fail at this point. Do postmodern thinkers, who intellectually boast in relativism,
walk through walls? Do postmodern thinkers deny the principles of mathematics when balancing their
checkbooks? Do they hope their spouses remain faithful to their wedding vows? Do they look both ways
before crossing the street? Do they live as if there is no up or down? Do deconstructionists, those who
think language is meaningless, stop speaking? Do they expect the teenager running the register at
McDonalds to understand them when placing an order for a Big Mac? Do they buy into the excuse of
their sons when they say, I did not know what you meant when you said, You better be home by 12:00

pm. Do those in the Far East, who think the law of non-contradiction is only a Western way of thinking,
not live by the law of non-contradiction in their everyday life? Do those who practice Zen really expect to
hear a sound when they see a one handed man clapping? It is easy to create an intellectual philosophy,
but the true test of any system of thought is seeing if it can be implemented and lived out in the real
world.

Impossibility of a Total Rejection of the Christian Worldview

Opposing non-Christian worldviews cannot completely separate themselves from the Christian
worldview. The knowledge of God, logic, and morality is inherent in all people. These are the core
presuppositions behind the Christian worldview. In fact, knowledge of God, logic, and morality
exclusively belong to the Christian worldview because only the Christian worldview can give a consistent
account for their existence. But there they are. Non-Christians can twist, distort, and intellectually deny
these realities, but because they are made in the likeness of God, they cannot completely separate
themselves from them. Their very life is a light that they cannot extinguish. They can say they do not
believe in any absolutes, but their lives prove their hypocrisy.
Some say that atheists, naturalists, and postmodern thinkers are forced to borrow capital from
the Christian worldview to live their lives in the real world, but I think that they are born with these
inherent principles within their consciences, and that they must suppress, distort, deny, and misuse
these indestructible principles to justify their ungodly lives (Rom. 1:18). In short, man was made for a
relationship with a holy God, but man, because of his innate selfishness, no longer desires a relationship
with God. Irrational thinking and dysfunctional living are the consequences.
God exists because of the impossibility of the contrary. To make sense of the world around us, we
must presuppose God the personal, transcendent, and imminent trinitarian God of the Bible. God is a
necessary condition for knowledge all knowledge. He is the foundation for everything. As Lewis says: I
believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I
see everything else.[25.2] Without the light of God, we remain in the darkness. Knowledge, all
knowledge, must begin with God, or otherwise nihilism and absurdity take over everything.
Yet, God has not left man in total darkness, for the knowledge of God has been implanted in all
men. God has supplied us with the capacity to know the universe and ourselves because He made us in
His image and endowed us with the innate knowledge of Himself. By the light of God, we can see light
(Ps. 36:9).
When the knowledge of God is suppressed, however, incoherency is bound to supplant sound
thinking. When we seek to cover up the light with the darkness, we are bound to stumble and fall. Some
suppress the light of God with hedonistic pleasures and others with complex philosophical or religious
beliefs. Regardless, all non-Christian worldviews, such as naturalism and impersonal-supernaturalism,
end in absurdity. Only faith in Christ can rescue us from the darkness of our own making.

Conclusion
As light testifies of itself, the Bible, by its own internal witness, proves itself to be the Word of
God. And its not just that it says is the Word of God, but that without it, nothing makes sense;
knowledge of any kind is ultimately impossible without the God of the Bible. Moreover, the rational,
historical, and empirical evidence collaborates the testimony of Scripture. The Christian worldview is
simply the only trustworthy worldview because of the impossibility of the contrary. So the choice is

this: according to John Frame, either accept the God of the Bible or deny objective morality, objective
truth, the rationality of man, and the rational knowability of the universe.[25.3]
The absurdity of it all is that sinners will continue to choose absurdity over sanity. This is because
sanity only comes by submitting ones thinking and life to the lordship of Christ, and this, my dear
readers, is the heart of the problem.

26. Supported by Revelation

Arguments, evidences, and proofs are not essential for us to either accept or reject the gospel of
Jesus Christ.[26.1] The power and efficacy of the gospel does not consist in superior intellectual
reasoning, but in the simple proclamation of the truth (Rom. 1:16). As presented in this book, it is not
that the Christian worldview lacks intellectual integrity, but that belief in the gospel is not dependent on
any external demonstration of its superiority over opposing worldviews.
Apologetic arguments have their place (for they are helpful in many ways), but they are not
necessary in revealing the truthfulness of the gospel. Because the unshakable knowledge of a personal
and just God exists within all people, as evidenced by their inward guilt, people are convicted by the
truth of the gospel when they initially hear it.
Being made in Gods likeness, men, even unregenerate men, have the intellectual capacity to
recognize truth when they come into contact with it. The fact that we are all made in Gods image is
what makes the knowledge of God, self, and the external world possible. This analogous relationship
with God gives us the innate knowledge of the laws of thought (logic) and morality (Gods law).
Therefore, though the fact that 2 + 2 = 4 and the golden rule are not innate propositional
concepts in our brains, they are propositional concepts that ring true once we, as rational beings,
become aware of them. We cannot help but believe these concepts because these concepts agree and
correspond with what we already innately know to be true that we are personal beings in ethical
relationships with God and with our neighbors. That is, because we all have an innate knowledge of God
(which includes the laws of logic and the laws of morality), once 2 + 2 = 4 and the golden rule are
presented to our minds, we cannot help but believe them because they agree with what we already know
to be true. The innate knowledge of God is kind of like a tuning fork, for when truth is presented to our
minds, it resonates within our consciousness.
And, for those who deny these propositional truths, such as 2 + 2 = 4, they must do so by denying
common sense and suppressing that which is innate and self-evident within their own consciences. In
the same way, the gospel is convicting because it corresponds with what we already know to be true.
The light of the gospel, therefore, only brings additional responsibility and condemnation to those who
hear it. Like light, truth is powerful.
But, when we hear the gospel, we all reject it. Even the best arguments cannot change a
rebellious heart. Our problem is that the tuning fork of our heart is bent, since the Imago Dei no longer
functions properly. It still works well enough for the gospel to bring a measure of certainty and
conviction, but it is distorted enough that the gospel does not sound pleasant to our ears. Because of the
self-love of our depraved hearts, our ears are out of tune and our eyes our out of focus. The gospel,
however, is piercing and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is able to discern the intentions, motives,
and thoughts of our hearts (Heb. 4:12). The Word of God speaks to us as if it knows us as if it can see
into our consciences. Even so, we cannot stand the sounds we hear because of the sins that it exposes
within us (John 3:20). We know the gospel is true because it is testified by our guilt, but this same guilt
causes us to deeply despise it. We hate self-condemnation and conviction. Moreover, our hearts have
been distorted by sin to the point where we love ourselves above everything else. Thus, our minds and
hearts are no longer in sync with the truth of Gods Word.
Submission to the truth demands loving God above ourselves. Yet, if our primary reason for

rejecting Christ is our embedded love for ourselves, how can we ever come to a saving knowledge of
God? If truth alone is not enough to convince us to lay down our lives and turn to Christ, how will we ever
be saved? We must believe to be saved, but how will we ever willingly embrace that which we deplore?
As long as we despise the God of the Bible, we will never freely and willingly surrender all to
Him. We all need help. As God haters, we cannot convert ourselves. We need more than a slick pitchman
to coach us into superficially repeating the sinners prayer. The Bible makes it clear that faith and a
personal knowledge of Christ come only by Gods grace.
The only way we will ever embrace a holy and just God is for God to supernaturally reveal Himself
to us as He really is altogether worthy of all our love and acceptance. God must reveal Himself to our
minds in such a way that our hearts perceive Him as altogether glorious. It is not that God must enhance
His appearance so that we will like Him better, but He must change our hearts so that we can perceive
Him as He truly is. Moreover, we must have help to see ourselves as we truly are altogether undone
and unworthy of the least favor of God. It is only when we see ourselves as deplorable and Christ as
lovely that we will come to our senses, repent of our sins, and eagerly embrace what we know to be true.
In other words, we who sit in darkness need to be enlightened in both our minds and our hearts. The
image of God that has been defaced by sin must be renewed.

Divine Works
This divine revelation of God begins with the universe itself. Natural revelation is from God
because God created the universe. This revelation is universal and self-authenticating. Because we are
made in Gods image, we cannot help but see the stamp of God everywhere we look. There is no spot in
the universe, according to John Calvin, wherein [we] cannot discern at least some sparks of his
glory.[26.2] For this reason, the English puritan John Owen rightly stated:
There is no need of traditions, no need of miracles, no need of the authority of any
churches, to convince a rational creature that the works of God are his, and his only; and that he
is eternal and infinite in power that made them. They carry about with them their own authority.
By being what they are, they declare whose they are.[26.3]
With this divine source of revelation, we all know (1) that there is a God (Rom. 1:19-20), (2) that
He created the universe (Ps. 19:1), (3) that He is absolute (Acts 17:25), (4) that He is infinite (Acts
17:24), (5) that He is sovereign (Acts 17:26), (6) that He is all-powerful (Rom. 1:20), (7) that He is
omnipresent (Acts 17:25), (8) that He is imminent (Acts 17:27), (9) that He is righteous (Ps. 97:6), and
(10) that He is angry with sinners (Rom. 1:18). Because we are made in the image of God, we inherently
and immediately understand (11) that there is a universal law, (12) that we have broken this law (Rom.
2:15), and (13) that we will be held accountable to a just and angry God (Rom. 1:32). In essence, natural
revelation reveals our guilt, leaving us to feel hopeless, as we wait for the coming day of judgment. For
this testimony is constant (Ps. 19:2), universal (Ps. 19:3), and undeniable (Rom. 2:15), leaving us without
any excuses (Rom. 1:20).
Natural revelation is vital, but it alone is not sufficient to bring us to love the God of the universe.
Natural revelation leaves us condemned and guilty before a just God with no hope of salvation. The
universe reveals a just and powerful God, but it does not reveal His merciful disposition and willingness
to forgive.
Thus, left to ourselves, we will create all manner of religious means to appease Gods wrath, or

we will craft various philosophies that push the knowledge of God away by the exaltation of ourselves.
Because of the false notions of our self-righteousness and autonomy, we will continually think too highly
of ourselves and of our own abilities to seek after God. Natural revelation is vital, but it is not sufficient
in bringing one to repentance and faith.

Divine Words
Because of our pride, we need special revelation. Broadly speaking, all of Gods acts within
history are considered a part of Gods special revelation. But more narrowly speaking, special revelation
is restricted to those historical acts of God, divine prophecies, and truths that have been recorded for us
in the pages of Scripture. The Scriptures reveal the merciful disposition of God towards us in the gospel
message that He sent His only Son to die for our sins the just for the unjust. This is the goodness of
God that leads sinners to repentance.
Just as natural revelation does not need any external proofs to verify its message, the Holy
Scripture, because it is inspired by Gods Spirit, needs no external argument, proof, or evidence to verify
its infallible and authoritative nature. The Bible is self-sufficient and self-authenticating.
The veracity of Scripture does not stand on the approval of men, ecumenical councils, or
churches, but on its own divine testimony. It does not even need apologists.
Not only does the Bible claim to be Gods Word (1 Cor. 2:12-13, 2 Tim. 3:16, 2 Pet. 1:20), but it
also handles itself as if it is Gods Word. It speaks to us as if it is authoritative and infallible. As Gods
Word, the Scriptures demand belief and obedience in the same way God demands belief and obedience.
The authority of God shining in them, Owen claimed, afford unto us all the divine evidence[26.4] that
is needed. In other words, the Bible proves itself to be the Word of God by its own internal evidence.
If the Scriptures prove themselves to be Gods Word, why is it that so many reject the gospel?
Why would any of us want to reject such good news? It is not as if the gospel is too complicated for us to
understand. According to Owen, one only possessed of reason and the ability to use it according to the
measure of [ones] talents, can (without the aid of the Holy Spirit) discover the sense of the biblical
propositions and grasp their signification.[26.5]
In fact, I would go as far as to say that the written Word of God brings a measure of conviction to
all who hear it. It opens us up and exposes us for who we are. It shows us our sins and reinforces our
guilt.
Even those who are spiritually dead and incapable of loving the truth, cannot help, because they
are made in Gods image, but feel convicted by the truth when they hear it. For this reason, God will hold
those of us who have heard the gospel to a greater accountability. None of us will be able to say to the
Lord on the Day of Judgment, I just did not realize that it was You speaking to me. Moreover, as we
have already seen, the truth claims of the Bible are not rejected because the gospel is rationally
incoherent or unsupported by historical evidence. Rather, the truth is rejected because the unchanged
heart remains in love with the false notion of its own moral self-righteousness and/or intellectual
autonomy.
The problem is that the wrong things are loved and hated because sin blinds. As Alvin Plantinga
claimed: Sin is a malfunction of the will, a skewing of affections; it is loving and hating the wrong
things. Still, it also involves blindness, and inability to see the glory and beauty of the Lord.[26.6] This

world and self are loved too much to be given up. It is for this reason that one remains spiritually dead
and unwilling to embrace the gospel. It may be known that Christ is Who He says He is, but you may not
be convinced that you like Who He says He is.
Though death is approaching, Esaus soup tastes too good for unbelievers to be overly concerned
about eternity. The gospel is for those who know themselves to be sinners and see their need to be
saved from their sins (1 Tim. 1:15). It seems the majority simply have no desire to be rescued from that
which is slavishly loved themselves.

Conclusion
Subsequently, all the apologetic arguments can be laid out with absolute certainty, and, as the
Lord says, a man could even be raised from the dead, but because of our disdain for the gospel that calls
us to forsake all, we will stubbornly refuse this wonderful offer. For this reason, Jonathan Edwards says,
no signs that can be given will actually satisfy persons in such a case; let the signs that are given be
never so good and infallible, and clearly laid down, they will not serve them.[26.7] Logical consistency,
various proofs, and evidence are simply not enough to break a hard heart something more is needed.

27. Supported by Illumination

Because of our spiritually dead state, we will continue to reject Christ until the Holy Spirit
quickens our hearts and minds. We will not run towards Christ until the darkness is removed and we can
see clearly. This is why spiritual illumination is needed.

Divine Light
Spiritual illumination is the influencing power of the Holy Spirit working by, in, and through the
Scriptures to give light and spiritual understanding to the minds and hearts of Gods people, which
enables them to willingly believe, embrace, and obey the truth of Gods Word. Thus, the testimony of the
Holy Spirit is not a new revelation (independent of Scripture), but the Holy Spirit speaking in the words of
Scripture.[27.1]
Spiritual illumination never goes beyond the truth presented in the text. It is the written Word that
the Spirit uses to open the hearts of our understanding. When this occurs, believers know for certain that
they are hearing God personally speak to them in the pages of Scripture (Luke 24:45, 1 Thess. 2:13-14).
[27.2] Because of the testimony of the Spirit speaking to us in the truth claims of Scripture, the Scriptures
are self-authenticating. As Calvin explained:
Those whom the Holy Spirit has inwardly taught truly rest upon Scripture, and the Scripture
indeed is self-authenticated; hence, it is not right to subject it to proof and reasoningFor even if
it wins reverence for itself by its own majesty, it seriously affects us only when it is sealed upon
our hearts through the SpiritWe seek no proofs, no marks of genuineness upon which our
judgment may lean; but we subject our judgment and wit to it as to a thing far beyond any
guesswork![27.3]
But let us not be confused, spiritual illumination is not the Spirit empowering the Scriptures (as if
they are mere dead words), but the Spirit enlightening the minds and hearts of believers by the words of
Scripture. The problem lies not in any deficiency in the written Word, but in the darkness and rebellion of
our hearts (Eph. 4:18). In this sense, illumination is the Spirit of God speaking in, by, and through the
Scriptures to bring light to blind minds and dead hearts so that they can properly receive and interpret
the Scriptures.
This is why Edwards understood that the illumination of the heart does not occur without the
illumination of the mind: Holy affections are not heat without light; but evermore arise from the
information of the understanding, some spiritual instruction that the mind receives, some light or actual
knowledge.[27.4]
For this reason, embracing the truth claims of the Bible is not based on external evidence,
rational arguments, or even on the coherent presentation of the Christian worldview, but in the Holy
Spirit illuminating the truth of Gods Word to us (Gal. 3:2, 5). As clarified by Calvin:
Let it therefore be held as fixed, that those who are inwardly taught by the Holy Spirit
acquiesce implicitly in Scripture; that Scripture, carrying its own evidence along with it, designs
not to submit to proofs and arguments, but owes the full conviction with which we ought to
receive it to the testimony of the Spirit. Enlightened by him, we no longer believe, either on our
own Judgment or that of others, that the Scriptures are from God; but, in a way superior to human
Judgment, feel perfectly assured as much so as if we beheld the divine image visibly impressed

on it that it came to us, by the instrumentality of men, from the very mouth of God. We ask not
for proofs or probabilities on which to rest our Judgment, but we subject our intellect and
Judgment to it as too transcendent for us to estimate.[27.5]

Divine Faith
Spiritual illumination brings forth the new birth and faith. Once the eyes of our hearts can see
clearly, we are born again. And, once we have new life in Christ, we cannot help but believe. The new
birth does not force us to believe against our wills, but transforms our nature as it renews the Imago Dei
with the infusion of the love of God so that we will be found willing.
Saving faith is not mere intellectual assent to the truth claims of the Bible. Demons acknowledge
that Christ is the Son of God, yet they lack a personal relationship with Him. Many professing Christians
also have only an intellectual understanding of the gospel. Though they do not deny the truth, they do
not love the truth. They may profess to believe, but would not die for the truth.
In the same way that people believe in triangles and squares, nominal Christians believe in the
Bible. But this speculative knowledge, which may even cause them to attend church and perform a few
good deeds, is not saving faith any more than fear and trembling is evidence of saving faith within the
demons (Jam. 2:19). Demons know God, but they do not love God. I am afraid that many, if not most, of
professing Christians only possess this superficial form of faith a faith that works without love.
Saving faith, however, establishes a personal and experiential relationship with Christ because it
is motivated and derived out of a sincere love for Christ. Faith alone saves us, but faith works by love
(Gal. 5:6). This love is the fruit of the new birth, where the old sinful and selfish nature is recreated in
the likeness of Christ. The image of God that was defaced by the fall has been restored in Christ (Col.
3:10). We have been given the mind of Christ that gives us a proper discernment and love for the truth (1
Cor. 2:16). The tuning fork that was bent by sin has been renewed by love.
With a new heart, the gospel now resonates within our new natures and is altogether glorious.
We willingly bow our knees to our Savior because, by Gods saving grace, we now love the Lord Jesus
above all things. Though His holiness and lordship was once a repellent, we now see these attributes as
altogether glorious and worthy of all our adoration and worship.
Plantinga was right when he said: The gift of faith and consequently regeneration isnt just a
matter of restoring the intellect to a pristine condition in which we can once again perceive God and his
glories and beauties; it also, and essentially, requires curing that madness of the will.[27.6]
After spiritual illumination and the new birth, our affections and will, because of our new nature,
have been turned away from selfishness to a sincere love for God. As Plantinga went on to explain:
Regeneration consists in curing the will, so that we at last begin to love and hate the right things; it
also includes cognitive renewal, so that we come to perceive the beauty, holiness, and delightfulness of
the Lord and of the scheme of salvation he has devised.[27.7] Sin is now hated, and God is now
glorious. But it is not as if reality has changed, it is simply that the darkness that once covered our eyes
has been lifted.

Divine Love
In this sense, the saving knowledge of Christ comes not by apologetic argument but through
spiritual illumination and regeneration. It comes by our minds being enlightened to the truth of God so

that our hearts will be enflamed with a love for God. We must love the truth before we will embrace the
truth (2 Thess. 2:10). Plantinga continued by saying:
When the sources of affection function properly, we will love what is loveable, take
delight in what is delightful, and desire what is desirable. We will love God above all and our
neighbor as ourselves; we will delight in his beauty and glory, and in created reflections of that
beauty and glory; we will desire what is in fact good for us.[27.8]
Calvin also realized that we will never commit ourselves to God until we see Him as altogether
worthy of our devotion and service:
For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his
fatherly care, that he is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond him
they will never yield him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in
him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to him.[27.9]

Divine Knowledge
It is this love, which comes from the new birth, which provides us with an experiential and
personal knowledge of God. Paul summarizes all this in Ephesians 3:14-19:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and
on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened
with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the
saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that
surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
First, we notice that experiential knowledge of God is supernaturally and sovereignly bestowed
on us by God, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and
on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with
power through his Spirit in your inner being (vss. 14-16).
Paul is asking God to give or grant us this spiritual knowledge by strengthening our inner man. For
Paul knew that, in our own natural capacities, we are insufficiently equipped and incapable of handling
such weighty and glorious truths. To hold such weight, we need to be strengthened (,
krataiothenai) with Gods power (, , duvamei) through the work of the Holy Spirit. As it is written:
What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has
prepared for those who love him these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the
Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a persons thoughts except the
spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the
Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God,
that we might understand the things freely given us by God (1 Cor. 2:9-12).
This illumination and strengthening of the inner man is what brings forth faith, and this faith
saves us because it legally and experientially unites us to the life of Christ. For by this faith, Christ
dwells (, katoikesai to house permanently) in our hearts (Eph. 3:17a). With Christ united to
our hearts by faith, we are provided not merely an intellectual knowledge of Him, but a living and
personal relationship with Him.

Christ is love. Consequently, the reason we need Christ to dwell in our hearts is so that we may
be rooted and grounded in love (vs. 17b). Being rooted and grounded in love is the strengthening of our
inner man that enables us to grasp a true knowledge of God. In other words, the power of God that was
needed to strengthen us is the love of God that is written on our hearts.
The power that God uses to break our rebellious hearts is His love being poured out into our
hearts. It is what brings about the new nature. As a result, the love of God within us not only gives us a
love for God, but it also enables us to personally know God. The love of God disposes our old selfish
natures that enslaved us to our own selfish passions of the flesh, and gives us a heart to know and
willingly embrace God.
Why do we need to be strengthened with the love of God? According to Paul, we need to be
rooted and grounded in love so that we may have [the] strength to comprehend with all the saints what
is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses
knowledge (vss. 18-19a). To know the love of God we need to be filled with the love of God. This is
because God is love, and the fullness of His love in all of its depth, breadth, length, and height, is too
great for us to comprehend without our first having the love of God living within us in the person of
Christ. His love is inexpressible and beyond conclusive comprehension. We need strengthening in the
inner man. We need to be rooted and grounded in love before we can comprehend the love of God.
This explains more fully how the love of God establishes a personal and experiential knowledge
of God. Since God is love, when we experience the love of God, we experience God. Though we cannot
visibly see Him, it does not mean we cannot emotionally and experientially know Him. As the Apostle
John says, if we love Him, God abides in us (1 John 4:12). And this love that abides in us is the
ingredient that we need in order to love and know Him in return, for God is love, and he who abides in
love abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God;
and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God (1 John 4:7). As eyesight connects us with the
world around us, faith, which works by love, connects us with God.
This love, in addition, is not merely a subjective and raw emotional experience, but rather it is an
emotional experience that is firmly rooted in the objective knowledge of God that has been
supernaturally revealed to us in Gods written Word. With love being poured into our hearts by the divine
illumination of Gods objective Word, we are renewed in the likeness of God to love God.
For this reason, Paul concluded his prayer for us by adding, that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God (vs. 19b). Thus, being strengthened and rooted in the love of God not only gives us an
experiential knowledge of the love of Christ, it enables (, exischuseete, vs. 18a) us to be filled
with all the fullness of God Himself.

Conclusion
But this, the necessity of love, brings us back to mans basic problem man is separated from the
love of God. Mans separation and rejection of God is rooted in the hardness of his heart (Eph. 4:18).
Man may know right from wrong and the difference between love and selfishness, but he does not have
the love (motive and power) to appreciate and fulfill this moral standard. Most importantly, man does not
have the inward disposition to love God. Unregenerate mans inherent knowledge of God is not enough
to provide a personal knowledge of God. You must love Christ to truly know Christ, and this takes
spiritual illumination.

Consequently, intellectual and practical atheists do not lack warrant for belief in God, but they do
lack the love that is necessary to submit to God. It does not matter if you are a nominal Christian or an
outright atheist, what controls your beliefs and behavior is your deep-seated love for yourself. You are
rooted in a love for self. Because you love yourself the most, you will not submit to the knowledge of
God. You may make an empty profession of faith or contrive some complex philosophical system that
denies the existence of God, but either way you seek to smooth over a guilty conscience without
confessing your sins and bowing your knee to the lordship of Christ.

PART VI. The Call to Believe

whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.
Romans 9:33

28. The Gracious Call to Surrender

Dear reader, we cannot live a fulfilled and consistent life without God. Our guilt is the evidence
of this. Our guilt is evidence of our unhappiness and foolishness. Though we each have tried in vain to
cleanse our guilty conscience, it continues to speak out against us. But, even worse, it is our own voice
that we each hear inside of our heads. We dont want to hear it, but we are constantly condemning
ourselves. Why did I do this? I shouldnt have done that. I hope no one saw me do that. We love
ourselves, so we hate this guilty feeling. We hate it when we know that we are wrong. Selfcondemnation is the worst. If others condemn us, the possibility remains that they have misjudged us,
but when our own heart speaks out against us, it is hard to deny culpability. We try to shut ourselves up,
but as our conscience grows ever so dim as it becomes more and more hardened, we can never
completely rid ourselves of the fact that we know we are sinful and deserving of Gods judgment.

Guilt: A Universal Problem

What are we to do with our guilty consciences? Medication? Therapy? A pilgrimage to the Holy
Land? Self-flagellation? Though guilt is ever present, we have each become an expert at silencing our
conscience. Our first defense is crafting wonderfully worded excuses. We are good at finding supposed
loopholes in the circumstances that happen to exempt us from what universally applies to others. We
play dumb, as if we didnt know any better. Or, we see ourselves as having been unjustly placed in some
kind of catch-22 circumstance. We couldnt help it. We turn from being guilty to being a victim.
This, of course, leads to a second layer of defense blaming others for our actions. Lord, this
woman, which you gave me, caused me to take hold of the forbidden fruit. It is her fault, or maybe its
even your fault, God, for giving her to me.
If blaming others does not remove our shame, we seek to compensate by doing some good
deeds. Look at how good I am; I am not all that bad. I go to church, and every now and then I plant a
tree and give a few bucks to the homeless.
If the guilt lingers, we move into the distraction mode. We watch a lot of TV and keep ourselves
entertained. Hopefully, if enough time and water passes under the bridge, we can begin to feel better
about ourselves.
Yet, what we each find most helpful in softening our conscience is gathering a multitude of
friends who will be ever so kind to reassure us that we are okay. We are looking for those friends that
buy into our excuses, or help us create new excuses. We feel much better when they say, I would have
done the same thing. These are helpful friends. And if it is not these types of friends we are looking for,
we find those whose moral actions and behavior are slightly worse than ours is. I may occasionally slip
up here and there, but at least I am not like Robert who is completely addicted to this stuff. If I do a
little, Robert does a lot. Overall, in comparison, I am a pretty good person.
After years of suppressing our consciences, we find it much easier to continue in our sins without
feeling as guilty. One of my homosexual friends admitted that he felt dirty the first few times he gave
into his desires. His partner reassured him that this feeling was normal, and the key to working through it
was not to think about it. In time, it will get easier and easier. But this is the case for all those who enter
into sinful practices. Hardened criminals are not made overnight; it takes time to build calluses on a
tender conscience.

Underneath all the calluses, no matter how many movies we have watched to distract ourselves
and no matter how many friends have reassured us, down deep we know that we have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Because of our uncanny ability to forget and smooth things over, however, we
have no idea how wicked and shameful we have been. We do not know the depths of our depravity. We
each know that we are a sinner, but none of us can begin to comprehend how big a sinner we actually
are in the sight of God. With mud-caked glasses it is hard to see how dirty we actually are. We see
ourselves through sinful eyes. What must we look like to the one who is too pure to even look on sin?
Which of Gods commandments have we not broken? We have stolen, lied, and cheated. We have
been unfaithful, unforgiving, unkind, and unloving. We have given our lives to fulfilling the various
passions of the flesh and have been more worried about being rich, popular, and powerful than being a
thoughtful friend to those in need. We have given more time and energy living for ourselves than living
for God.
Not only have we transgressed Gods law, we have failed to do all the things that we should have
done. We should have called grandma a few years back when she became ill. We should have stopped
and helped that person on the side of the road. We should have done this or done that, but we were too
lazy and self-focused. We have neglected to be thankful to God in all things. We have neglected the
worship that is due to His name. We have not lived up to the standard.
This is not to mention the sins of our heart, such as anger, malice, bitterness, jealousy,
covetousness, lustful thoughts, vain imaginations, and all manner of evil desires.
But what is more fearful than our hearts condemning us is knowing that God has personally
chronicled everything that we have ever done. Every thought, word, and deed has been recorded. God is
not fooled by our silly excuses. He has clearly manifested to us that those who practice such things are
worthy of death (Rom. 1:32).
These sinful acts are treasonous. We have not only rebelled against our Maker and King, we have
defected over to the kingdom of darkness. We have seditiously picked up our swords in opposition and
have shaken our fists at Him in defiance. Our sins are a direct and bold attack against God. He has
blessed us with life. He has showered us with good things, such as the rain and the sunshine. He has
graciously been kind, long-suffering, and patient with us. He has sent us the gospel. He has given us
plenty of opportunities to repent. He has seen fit to keep the blood pumping in our veins and uphold the
beating of our hearts. But how have we responded to such kindness? We have defiled His name by the
things we have watched and the jokes that we have entertained. We continue to bite the hand that is
feeding us every time we utilize the gifts, money, resources, and health, which God has given us, for
selfish, sinful, and disgraceful activities. The life that God has given us to serve Him, we have used to
defy and curse Him.

Justice: A Universal Certainty

Gods wrath is terrifying because it has been provoked by our rejection of His love. God finds
infinite joy, happiness, and glory in His Son; His love for His Son is incomprehensible. God loves His Son,
and He has also loved wretched sinners enough to give that which He loves the most His only begotten
Son (John 3:16). He did not hold back His greatest treasure, but freely offered Him who holds life,
meaning, and happiness in His hand. God gave the best He had to give. God has offered everything
something truly priceless. Yet, we have not only provoked God to wrath by our transgressions, but even
worse we have spurned the love of a jealous God by rejecting His gift of love. The thing God valued the

most is that which we have despised, as if His Son were not good enough. We, who are worthless, have
rejected the One who is of infinite worth. We, who are unlovable, have turned away from Gods
immeasurable love. Thus, what anger must reside within God for the disgrace that we heap on Him when
we turn our backs on His beloved Son?
Our rejection of Gods love is open rebellion. Every moment we refuse to bow our knee and
surrender all to His Majesty, we continue to provoke Him and to store up wrath for ourselves.
We are but a second away from running out of time. He will not hold back His wrath forever. The
Day of Judgment is coming (Col. 1:6). Our guilt testifies of the certainty of this.
Death is coming, but we live as if it is not. As with our guilt, we have pushed this knowledge
away from us. We have blinded ourselves to the severity of our condition and the gravity of the wrath of
God. We have blinded ourselves with a false sense of security because of our self-righteousness. We
have blinded ourselves with the pleasures and concerns of the world. We are more concerned about a
pay-raise than saving our souls from hell. We are too busy fishing, hunting, playing golf, and keeping in
shape than with getting right with God. We are too busy eating Esaus soup and playing a game of
freeze-tag with our friends than seeking to meet with God. Because we still hear the birds singing and
feel the warmth of the sun, we are under the false delusion that everything is okay.
We should be alarmed, but we are walking around in a haze. We are following the crowd, caught
up in the madness, blown about by the latest fads and new releases. Like dogs roaming about looking for
their next meal, we are carried about by the tide of hedonism. We are adrift, lost at sea, but completely
unconcerned. As a mouse runs around and around in a wheel, we chase one pleasure after the next. The
tide is rocking us asleep as it is taking us deeper out into the sea. We are unknowingly enslaved to our
routines. Our daily lives, filled with pleasures in business and recreation, blind us to the approaching
danger. As a herd of cows willingly follow each other to the slaughterhouse, we follow the course of this
world unaware that it is reserved for fire.
It is only a matter of time before all this carelessness and false sense of security will be blown
away. Death overtakes us all. In time, you will be standing before a holy God. No excuses. No selfrighteousness. No atheistic worldview. Just you and your guilt, fully exposed before the Almighty God.
But for now, your carelessness remains.

Forgiveness: A Universal Offer

The tragedy of it all is that, on your way to hell, you must purposefully walk over the dead and
resurrected body of Jesus Christ; you must push Christ and His free offer of grace aside. If you face the
wrath of God, it will be because you have refused the love of God. Having heard the gospel, you have
been given a promise - a way of escape has been provided. Christ died for you. To remain in unbelief is
to knowingly reject this gracious offer and say, I dont want to think about that right now.
Moreover, if you push Christ out of your way, be fully aware of Whom you are rejecting. The
gospel that offers you salvation cost Christ everything. For God to give you the universe, He would only
have to speak the word. For God to save your souls from sin, He had to sacrifice His only Son. This free
promise was not free for the One Who made it.
Christ laid aside His glory and became a man. He did not come dressed as a King but as a
servant. He came into this world knowing that, as a man, He would face every temptation imaginable.

After John baptized Him, Christ was led into a deserted area for forty days. During this time, all hell was
unleashed on Him. The Devil and all his demonic forces threw everything that they had at Him. In utter
hatred, the Devil sought to crush Him.
Christ was famished, tired, and beaten down in every possible way, and yet, He remained true to
His Father. He resisted every temptation. He did not once shame or dishonor the One who sent Him into
the world. He loved God and His neighbor with all of His heart, mind, and soul perfectly, entirely, and at
all times. His life and earthly ministry was full of love, mercy, and compassion for others. He sought not
fame, nor fortune, nor power. He was lowly of heart, gentle, and humble. He gave everything He had to
the service of God and to assist others. He was sinless, righteous, perfect, and altogether glorious.
And this is not all in this state of humility, sinlessness, and goodness, He willingly took sinners
place on the cross the just for the unjust. He took our shame and guilt on Himself. The mocking we
deserved, He willingly embraced. He was beaten, spit upon, and utterly humiliated as the chief of
criminals. His own disciples and closest friends forsook Him in this dark hour. He was rejected because
He was holy. But, worst of all, the anger and wrath of God, which we deserved, was poured out upon Him
in full. He endured the judgment of God so that believers could be declared innocent.
What kind of king dies for His enemies? This is such a King, who offers those who repent a free
pardon.
Christ rose from the dead, which proved His innocence. By His resurrection, Christ won the victory
over sin, death, and the devil. We can be forgiven because the King of glory took care of justice for those
who believe. What a Savior!
If you continue in unbelief, then this is the Savior you are rejecting. This is the gospel you
continue to shun.
If God required a million dollars to wipe away our sins, many would pay the price willingly. If God
required that we give up our firstborn to inherit eternal life, this too would be a price that some would be
willing to pay. But, no! It is the offended party God who has laid down His firstborn for those who
have sinned and rebelled against Him. Christ paid the ultimate price so you may be freely forgiven. Not
only the just for the unjust, but the wounded party taking the place of the guilty party. Salvation is free,
but this is what you refuse when you turn away in unbelief.
What kindness, what graciousness, and what goodness must you turn your back on when you
reject the gospel? If you go to hell, it is because you refuse this offer; you turn your back on the
goodness and mercy of God; you reject a Savior who died so sinners may live. And you reject Him why?
Because you want to play freeze-tag with your buddies? Because youre too insubordinate to accept that
their reigns a King over your soul? Because the pleasure of a twinkie sounds more desirable than the
pleasure of being in a relationship with God?
Deciding not to follow Christ proves you dont want to be saved from your sins. Rather, your pride,
ego, and self-centeredness keep you from accepting a Love to reside in your heart that is greater than all
loves. It is absurdity to reject such a humble Savior, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. You reject life,
meaning, purpose, and happiness so that you can hang onto sin, death, meaninglessness, and despair.
You exchange the truth for a lie and heaven for hell. This is the absurdity of unbelief.
For those of you who are still carefree and unconcerned about the condition of your soul, there is
not much more I can say. But, for those of you who have a broken and weary heart, for those who can

see their sins and rebellion against their God, for those who truly hate their sins, for those who are ready
to humbly ask God for forgiveness and surrender to the lordship of Christ, I have wonderful news. Look
unto Jesus and you shall be saved. This is a promise that is certain to be fulfilled for all who believe. It is
not by works but simply by believing this promise that we are made right before God.
He came to die for sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). He freely offers Himself to all who truly desire to be
delivered from their sins and their guilt. Those who hide and cover their sins will remain in their sins, but
those who repent taking ownership and confessing their sins before God and believe in their hearts
that Jesus is who He says that He is shall be saved. Dear reader, there is forgiveness. Your guilt and sin
may be removed as far as the East is from the West, and the perfect righteousness of Christ could be
credited to your account. All your guilt may be washed away, and the blood of Jesus is able to cleanse
you from all of your sins. Come unto me, Christ says, and I will give you rest. God made this promise.
He cannot lie. He is able to save the worst of sinners. Salvation is free; you only have to believe.
And believing, my dear friends, is the only reasonable thing to do.

Thank You For Reading!

Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed The Absurdity of Unbelief. Im tremendously blessed to be able to make this
second edition available as an eBook on Amazon.com. Who we are in Christ, and especially who we are
as believers who gather locally as a church, is vitally important and a seriously relevant issue among
Christians today. I hope to keep this book available in this format for as long as it helps even one brother
or sister in Christ to understand the blessing of the church our Lord has bled and died for.
Because you have read my book, you may be interested in some of my others... as well as books
and material that will be made available in the future through Free Grace Press. You can get updates on
releases when you sign up for my email list at http://jdjohnson.preachingchristcrucified.com. When you
sign up, youll also get a free eBook download: a modern English edition of Christian Behavior by John
Bunyan.
Finally, I was hoping I could ask a favor of you; that is, if youre so inclined. Id love a review of
The Absurdity of Unbelief. Whether you loved it or hated itId just enjoy your feedback. Reviews can be
tough to come by these days, and you, the reader, have the power to make or break a book. If you have
the time, heres the link to my author page, along with all my books on Amazon:
http://amazon.com/author/jeffreydjohnson
Many thanks again for reading The Absurdity of Unbelief and for spending the time with me.
With Eternal Gratitude in Christ,
Jeffrey D. Johnson

Endnotes
1. Faith is Not Blind Endnotes
Note 1.1: Paul Tillich, Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1955), 85. [return to reading 1.1]
Note 1.2: Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (New York: Oxford, 2006), 198. Dawkins claims that
the Bible ridicules Doubting Thomas for asking for evidence before he believed in the resurrection of
Christ (Ibid.). [return to reading 1. 2]
Note 1.3: Dionysius, The Divine Names, in Dionysius the Areopagite on the Divine Names and
The Mystical Theology, trans. C. E. Rolt (Berwick, MA: Ibis Press, 2004), 59. [return to reading 1.3]
Note 1.4: Ibid., 53. [return to reading 1.4]
Note 1.5: Ibid., 135. [return to reading 1.5]
Note 1.6: Bonaventure, The Journey of the Mind to God, in Late Medieval Mysticism, ed. Ray C.
Petry (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1957), 132. [return to reading 1.6]
Note 1.7: Ibid., 140-141. [return to reading 1.7]
Note 1.8: Meister Eckhart, Another Sermon on the Eternal Birth, in Late Medieval Mysticism,
ed. Ray C. Petry (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1957), 189. [return to reading 1.8]

2. Faith is Not Subjectivity Endnotes

Note 2.1: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, trans. J. M. D. Meiklejohn (Amherst, NY:
Prometheus Books, 1990), 1. [return to reading 2.1]
Note 2.2: See Ibid., 91. [return to reading 2.2]
Note 2.3: As Kant stated: But, though all our knowledge begins with experience, it by no means
follows that all arises out of experience. For, on the contrary, it is quite possible that our empirical
knowledge is a compound of that which we receive through impressions, and that which the faculty of
cognition supplies itself (Ibid.). In this way, Kant was not suggesting that there were no concepts
supplied by cognition, but these concepts (or categories, as he called them) were not initiated until they
were simulated by the sensations derived by the senses. For this reason, the categories can never extend
further than to the objects of experience. In other words, there is no such thing as pure (unaided) priori
reason/knowledge that is independent of empirical sensations. [return to reading 2.3]
Note 2.4: Kant, in his book the Critique of Pure Reason, divided existence into two spheres, the
noumenal the world as it actually is, and the phenomena the world as it appears to us. According to
Kant, we can never know the world as it truly is, but only the phenomena world of appearance. [return to
reading 2.4]
Note 2.5: Bryan Magee, The Story of Philosophy (London: Dorling Kindersley, 2001), 137. [return
to reading 2.5]
Note 2.6: B. A. Gerrish, A Prince of the Church: Schleiermacher and the Beginnings of Modern
Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 25. [return to reading 2.6]
Note 2.7: That religious experience, for Schleiermacher, was a sense of dependence. [return to
reading 2.7]
Note 2.8: See John L. Murphy, Modernism and the Teaching of Schleiermacher, Part II
(Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 1961), 15-38. [return to reading 2.8]
Note 2.9: Though Kierkegaard makes reference to Lessings ditch (a ditch that separates eternal
truths of reason from contingent truths of history), Ronald Green suggests that Kierkegaard had Kants
distinction between the noumenal and phenomena realms in mind when he speaks of faith in God as a
leap (See Ronald Green, Kierkegaard and Kant: The Hidden Debt). Gotthold Ephriam Lessing (1729-1781),
however, thought it was unreasonable to believe in the historicity of miracles because faith would rest
not on the proof exhibited by the miracle, but faith would rest on the fallible testimony of historical
witnesses of the miracle. As Lessing stated: Fulfilled prophecies which I myself experience are one
thing; fulfilled prophecies of which I have only historical knowledge that others claimed to have
experienced them are another (On the proof of the spirit and of power (1777) in Lessing: Philosophical
and Theological Writings. Edit. H. B. Nisbet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005., 83). After
separating the reported historical miracles of Christ from our present day experiences that run contrary
to the miraculous, Lessing went on to claim: That, then, is the ugly great ditch which I cannot cross,
however often and however earnestly I have tried to make that leap (Ibid., 87). [return to reading 2.9]
Note 2.10: Ronald Green, Kierkegaard and Kant: The Hidden Debt (Albany: State University of
New York Press, 1992), 76. [return to reading 2.10]

Note 2.11: Stephen Evans, Passionate Reason: Making Sense of Kierkegaards Philosophical
Fragments (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), 88. [return to reading 2.11]
Note 2.12: Sren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, trans. Alastair Hannay (London: Penguin
Books, 2003), 54. [return to reading 2.12]
Note 2.13: Sren Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript in Kierkegaards Writings, Vol.
1. ed. and trans. Howard V. Hong & Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 203.
[return to reading 2.13]
Note 2.14: Ibid. [return to reading 2.14]
Note 2.15: Ibid. [return to reading 2.15]
Note 2.16: Ibid., 204. [return to reading 2.16]
Note 2.17: Kierkegaard claimed that if believers foolishly attempt to fortify their faith through an
objective inquiry, their faith would be lost in the process. When the absurd becomes increasingly
probable, then faith has nothing to grasp hold of, for the absurd is precisely the object of faith, and the
only [object] that can be believed (Ibid., 211). As if to say that faith cannot attach itself to that which is
not absurd. [return to reading 2.17]
Note 2.18: Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, ed. G. W. Bromiley and T.F. Torrance (Edinburgh: T. & T.
Clark, 1936-1969), 1.2, 457. [return to reading 2.18]
Note 2.19: Church Dogmatics., 1.1.123. [return to reading 2.19]
Note 2.20: See Rudolf Bultmann, New Testament and Mythology (New York: Harper & Row,
1966). [return to reading 2.20]
Note 2.21: Carl Armbruster, The Vision of Paul Tillich (New York: Sheed And Ward, 1967), 136.
[return to reading 2.21]
Note 2.22: Ibid., 53. [return to reading 2.22]
Note 2.23: Paul Tillich, The Depth of Existence, in The Shaking of the Foundations (New York:
Charles Scribners Sons, 1948), 57. [return to reading 2.23]
Note 2.24: Ibid., 136. [return to reading 2.24]
Note 2.25: Ibid., 136. [return to reading 2.25]
Note 2.26: Cited in Ibid., 47. [return to reading 2.26]
Note 2.27: David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (Indianapolis: The Bobbs
Merrill Company, 1947), 158. Words in bracket are present author. [return to reading 2.27]
Note 2.28: Cited in Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2000), 32. [return to reading 2.28]
Note 2.29: Ibid., 39. [return to reading 2.29]

Note 2.30: Written by Alfred H. Ackley (b. Spring Hill, PA, 1887; d. Whittier, CA, 1960), both text
and tune were published in the Rodeheaver hymnal Triumphant Service Songs (1933). [return to reading
2.30]
Note 2.31: Blaise Pascal, Penses, 277. [return to reading 2.31]

3. Faith is Not Irrational Endnotes

Note 3.1: Voltaire, The Works of Voltaire: A Contemporary Version, 21 Vols. A Critique and
Biography by John Morley, notes by Tobias Smollett, trans. William F. Fleming (New York: E.R. DuMont,
1901)., 4:327. [return to reading 3.1]
Note 3.2: Ibid., 5:253. [return to reading 3.2]
Note 3.3: Friedrich Nietzsche, Anti-christ. Trans. H.L. Mencken (New York: Cosimo Classics, 2005),
57. [return to reading 3.3]
Note 3.4: Cited in John Hick, Faith and Knowledge (Ithaca, NY: Carnell University Press, 1966), 27.
[return to reading 3.4]
Note 3.5: Smith, George H., Atheism: The Case Against God (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books,
1989), 125. [return to reading 3.5]
Note 3.6: Technically speaking, the word os speaks of something that is morally wrong or
ethically out of place. However, the Bible does not disjoin unethical behavior from irrational thinking (See
Eph. 4:17-18). [return to reading 3.6]
Note 3.7: Emphasis is mine. [return to reading 3.7]
Note 3.8: Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Vol. 1, trans. George Musgrave Giger
(Phillipsburg: P&R, 1992), 24. [return to reading 3.8]
Note 3.9: Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981), 83.
[return to reading 3.9]

4. Shaped by Self-Interest Endnotes

Note 4.1: Richard Swinburne, Is There a God? (New York: Oxford, 1996), 123. [return to reading
4.1]
Note 4.2: R. C. Sproul, If Theres a God, Why are there Atheists? (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House
Publishers, 1988), 73. [return to reading 4.2]
Note 4.3: Penses, 261. [return to reading 4.3]
Note 4.4: Penses, 284. [return to reading 4.4]

5. Shaped by Self-Evident Truths Endnotes

Note 5.1: Edward O. Wilson, On Human Nature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004), 6.
[return to reading 5.1]
Note 5.2: C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, NY: Touchstone, 1980), 18. [return to reading
5.2]
Note 5.3: Mere Christianity, 25. [return to reading 5.3]
Note 5.4: Ibid., 19. [return to reading 5.4]
Note 5.5: An infinite regression is an unending series of propositions that would be necessary if
every single proposition required demonstration. [return to reading 5.5]
Note 5.6: There Is a God, 134. [return to reading 5.6]
Note 5.7: I believe there are other basic beliefs and inherent truths, such as the general
trustworthiness of sense perception, the law of causality, and the belief in other minds. [return to
reading 5.7]
Note 5.8: Charles Hodge was not comfortable with the word innate, but sought to explain the
knowledge of God as a preconditioned or inherent faculty that makes the knowledge of God inescapable:
I do not say that men are born with some innate knowledge of God they have none but I do say that
they are born with the faculty of knowing God (Systemic Theology, Vol. 1. 192). [return to reading 5.8]
Note 5.9: The nineteenth-century Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck agreed: We are fully
convinced prior to any argumentation of our own existence, the existence of the world around us, the
laws of logic and morality, simply as a result of the indelible impressions all these things make on our
consciousness. We accept that existence without constraint or coercion spontaneously and
instinctively. And the same is true of Gods existence (Reformed Dogmatics. trans. John Vriend. Grand
Rapids: Baker, 2004., Vol. 2. 90). [return to reading 5.9]
Note 5.10: Systemic Theology, Vol. 1. 192. [return to reading 5.10]
Note 5.11: Institutes, 1.3.3. [return to reading 5.11]
Note 5.12: Institutes, 1.3.1. [return to reading 5.12]
Note 5.13: Warranted Christian Belief, 173. [return to reading 5.13]
Note 5.14: Calvin, however, claimed that we do not need to go outside ourselves to process the
knowledge of God (Institutes, 1.4.4). [return to reading 5.14]
Note 5.15: Covenantal Apologetics,103. [return to reading 5.15]
Note 5.16: Cited in Don Collett, Van Til and Transcendental Argument in Revelation and
Reason, ed. K. Scott Oliphint and Lane G. Tipton (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2007), 269. [return to reading
5.16]

Note 5.17: According to Richard Muller, Calvin had distinguished between three kinds of
reasons: reason naturally implanted in human beings by God, which cannot be condemned without
insulting God; a vitiated reason, occurring in corrupt nature which sinfully warps Gods revelation; and
reasonderived from the Word of God (Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 1., 275). [return to
reading 5.17]
Note 5.18: Meredith Kline is helpful in the manner in which he links our knowledge of ethics with
being made in the likeness of God: Likeness to God is signified by both image of God and son of God.
Mans likeness to God is a demand to be like God; the indicative here has the force of an imperative.
Formed in the image of God, man is informed by a sense of deity by which he knows what God is like, not
merely that God is (Rom. 1:19ff.). And knowledge of what ones Father-God is, is knowledge of what, in
creaturely semblance, one must be himself. With the sense of deity comes conscience, the sense of
deity in the imperative mode. The basic and general covenantal norm of the imitation of God was thus
written on the tables of mans heart (Rom. 1:32; 2:14f.). (Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a
Covenantal Worldview. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2006, 62). [return to reading 5.18]

6. Shaped by Conscience Endnotes

Note 6.1: The English Puritan John Owen claimed: It is necessary to the unlimited selfsufficiency of God that He Himself alone may know Himself perfectly. His understanding is perfect and
has no limits. Therefore, as that attribute of God by which He comprehends Himself and all of His
perfections is an infinite attribute, it can be entered into by no other being. God Himself alone is allknowing and all-wise and, therefore, knowledge in its true fullness can rest only in God Himself (Biblical
Theology, 15). [return to reading 6.1]
Note 6.2: Don Collett, Van Til and Transcendental Argument in Revelation and Reason, ed. K.
Scott Oliphint and Lane G. Tipton (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2007), 266. [return to reading 6.2]
Note 6.3: See Ronald Nash, The Word of God and the Mind of Man (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R
Publishing, 1982), 59-69. [return to reading 6.3]
Note 6.4: Carl Henry, God, Revelation and Authority (Waco: Word Books, 1979), Vol. 3., 203.
Words in bracket are present author. [return to reading 6.4]
Note 6.5: George Park Fisher, The Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief (New York: Charles
Scribners Sons, 1915), 34. [return to reading 6.5]
Note 6.6: Ibid. [return to reading 6.6]
Note 6.7: Institutes 1.1.2., 1.1.1. [return to reading 6.7]
Note 6.8: In line with the thoughts of Calvin, John Frame stated, Neither knowledge of God nor
knowledge of self is possible without knowledge of the other (The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God,
65). [return to reading 6.8]
Note 6.9: Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith (Philipsburg, NJ: R&R, 1967), 90. [return to
reading 6.9]
Note 6.10: George Park Fisher, The Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief (New York: Charles
Scribners Sons, 1915), 1. [return to reading 6.10]
Note 6.11: K. Scott Oliphint, Reasons for Faith (Philipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2006), 139. [return to
reading 6.11]
Note 6.12: Covenantal Apologetics, 103. [return to reading 6.12]
Note 6.13: Reasons for Faith,155. [return to reading 6.13]
Note 6.14: Ibid. [return to reading 6.14]
Note 6.15: Ibid.[return to reading 6.15]
Note 6.16: The Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief, 24. [return to reading 6.16]
Note 6.17: Warranted Christian Belief, 175. [return to reading 6.17]

Note 6.18: Ibid., 179 [return to reading 6.18]

Note 6.19: Ibid., 180. [return to reading 6.19]
Note 6.20: Cornelius Van Til claimed: Thus the knowledge of God is inherent in man. It is there
by virtue of his creation in the image of God (Defense of the Faith, 172.), cited in Greg Bahnsen, Van
Tils Apologetic (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1998), 221. [return to reading 6.20]
Note 6.21: Greg Bahnsen went on to state: Rather, we are saying that the laws of logic reflect
His nature, the way He is in Himself. They are, therefore, eternal expressions of the unchanging
character of God (Pushing the Antithesis, 210-211). [return to reading 6.21]
Note 6.22: John Calvin, Calvins Commentaries, Vol. 1, trans. John King (reprint, Grand Rapids:
Baker, 2003), 58-62. [return to reading 6.22]
Note 6.23: Institutes 1.5.1 [return to reading 6.23]
Note 6.24: Ibid. [return to reading 6.24]
Note 6.25: Collected Writings of John Murray, Vol. 4, 1. [return to reading 6.25]
Note 6.26: The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, 64. [return to reading 6.26]
Note 6.27: Ibid., 175 [return to reading 6.27]
Note 6.28: Institutes 1.3.1, 1.3.3. [return to reading 6.28]
Note 6.29: Reasons for Faith, 140. [return to reading 6.29]
Note 6.30: Calvins Commentaries, cited in Greg Bahnsen, Always Ready, 39. [return to reading
6.30]
Note 6.31: Cited in Herman Bavinck, In the Beginning (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1979),
179. [return to reading 6.31]
Note 6.32: Reasons for Faith, 155. [return to reading 6.32]
Note 6.33: K. Scott Oliphint, Covenantal Apologetics (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 93. [return to
reading 6.33]
Note 6.34: The Defense of the Faith, 92. [return to reading 6.34]
Note 6:35: Institutes, 1.4.4. [return to reading 6.35]

7. Shaped by Our Worldview Endnotes

Note 7.1: Ronald Nash, Worldviews in Conflict (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 16. [return to
reading 7.1]
Note 7.2: Ibid. [return to reading 7.2]
Note 7.3: Greg L. Bahnsen, Pushing the Antithesis (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 2007),
42. [return to reading 7.3]
Note 7.4: James W. Sire, Naming the Elephant: Worldview as A Concept (Downers Grove, IL: IVP,
2004), 101. [return to reading 7.4]
Note 7.5: Ibid., 107-108. [return to reading 7.5]
Note 7.6: Ibid., 122. [return to reading 7.6]

8. Shaped by Three Ultimate Questions Endnotes

Note 8.1: James Sire lists the presuppositions behind every worldview as the answers we give to
these 7 questions: (1.) What is prime reality the really real? (2.) What is the nature of external
reality, that is, the world around us? (3.) What is a human being? (4.) What happens to persons at
death? (5.) Why is it possible to know anything at all? (6.) How do we know what is right and wrong?
(7.) What is the meaning of human history? (Ibid., 94). I agree with this list of questions by Sire;
however, it appears to me that these questions can be reduced to metaphysics, epistemology, or ethics.
[return to reading 8.1]
Note 8.2: Faith and Reason, 27. [return to reading 8.2]
Note 8.3: Ibid. [return to reading 8.3]
Note 8.4: Pushing the Antithesis, 118. [return to reading 8.4]
Note 8.5: Technically, by metaphysics, I am referring to ontology the nature of being. [return to
reading 8.5]
Note 8.6: John Byl, The Divine Challenge (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2004), 33. [return to
reading 8.6]
Note 8.7: Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Random House, 2002), 4. [return to reading 8.7]
Note 8.8: Deists do not properly fit into this camp. After they explain the origins of the universe
by looking to a supernatural cause, they depart and hold hands with naturalists by making this
supernatural cause useless for life. [return to reading 8.8]
Note 8.9: Ren Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy
(Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 3rd ed., 1993), 19. [return to reading 8.9]
Note 8.10: From this, Descartes said, I knew that I was a substance the whole essence or
nature of which was merely to think, and which, in order to exist, needed no place and depended on no
material thing (Ibid.). [return to reading 8.10]
Note 8.11: Ibid. [return to reading 8.11]
Note 8.12: Ibid. [return to reading 8.12]
Note 8.13: Rather than interpreting Descartes as a pure rationalist, a case could be made that he
foresaw the presuppositional argument for the existence of God. For the Cogito, ergo sum syllogism to
function, the knowledge of God must be presupposed. Commenting on this, Jean-Marie Beyssade
explained that this proof cannot succeed, or even get off the ground, if one has no idea, i.e. perception,
which corresponds to the meaning of the word God (The Idea of God and Proofs of His Existence in
The Cambridge Companion to Descartes. ed. John Cottingham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1995., 176). Beyssade went on to state: The priori proof of God starts from the supposed fact, which is
taken for granted, that all perfections are united in a single nature which is called God (Ibid.,178).
Because we all know that God exists as the most perfect being, we can conclude by observing our own
imperfection that we could not have arrived at this presupposition of the most perfect being on our own,

but it must have been implanted there by God Himself. [return to reading 8.13]
Note 8.14: Cited in Gordon Clark, Thales To Dewey (Jefferson, MD: The Trinity Foundation, 2nd
ed., 1989), 360. [return to reading 8.14]
Note 8.15: This branch of philosophy also includes aesthetics. [return to reading 8.15]

9. Shaped by Our Presuppositions Endnotes

Note 9. 1: The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, 401. [return to reading 9.1]
Note 9. 2: Pushing the Antithesis, 119. [return to reading 9.2]
Note 9. 3: Cited in Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian, 118. [return to reading 9.3]
Note 9. 4: Thomas Nagel, The Last Word (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 130131.
[return to reading 9.4]
Note 9. 5: Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great (New York: Twelve, 2007). [return to reading
9.5]
Note 9. 6: Cited in John C. Lennox, God and Stephen Hawking (Oxford: Lion Books, 2011), 41.
[return to reading 9.6]
Note 9. 7: Paul Davies, The Cosmic Jackpot (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007), 15.
[return to reading 9.7]
Note 9. 8: The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, 63. [return to reading 9.8]
Note 9. 9: Vern Poythress, Redeeming Philosophy (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014), 19. [return to
reading 9.9]
Note 9. 10: Cited in Greg L. Bahnsen, Pushing the Antithesis (Powder Springs, GA: American
Vision, 2007), 44. [return to reading 9.10]
Note 9. 11: John Lennox, Gods Undertaker (Oxford: Lion Books, 2009), 9. [return to reading 9.11]
Note 9. 12: George Klein, The Atheist in the Holy City (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990), 203.
Cited in Ibid., 35. [return to reading 9.12]
Note 9. 13: Cited in Gods Undertaker., 35-36. [return to reading 9.13]
Note 9. 14: Roy Abraham Varghese, preface to Antony Flew, There Is a God (New York:
HarperOne, 2007), xix. [return to reading 9.14]
Note 9. 15: The Divine Challenge, 19. [return to reading 9.15]
Note 9. 16: Naming the Elephant, 56. Words in brackets are present author. [return to reading
9.16]
Note 9. 17: James Sire reminds us that everything is turned upside down when we place
epistemology before ontology (the nature of being). This puts man in the place of God, and places
subjective opinions above objective reality. Yet, I would suggest that what motivates fallen man to place
his own thinking and reasoning powers above objective reality i.e. above God is the fallen deposition
of his heart. Unregenerate man is depraved. His principle love is self. Ethics (which concerns itself with
what we should love and how we should behave) is to flow first from the being of God and second from
our knowledge of Him. Fallen man, however, has placed self above God. Self-love is fallen mans primary

commitment, and this self-love (his ethical commitment) shapes his epistemology, which in turn shapes
his understanding and acceptance of God (ontology). The proper order of ontology (ultimate reality),
epistemology, and ethics (mans primary commitment) has been reversed in the fall. [return to reading
9.17]
Note 9. 18: Cornelius Van Til, Common Grace and the Gospel (Phillipsburg, NJ: R&R Publishing,
1972), 8. [return to reading 9.18]

10. Cohesiveness is Mandatory Endnotes

Note 10.1: Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1957),
6-7. [return to reading 10.1]
Note 10.2: Materialists believe that our memories, thoughts, and feelings are explained by the
properties of the brain. [return to reading 10.2]
Note 10.3: Jonathan Edwards, The Freedom of the Will (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1996), 48.
[return to reading 10.3]
Note 10.4: Though it is not fair to require atheists to prove the non-existence of God, it is only
reasonable to ask for them to produce a worldview that is not self-contradictory. [return to reading 10.4]
Note 10.5: Cited in John Blanchard, Does God Believe in Atheists? (Darlington, UK: Evangelical
Press, 2001), 14. [return to reading 10.5]
Note 10.6: A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth, and Logic (New York: Dover Books, 1952), 115. [return to
reading 10.6]
Note 10.7: In Platos Republic, Socrates instructs his interlocutors that we must follow the
argument wherever, like the wind, it may lead us (394d: trans. G. M. A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett,
1974., 65). [return to reading 10.7]
Note 10.8: Cited in Ronald Nash, Worldviews in Conflict, 54. [return to reading 10.8]
Note 10.9: R. C. Sproul, If Theres a God, Why are there Atheists? (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House
Publishers, 1988), 65. [return to reading 10.9]

11. The Irrationality of Naturalism Endnotes

Note 11.1: Materialism, empiricism, relativism, etc. are not so much opposing worldviews as they
are various facets of a naturalistic worldview. [return to reading 11.1]
Note 11.2: Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker (New York: Norton, 1996), 6. [return to
reading 11.2]
Note 11.3: Phillip E. Johnson, Darwin on Trial (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2 ed. 1993), 12. [return to
reading 11.3]
Note 11.4: Cited in Gods Undertaker, 87. [return to reading 11.4]
Note 11.5: See Walter Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe (New York: Simon & Schuster,
2007), 254-255. [return to reading 11.5]
Note 11.6: By Big Bang I mean an unintelligent cosmic explosion, not that the universe is without
a finite beginning point. [return to reading 11.6]
Note 11.7: Francis Schaeffer, Trilogy, He is There and He is Not Silent (Wheaton, IL: Crossway,
1990), 282. [return to reading 11.7]
Note 11.8: Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand Design (New York: Bantam
Books, 2010), 180. [return to reading 11.8]
Note 11.9: Peter Atkins, Creation Revisited (Oxford: W. H. Freeman & Company, 1992), 149.
[return to reading 11.9]
Note 11.10: R. C. Sproul and Keith Mathison, Not a Chance: God, Science, and the Revolt against
Reason (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2014), 26. [return to reading 11.10]
Note 11.11: John C. Lennox, God and Stephen Hawking (Oxford: Lion Books, 2011). 31. [return to
reading 11.11]
Note 11.12: Ibid., 32. [return to reading 11.12]
Note 11.13: Cited in Jonathan Sarfati, Refuting Evolution (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 1999),
93. [return to reading 11.13]
Note 11.14: The Death of Evolution, 31-32. [return to reading 11.14]
Note 11.15: Ibid., 33. [return to reading 11.15]
Note 11.16: http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/arthur-stanley-eddingtondarwinists-and-repugnant-notions/ [return to reading 11.16]
Note 11.17: Cited in The Cosmic Jackpot, 8. [return to reading 11.17]
Note 11.18: The Divine Challenge, 59 [return to reading 11.18]

Note 11.19: Antony Flew, There Is a God (New York: HarperOne, 2007), 96. [return to reading
11.19]
Note 11.20: George Johnson, Creation, in the Beholder, The New York Times, 20 May 2014, D3.
[return to reading 11.20]
Note 11.21: Cited in Stephen C. Meyer, Signature in the Cell (New York: HarperOne, 2009), 17-18.
Emphasis is Stephen Meyer. [return to reading 11.21]
Note 11.22: Ibid. [return to reading 11.22]
Note 11.23: Cited in Signature in the Cell, 12. [return to reading 11.23]
Note 11.24: See William Paley, Natural Theology (New York: Oxford, 2008), 1-10. [return to
reading 11.24]

12. The Irrationality of Evolution Endnotes

Note 12.1: Daniel Dennett, Darwins Dangerous Idea (New York: Touchstone, 1996), 42-43.
[return to reading 12.1]
Note 12.2: Gods Undertaker, 104. [return to reading 12.2]
Note 12.3: Refuting Evolution, 124. [return to reading 12.3]
Note 12.4: There Is a God, 111. [return to reading 12.4]
Note 12.5: Cited in There Is a God, 129. [return to reading 12.5]
Note 12.6: Signature in the Cell, 343-344. [return to reading 12.6]
Note 12.7: M. J. Behe, Darwins Black Box (New York: The Free Press, 1996). [return to reading
12.7]
Note 12.8: The Protoplasmic Theory falsely assumed that the protoplasm was the basic building
block of life and that, just as two chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen from water when combined,
two chemical ingredients could combine under the right environmental circumstances and create
protoplasm. [return to reading 12.8]
Note 12.9: Cited in Jim Nelson Black, The Death of Evolution (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 2.
[return to reading 12.9]
Note 12.10: There Is a God, 90. [return to reading 12.10]
Note 12.11: Cited in The Death of Evolution, 142. [return to reading 12.11]
Note 12.12: Cited in Ibid., 110. [return to reading 12.12]
Note 12.13: Cited in Darwin on Trail, 34. [return to reading 12.13]
Note 12.14: http://www.jmtour.com/personal-topics/the-scientist-and-his-theory-and-thechristian-creationist-and-his-science [return to reading 12.14]
Note 12.15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZrxTH-UUdI&feature=youtu.be (52:00 to 56:44)
June, 2014. [return to reading 12.15]
Note 12.16: Paul Davies, The Cosmic Jackpot (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007), 5.
[return to reading 12.16]
Note 12.17: Ibid., 14. [return to reading 12.17]
Note 12.18: Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos (New York: Oxford, 2012), 44-45. [return to
reading 12.18]
Note 12.19: Cited in Jonathan Sarfati Refuting Evolution (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 1999),
48. [return to reading 12.19]

Note 12.20: Cited in Gods Undertaker, 113-114. [return to reading 12.20]

Note 12.21: Cited in Ibid., 114. Words in brackets are Lennoxs. [return to reading 12.21]
Note 12.22: Stephen C. Meyer, Darwins Doubt (New York: HarperOne, 2013), 17. [return to
reading 12.22]
Note 12.23: Ibid., 34. [return to reading 12.23]
Note 12.24: Ibid. [return to reading 12.24]
Note 12.25: Ibid. [return to reading 12.25]
Note 12.26: David Berlinski, The Devils Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions (New
York: Basic Books, 2009), 191-192. [return to reading 12.26]
Note 12.27: Cited in Refuting Evolution., 17-18. [return to reading 12.27]
Note 12.28: Daniel Dennett, Darwins Dangerous Idea (New York: Touchstone, 1991), 21. [return
to reading 12.28]
Note 12.29: Ibid., 46. [return to reading 12.29]
Note 12.30: Ibid. [return to reading 12.30]
Note 12.31: Ibid. 83. [return to reading 12.31]
Note 12.32: Cited in There Is a God, 131. [return to reading 12.32]
Note 12.33: Cited in John Blanchard, Is Anybody There (Darlington: Evangelical Press, 2006), 18.
[return to reading 12.33]
Note 12.34: Cited in Death to Evolution, 3. [return to reading 12.34]
Note 12.35: George Wald, Innovation and Biology, Scientific American, Vol. 199, Sept. 1958,
100. [return to reading 12.35]
Note 12.36: Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos (New York: Oxford, 2012), 5. The words in the
brackets are present author. [return to reading 12.36]
Note 12.37: Ibid., 11. [return to reading 12.37]
Note 12.38: Ibid., 49. [return to reading 12.38]
Note 12.39: Herman Bavinck, In the Beginning (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1979), 23.
[return to reading 12.39]

13. The Irrationality of Empiricism & Determinism Endnotes

Note 13.1: W. K. Clifford, The Ethics of Belief, in Philosophy of Religion, ed. Charles Taliaferro
and Paul J. Griffiths (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), 199. [return to reading 13.1]
Note 13.2: Bertrand Russell, Religion and Science (New York: Oxford, 1997), 243. [return to
reading 13.2]
Note 13.3: See Mere Christianity, 33. [return to reading 13.3]
Note 13.4: See Alvin Plantinga, God and Other Minds (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990).
Yet, prior to Plantinga making this comparison, George Park Fisher linked the grounds for belief in other
minds with the grounds for belief in God when he said: We infer the existence of an intelligent Deity, as
we infer the existence of intelligence in our fellow-men, and on grounds not less reasonableMy senses
take no cognizance of the minds of other menWhat proof is there of the consciousness in the friend at
my side? How can I be assured that he is not a mere automation, totally unconscious of its own
movements? The warrant for the contrary inference lies in the fact, that being possessed of
consciousness, and acquainted with its effects in myself, I regard like effects as evidence of the same
principle in others. But in this inference I transcend the limits of sense and physical experiment. In truth,
by admitting the reality of consciousness in myself, I take a step which no physical observation can
justify (The Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief, 43). [return to reading 13.4]
Note 13.5: Gods Undertaker, 45. [return to reading 13.5]
Note 13.6: Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Boston: Mariner Books, 2006), 34. [return to
reading 13.6]
Note 13.7: Cited in James Sire, The Universe Next Door (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009),
72. [return to reading 13.7]
Note 13.8: Francis Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul (New
York: Touchstone, 1994), 266. Words in italics are present author. [return to reading 13.8]
Note 13.9: Ibid., 3. [return to reading 13.9]
Note 13.10: Ibid. 19. [return to reading 13.10]
Note 13.11: Speaking about metaphysical questions, Stephen Hawking claimed: Traditionally
these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead. It has not kept up with modern developments
in science, particularly in physics. As a result scientists have become the bearers of the torch of
discovery in our quest for knowledge. Commenting on this statement, Lennox remarked: The very first
thing I notice is that Hawkings statement about philosophy is itself a philosophical statement. It is
manifestly not a statement of science: it is a metaphysical statement about science. Therefore, his
statement that philosophy is dead contradicts itself. It is a classic example of logical incoherence (God
and Stephen Hawking. Oxford: Lion, 2011., 18). Lennox went on to say, For any scientist, let alone a
science superstar, to disparage philosophy on the one hand, and then at once to adopt a selfcontradictory philosophical stance on the other, is not the wisest thing to do (Ibid., 19). [return to
reading 13.11]

Note 13.12: C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 52-53. [return to
reading 13.12]
Note 13.13: Cited in Ronald Nash, Faith and Reason, 53. [return to reading 13.13]
Note 13.14: Thomas Morris, Francis Schaeffers Apologetics (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1987),
42. [return to reading 13.14]

14. The Irrationality of Relativism & Nihilism Endnotes

Note 14.1: Why I Am Not a Christian, 37-38. [return to reading 14.1]
Note 14.2: Ibid., 40. [return to reading 14.2]
Note 14.3: Ibid., 41. [return to reading 14.3]
Note 14.4: John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1979), 7.
[return to reading 14.4]
Note 14.5: William James, Pragmatism in Pragmatism in Other Writings (New York: Penguin
Books, 2000), 97-98. [return to reading 14.5]
Note 14.6: See the back cover of James Fletcher, Situation Ethics (Philadelphia: Westminster
Press, 1966). [return to reading 14.6]
Note 14.7: Peter Singer, Animal Liberation (New York: HarperCollins, 2002), 17. [return to reading
14.7]
Note 14.8: Jack London, The Sea-Wolf (New York: Tom Doherty Associates Books, 1993), 65.
[return to reading 14.8]
Note 14.9: Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden (New York: Basic Books, 1995), 131. [return to
reading 14.9]
Note 14.10: Ibid. [return to reading 14.10]
Note 14.11: Ibid. [return to reading 14.11]
Note 14.12: Ibid., 128 [return to reading 14.12]
Note 14.13: Jim Nelson Black, The Death of Evolution (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 12.
[return to reading 14.13]
Note 14.14: C. F. Skinner, Beyond Freedom and Dignity (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing
Company, 1971). [return to reading 14.14]
Note 14.15: John Frame reminds us that Lyotards deconstructionism had not done away with
metanarratives, but has only substituted one for another (A History of Philosophy and Religion, 2).
[return to reading 14.15]
Note 14.16: Naming the Elephant, 40. [return to reading 14.16]
Note 14.17: Trilogy, 280. [return to reading 14.17]
Note 14.18: William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), 229. [return to
reading 14.18]

15. The Irrationality of Existentialism Endnotes

Note 15.1: Karl Jaspers, Way to Wisdom, trans. Ralph Manheim (New Heaven: Yale University
Press, 1954), 126. [return to reading 15.1]
Note 15.2: Ibid. [return to reading 15.2]
Note 15.3: Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions (New York: Citadel Press, 1987),
15. Parenthesis is mine. [return to reading 15.3]
Note 15.4: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage
Books, 1974), 181. [return to reading 15.4]
Note 15.5: Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York:
Penguin Books, 1966), 13. [return to reading 15.5]
Note 15.6: Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1961), 301, 318.
[return to reading 15.6]
Note 15.7: Ibid, 317. [return to reading 15.7]
Note 15.8: Ronald Hayman, Nietzsche (New York: Penguin Books, 1980), 266. [return to reading
15.8]
Note 15.9: Cited in Jim Nelson Black, The Death of Evolution (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010),
129-130.
Building off Darwinism, Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), a German biologist, naturalist, and
philosopher, assisted in laying the foundation in 1899 for evolutionary racism and social Darwinism in his
book The Riddle of the Universe. Haeckel sought to provide a naturalistic worldview that explained all
the mysteries of the universe, such as consciousness, by scientifically reducing everything to matter and
energy. Among other things, Haeckel believed that the different races have evolved independently from
one another, which propelled the idea that some races were more advanced than others. The Riddle of
the Universe sold half a million copies alone in Germany, making Haeckel one of the most influential
thinkers of his time, which created the intellectual climate for Nazi Germany to thrive a few decades
later. [return to reading 15.9]
Note 15.10: Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
1961), 40. [return to reading 15.10]
Note 15.11: Helen Zimmern, from the introduction to Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
(Mineola: Dover Publications, 1997), vii. [return to reading 15.11]
Note 15.12: In the same way Nietzsche hated Christ he hated the New Testament: One had
better put on gloves before reading the New Testament. The presence of so much filth makes it very
advisableI have searched the New Testament in vain for a single sympathetic touch; nothing is there
that is free, kindly, open-hearted or upright. In it humanity does not even make the first step upward - the
instinct for cleanliness is lackingOnly evil instincts are there, and there is not even the courage of
these evil instincts. It is all cowardice; it is all shutting of the eyes, a self-deception. Every other book

becomes clean, once one has read the New Testament (The Anti-Christ, sect. 46). [return to reading
15.12]
Note 15.13: Being influenced by his half-cousin Charles Darwin, Francis Galton (1822-1911)
advocated for eugenics (a term he coined) in Hereditary Genius (1869). Eugenics is concerned with
advancing the human race, through what Galton called, judicious mating and compulsory sterilization.
He defined eugenics as the science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn qualities of
a race; also with those that develop them to the utmost advantage (Eugenics: Its Definition, Scope, and
Aims, The American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 10; July, 1904; Number 1). Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer
(1896-1969), Karin Magnussen (1908-1997), Josef Mengele (1911-1979), and Nazi Germany took social
Darwinism and the eugenics of Galton to its radical conclusion by experimenting on and executing those
whom they deemed to be inferior. [return to reading 15.13]
Note 15.14: Ibid., 319. [return to reading 15.14]
Note 15.15: Nietzsche., 259. [return to reading 15.15]
Note 15.16: This is odd, seeing that Nietzsche was very sickly most of his life. He was a feeble
man who had to be cared for by friends and family. In the last ten years of his life he became mentally
insane and needed constant care from his Christian mother. [return to reading 15.16]
Note 15.17: Cited in William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1960), 86. [return to reading 15.17]
Note 15.18: Nietzsche, 266. [return to reading 15.18]
Note 15.19: See John Blanchard, Does God Believe in Atheists (Darlington, UK: Evangelical Press,
2000), 75. [return to reading 15.19]
Note 15.20: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 12. [return to reading 15.20]
Note 15.21: Ibid., 14-15. [return to reading 15.21]
Note 15.22: Civilization and Its Discontents, 22. [return to reading 15.22]
Note 15.23: Ibid., 24-15. [return to reading 15.23]
Note 15.24: Ibid., 25. [return to reading 15.24]
Note 15.25: Ibid., 34. [return to reading 15.25]
Note 15.26: The Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief, 90. [return to reading 15.26]
Note 15.27: Alister McGrath, Why God Wont Go Away (Nashville: Nelson, 2010), 145. [return to
reading 15.27]

16. The Irrationality of Postmodernism Endnotes

Note 16.1: Malcolm Muggeridge, The End of Christendom (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 8.
[return to reading 16.1]
Note 16.2: Jacques Barzun, Toward the Twenty-First Century, in The Culture We Deserve
(Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989), 172. [return to reading 16.2]
Note 16.3: Ibid., 163. [return to reading 16.3]
Note 16.4: Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism (New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
1991), 13. [return to reading 16.4]
Note 16.5: Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 25.
[return to reading 16.5]
Note 16.6: This disenchantment, says Taylor, was not merely the result of the scientific
revolution, for he says, a crucial part of my argument for the deconstruction of the death of God view,
is that the arguments from natural science to Godlessness are not all that convincing (Ibid., 557).
Rather secularization and disenchantment has its roots, in part, in the rise and spread of deism in the
17th and 18th century. [return to reading 16.6]
Note 16.7: The age of authenticity, according to Taylor, has been shaped by many factors,
including consumerism, egoism, individualism, hedonism, and even expressivism where fashion has
become a vital part of personal self-expression and identity. The sexual revolution of the 1960s was also
a part of the push to find personal meaning and freedom from any external norms. [return to reading
16.7]
Note 16.8: Ibid., 587-589. [return to reading 16.8]
Note 16.9: Commodities [such as Nike shoes] become vehicles of individual expression, even
the self-definition of identity (Ibid., 483). [return to reading 16.9]
Note 16.10: The pursuit of happiness, says Taylor, has come to seem not only not to need a
restrictive sexual ethic and the disciplines of deferred gratification, but actually to demand their
transgression in the name of self-fulfillment. The people who feel this most strongly are, of course,
precisely those for whom many of these disciplines have become second nature, not needing a strong
ethical/spiritual backing to maintain themselves (Ibid., 493). [return to reading 16.10]
Note 16.11: This may not be a fair charge against Descartes. See footnote 13 on page 94. [return
to reading 16.11]
Note 16.12: See Jean-Franois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report of Knowledge, trans.
Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota, 1983). [return to
reading 16.12]
Note 16.13: Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, trans. Le mythe de Sisyphe (New York: Vintage
Books, 1991), 3. [return to reading 16.13]

Note 16.14: Ibid., 3-4. [return to reading 16.14]

Note 16.15: Ibid., 22. [return to reading 16.15]
Note 16.16: Ibid., 51. [return to reading 16.16]
Note 16.17: Cited in Ravi Zacharias, A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism (Grand
Rapids: Baker Books, 1990), 41-42. [return to reading 16.17]
Note 16.18: Cited in John Blanchard, Does God Believe in Atheists (Darlington, UK: Evangelical
Press, 2000), 121. [return to reading 16.18]
Note 16.19: Cited in Ravi Zacharias, A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism (Grand
Rapids: Baker Books, 1990), 25. [return to reading 16.19]
Note 16.20: George Park Fisher was right when he said: Atheism is an insult to humanity
(Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief, 62). Fisher explained that it is a gross affront to reason and
moral sense to tell a man to abstain from frivolity and to act from an intelligent purpose, for the
accomplishment of rational ends; but the universe, he is told, is the offspring of gigantic frivolity (Ibid.).
[return to reading 16.20]
Note 16.21: As Francis Schaeffer put it, If God is dead, then man is dead, too. Cited in William
Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, 77. [return to reading 16.21]

17. The Irrationality of All Nontheistic Religions Endnotes

Note 17.1: Paul Harrison, Elements of Pantheism (Shaftesbury, UK: Element Books, 2013), 1.
[return to reading 17.1]
Note 17.2: Benedict De Spinoza, Ethics, trans. W. H. White in Great Books of the Western World,
ed. Robert Maynard Hutchins (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. 1952.), Vol. 31, 360. [return to
reading 17.2]
Note 17.3: Kenny Anthony, The Oxford Illustrated History of Western Philosophy, ed. Kenny
Anthony (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 147. [return to reading 17.3]
Note 17.4: Benedict De Spinoza, Ethics. Trans Edwin Curley (New York: Penguin Books, 1996), 2.
[return to reading 17.4]

18. The Irrationality of Islam & Judaism Endnotes

Note 18.1: Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2012), 112. [return
to reading 18.1]
Note 18.2: Jonathan Edwards, Miscellany 96, in The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Vol. 13, ed.
Thomas A. Schafer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 263. The Word in italic is present author.
[return to reading 18.2]
Note 18.3: Augustine, The Trinity, trans. Edmond Hill, ed. John E. Rotelle (New York: New City
Press, 1992). [return to reading 18.3]
Note 18.4: Mere Christianity, 152. [return to reading 18.4]
Note 18.5: Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity (Phillipsburg, PA: P&R, 2004), 444. [return to reading
18.5]
Note 18.6: Ibid., 446. [return to reading 18.6]
Note 18.7: Delighting in the Trinity, 80. [return to reading 18.7]
Note 18.8: See chapter 1 of William M. Schweitzer, God is a Communicative Being: Divine
Communicativeness and Harmony in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards (London: T&T Clark, 2012).
[return to reading 18.8]

19. The Irrationality of Non-Trinitarian Religions Endnotes

Note 19.1: The Unmoved Mover of Aristotle is a non-trinitarian being: How can they be right
who say that the first principle is unity and this is substance, and generate number as the first product
from unity and from matter, assert that number is substance? How are we to think of two, and each of
the other numbers composed of units, as one? (Metaphysics. Trans. W. D. Ross. Stilwell, KS: Digireads
Publishing, 2006., 11.2). [return to reading 19.1]
Note 19.2: Vincent J. Cornell, God in Islam, in the Encyclopedia of Religion, Ed. Lindsay Jones,
Vol. 5, 2nd Edition (New York: Macmillan Reference of Thompson Gale, 2005), 3561-3562. [return to
reading 19.2]
Note 19.3: MT, Hilkhot Yesodei Ha Torah, 1:7, Cited in Micah Goodman, Maimonides and the
Book that Changed Judaism (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2015), 5. [return to reading
19.3]
Note 19.4: According to Aristotle: The infinite cannot be a separate, independent thing. For if it
is neither a spatial magnitude nor a plurality, but infinity itself is its substance and not an accident of it,
it will be indivisible; for the divisible is either magnitude or plurality (Metaphysics, 11.10). [return to
reading 19.4]
Note 19.5: The Dutch Reformed theologian Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949) explained why this was
problematic: May we also say that Gods attributes are not distinguished from one another? This is
extremely risky. We may be content to say that all Gods attributes are related most closely to each other
and penetrate each other in the most intimate unity. However, this is in no way to say that they are to be
identified with each other. Also in God, for example, love and righteousness are not the same, although
they function together perfectly in complete harmony. We may not let everything intermingle in a
pantheistic way because that would be the end of our objective knowledge of God (Theology Proper,
vol. 1 of Reformed Dogmatics, trans. and ed. Richard B. Gaffin. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 20122014., 5).
Scott Oliphint reminds us that The doctrine of simplicity, in its best formulations, has never
affirmed that God is some sort of Being in which no distinctions do or can reside (God with Us, 64).
[return to reading 19.5]
Note 19.6: Metaphysics, 11.2. [return to reading 19.6]
Note 19.7: Ironically, though Aristotle rejected polytheism for theism, the theism that he
embraced leads right back to the pantheism that produces the polytheism that he rejected. It is no
wonder that the further a society moves away from the knowledge of theism, the more pantheistic and
even animistic it becomes. Because of inward guilt, man naturally wants to worship a mediator (e.g., an
emanation of God) that buffers them from the wrath the ultimate God. [return to reading 19.7]
Note 19.8: Cited in Maimonides and the Book that Changed Judaism, 8. [return to reading 19.8]
Note 19.9: Ibid., 11.7. [return to reading 19.9]
Note 19.10: Ibid., 12.9. [return to reading 19.10]

Note 19.11: B. A. G. Fuller, The Theory of God in Book of Aristotles Metaphysics in The
Philosophical Review, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Mar., 1907), 170-183., 173. [return to reading 19.11]
Note 19.12: Ibid., 175. [return to reading 19.12]
Note 19.13: Metaphysics, 12.9. [return to reading 19.13]
Note 19.14: Ibid., 177. [return to reading 19.14]
Note 19.15: Metaphysics, 12.6. For a Christian thinker who defends the eternality of the universe
see Eternal God by Paul Helm (New York: Oxford, 2012), 234-250. [return to reading 19.15]
Note 19.16: See Benedict De Spinoza, Of God Part 1 in Ethics. Trans Edwin Curley (New York:
Penguin Books, 1996). [return to reading 19.16]

20. The Irrationality of Unitarian Monotheism Endnotes

Note 20.1: By formal differentiation I mean something more than a conceptual distinction
(distinctione rationis, a distinction in thinking) that exists only within our finite minds to help us make
sense of an ineffable God that transcends human language. [return to reading 20.1]
Note 20.2: K. Scott Oliphint, Simplicity, Trinity, and Incomprehensibility of God in One God in
Three Persons, Ed. Bruce Ware and John Starke (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 230. [return to reading
20.2]
Note 20.3: The Eunomians (i.e., neo-Arians) denied the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity by
applying Aristotelian logic to the doctrine of divine simplicity. In gist, they argued that if there are no
distinctions within God, then only the Father exists a se (dependent on nothing outside of Himself).
Ultimate oneness is reducible to the Father He alone possesses the simple essence of Divinity. The
essence of the Son is generated from the Father and the essence of the Spirit proceeds from the Father
and Son as they are ontologically and eternally subordinate to the Father, who alone is Almighty God. See
Thomas H. McCall Trinity Doctrine, Plain and Simple in Advancing Trinitarian Theology (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2014), 46. [return to reading 20.3]
Note 20.4: Richards, Jay Wesley, The Untamed God (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2003), 230. [return
to reading 20.4]
Note 20.5: Ibid. [return to reading 20.5]
Note 20.6: Scott Oliphint seeks to maintain balance when he reminds us: An important aspect
of this doctrine of Gods simplicity is that these distinctions in God are not thought to exist as real
things in God. That is, they should not be thought as things at all, so that the Godhead is a composition
of things upon thing (God with Us, 65). [return to reading 20.6]
Note 20.7: For an excellent article on the relationship between divine simplicity and the Trinity
see Thomas H. McCall Trinity Doctrine, Plain and Simple in Advancing Trinitarian Theology (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 2014). [return to reading 20.7]
Note 20.8: Cornelius Van Til, An Introduction to Systematic Theology, 2nd ed., William Edgar
(Philipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2007), 273. [return to reading 20.8]
Note 20.9: B. A. Bosserman explained: Unitarian theologies . . . succumb to a stultifying sort of
mystery where god is identical with, or subject to, an ineffable void, that renders him incapable of
speaking altogether, or of speaking with authority. For, nothing can be accurately predicated of a strictly
unitary deity, since the multiplicity involved in predication is at odds with his nature. If such a being were
to enjoy negative definition as he exists in contrast to the created sphere, it would only demonstrate his
dependence on the temporal universe in order to enjoy the sort of differentiation, purpose, and
relationship that he lacks in himself (The Trinity and the Vindication of Christian Paradox, 101). [return
to reading 20.9]
Note 20.10: Calvin, Institutes, 1.13.2. [return to reading 20.10]
Note 20.11: B. B. Warfield, Calvins Doctrine of the Trinity, Works of Benjamin B. Warfield
(Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003), 5.191. [return to reading 20.11]

Note 20.12: William M. Schweitzer, God is a Communicative Being: Divine Communicativeness

and Harmony in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards (London: T&T Clark, 2012), 17. [return to reading
20.12]
Note 20.13: Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God (reprint, Grand Rapids:
Baker, 1996), 1:345. [return to reading 20.13]
Note 20.14: The proponents for open theism, such as Richard Rice, Clark Pinnock, and John
Sanders, may say that God is unchanging in His essence, but they undermine their claim by making the
diversity of the tripersonal relationship of the Godhead ultimate over the oneness of His unchanging
essence. That is, the oneness of Gods essence ends up being at least partially absorbed into the
diversity of Gods tripersonal interaction within creation. By elevating the diversity of God over the
oneness of God, Gods sovereignty, omnipotence, and omniscience no longer remain immutable. Gods
knowledge, emotions, and power become limited to the multiplicity of things taking place outside His
being. Rather than being immutably closed, God is open to change. Rather than the Almighty controlling
all things, He is more of a powerful demigod. He is able to properly adjust His plans as needed, but
remains restricted to the diverse whims and decisions of man. His knowledge is dependent on creation.
The trinitarian God, however, is able to interact with creation in a personal and imminent way
because He is inherently able to differentiate between things within Himself and things outside of
Himself. Because diversity is essential to His nature, God is able to distinguish between His thoughts,
emotions, acts, and time related events. Yet, He remains transcendent and separate from creation
because His unity is also equally essential to His nature. Because He is able to differentiate between His
will of decree and His will of command, He is able to providently and emotionally interact with creation
in a personal way. But, He also knows and sees all things at once. And, ultimately, nothing can cause
God to suffer because He knows and controls all things without there being any change within Himself.
In sum, without the diversity of the three persons, Gods simplicity would lead to pantheism.
Conversely, without the oneness of Gods essence, the relational properties inherent within the Trinity
would lead to open theism. Though from different directions, both pantheism and open theism make God
dependent on creation. The equal ultimacy of the oneness and diversity of the Trinity is the only
safeguard to keep us from falling on either side of the ditch. [return to reading 20.14]
Note 20.15: And according to Michael Reeves, love was the motive behind creation (Delighting
in the Trinity, 47). For His own glory, God chose to share His love with His people. Or as Jonathan
Edwards worded it: Gods end in the creation of the world consists in these two things, viz. to
communicate himself and to glorify himself. God created the world to communicate himself, not to
receive anything (Jonathan Edwards, Approaching the End of Gods Grand Design, 1743-1758, ed.
Wilson H. Kimnach. vol. 25 of The Works of Jonathan Edwards. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.,
116 ). [return to reading 20.15]
Note 20.16: Though all non-trinitarian worldviews can be classified into three categories: (1.)
naturalism, (2.) impersonal-supernaturalism, and (3) personal-supernaturalism, they are reducible to
absurdity because they end in the same place monistic pantheism. Peter Jones, director of
truthXchange, rightly states that there are only two overarching worldviews: One-ism and Two-ism.
One-ism, according to Jones, is the belief that all things share the same essence, while Two-ism is
the belief that God and creation possesses two different essences. As we have seen, even non-trinitarian
personal-supernaturalism (i.e., Islam & Judaism) is reducible to monistic pantheism (See Peter Jones,
One or Two. Escondido, CA: Main Entry Editions, 2010., 17). [return to reading 20.16]

22. Supported by Cohesiveness Endnotes

Note 22.1: Mere Christianity, 45. [return to reading 22.1]
Note 22.2: Cited in Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian, 118. [return to reading 22.2]
Note 22.3: Ibid., 45. [return to reading 22.3]
Note 22.4: Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 175. [return to
reading 22.4]
Note 22.5: Ibid., 171. [return to reading 22.5]
Note 22.6: Ibid., 173. [return to reading 22.6]

23. Supported by Reason & Evidence Endnotes

Note 23.1: This is true concerning Ren Descartes version of the ontological argument. Anselm
(1033-1109), Archbishop of Canterbury, however, framed the argument this way: Even the Fool, then, is
forced to agree that something-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought exists in the mind, since he
understands this when he hears it, and whatever is understood is in the mind. And surely that-thanwhich-a-greater-cannot-be-thought cannot exist in the mind alone. For if it exists solely in the mind, it
can be thought to exist in reality also, which is greater. If then that-than-which-a-greater-cannot-bethought exists in the mind alone, this same that-than-which-a-greater-cannot-be-thought is that-thanwhich-a-greater-can-be-thought. But this is obviously impossible. Therefore, there is absolutely no doubt
that something-than-which-a-greater-cannot-be-thought exists both in the mind and in reality
(Proslogion in Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works, Ed. Brian Davis and G. R. Evans. New York:
Oxford, 2008., 87-88). [return to reading 23.1]
Note 23.2: Augustine, The City of God. Trans. George Wilson and J. J. Smith (Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson, 2013), 79. [return to reading 23.2]
Note 23.3: Ibid., 212. [return to reading 23.3]
Note 23.4: Gods Undertaker, 20. [return to reading 23.4]
Note 23.5: Ibid. [return to reading 23.5]
Note 23.6: Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981), 82.
[return to reading 23.6]
Note 23.7: See Richard Swinburne, Is There a God (New York: Oxford, 1996), 67. [return to
reading 23.7]
Note 23.8: This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, claimed Newton, could
only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being (The Principia. reprint.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Snowball Publishing, 2010., 440). [return to reading 23.8]
Note 23.9: Is There a God, 67. [return to reading 23.9]
Note 23.10: Ibid., 43. [return to reading 23.10]
Note 23.11: Ibid., 55. [return to reading 23.11]
Note 23.12: Ibid. [return to reading 23.12]
Note 23.13: Stephen C. Meyer, Signature in the Cell (New York: HarperOne, 2009), 156. [return to
reading 23.13]
Note 23.14: Ibid., 171. [return to reading 23.14]
Note 23.15: Ibid. [return to reading 23.15]
Note 23.16: Ibid., 330. [return to reading 23.16]

Note 23.17: Ibid., 332. [return to reading 23.17]

Note 23.18: Ibid., 333. [return to reading 23.18]
Note 23.19: Ibid., 336, 137. [return to reading 23.19]
Note 23.20: Ibid., 341. [return to reading 23.20]
Note 23.21: Ibid. [return to reading 23.21]
Note 23.22: Ibid., 343. [return to reading 23.22]
Note 23.23: Alvin Plantinga, There is superficial conflict but deep concord between science and
theistic religion, but superficial concord and deep conflict between science and naturalism (Where the
Conflict Really Lies. New York: Oxford, 2012., ix). [return to reading 23.23]

24. Supported by Historical Record Endnotes

Note 24.1: N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003),
599. [return to reading 24.1]
Note 24.2: Ibid., 602. [return to reading 24.2]
Note 24.3: Ibid. [return to reading 24.3]
Note 24.4: Ibid., 605. [return to reading 24.4]
Note 24.5: Ibid., 607. [return to reading 24.5]
Note 24.6: Ibid., 607-608. [return to reading 24.6]
Note 24.7: Ibid., 610. [return to reading 24.7]
Note 24.8: See Philip Comfort, Encountering the Manuscripts (Nashville: Broadman & Holman,
2005), 126-139. [return to reading 24.8]
Note 24.9: Jewish Antiquities, 18.3.3 63 (Based on the translation of Louis H. Feldman, The
Loeb Classical Library.) Though this text has been considered as a later Christian interpolation, one of
the leading authorities on Josephus, Paul Maier, the Russell H. Selibert professor of ancient history,
Western Michigan University, argues for its textual faithfulness: Josephus must have mentioned Jesus
in authentic core material at 18:63 since this passage is present in all Greek manuscripts of Josephus,
and the Agapian version accords well with his grammar and vocabulary elsewhere. Moreover, Jesus is
portrayed as a wise man [sophos aner], a phrase not used by Christians but employed by Josephus for
such personalities as David and Solomon in the Hebrew Bible.
Furthermore, his claim that Jesus won over many of the Greeks is not substantiated in the New
Testament, and thus hardly a Christian interpolation but rather something that Josephus would have
noted in his own day. Finally, the fact that the second reference to Jesus at Antiquities 20:200, which
follows, merely calls him the Christos [Messiah] without further explanation suggests that a previous,
fuller identification had already taken place. Had Jesus appeared for the first time at the later point in
Josephus's record, he would most probably have introduced a phrase like brother of a certain Jesus,
who was called the Christ (Paul L. Maier, Josephus on Jesus, in Josephus: The Essential Works. trans.
and ed. Paul L. Maier. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1994., 284). [return to reading 24.9]
Note 24.10: Annals (ca. 116-117), 15.44.2-8, trans. J. Stevenson as cited in McDonald, The Story
of Jesus in History and Faith, 137. [return to reading 24.10]
Note 24.11: The historical critical approach does not view the original sources as authoritative,
for since the post-enlightenment period, historians, like scientists, operate from a naturalistic worldview
that denies the possibilities of miracles. Jrgen Moltmann, for instance, says we are to reject miracles
even before we investigate the evidence: In face of the positivistic and mechanistic definition of the
nature of history as a self-contained system of cause and effect, the assertion of a raising of Jesus by
God appears as a myth concerning a supernatural incursion which is contradicted by all our experience of
the world (Cited in The Story of Jesus in History and Faith, 19). [return to reading 24.11]

Note 24.12: Lee Martin McDonald, The Story of Jesus in History and Faith (Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2013), 45. [return to reading 24.12]
Note 24.13: James H. Charlesworth, The Historical Jesus and Biblical Archaeology: Reflections
on New Methodologies and Perspectives in Jesus and Archaeology, ed. James H. Charlesworth (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 694. [return to reading 24.13]
Note 24.14: See Burt Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus (New York: HarperCollins, 2005). [return to
reading 24.14]
Note 24.15: For an introduction to New Testament textual criticism, see my book Behind the
Bible: A Primer on Textural Criticism (Birmingham: SGCB, 2012). [return to reading 24.15]

25. Supported by Experience Endnotes

Note 25.1: Trilogy, 289. [return to reading 25.1]
Note 25.2: C. S. Lewis, Is Theology Poetry? in The Weight of Glory (New York: HaperCollins,
2001), 140. [return to reading 25.2]
Note 25.3: Apologetics to the Glory of God, 102. [return to reading 25.3]

26. Supported by Revelation Endnotes

Note 26.1: John Calvin argued that those who strive to build up firm faith in the Scripture
through disputation are doing things backwards.For as God alone is a fit witness of himself in his Word,
so also the Word will not find acceptance in mens hearts before it is sealed by the inward testimony of
the Spirit (Institutes, 1.7.4). [return to reading 26.1]
Note 26.2: Institutes, I.V.1 [return to reading 26.2]
Note 26.3: The Works of Owen (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1995), Vol. 16, 310-311. [return
to reading 26.3]
Note 26.4: The Works of Owen (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1995), Vol. 16, 307. [return to
reading 26.4]
Note 26.5: Biblical Theology, 606. [return to reading 26.5]
Note 26.6: Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief (New York: Oxford, 2000), 303. [return to
reading 26.6]
Note 26.7: Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1994),
122. [return to reading 26.7]

27. Supported by Illumination Endnotes

Note 27.1: Edward Young claimed that Illumination is not the communication to us of
information beyond what is contained in the Bible. It is not the impartation of new knowledge. It is not a
new revelation from God to man. It is rather that aspect of the supernatural work of the new birth in
which the eyes of our understanding have been opened so that we, who once were in darkness and
bondage of sin, now see that to which formerly we had been blind (Thy Word is Truth. Edinburgh:
Banner of Truth Trust, 1963., 34). [return to reading 27.1]
Note 27.2: John Owen wrote that, Once the mind of God had been reduced to writing, each
mortal and individual man, to whom the Scriptures may come, has God speaking to them no less directly
than if he were hearing God speaking with His own voice to themEven the spoken voice cannot reach
the ears of men but through a communication medium, that is, the air in which it is formed; so it cannot
be denied that it is the voice of God speaking to men, though it is handed on through the communication
medium of writing. It is in no way diminished by being reduced to writing (Biblical Theology. 374-75).
[return to reading 27.2]
Note 27.3: Institutes, trans. Henry Beveridge (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 1.7.5. [return to
reading 27.3]
Note 27.4: Ibid.,192. [return to reading 27.4]
Note 27.5: Ibid. [return to reading 27.5]
Note 27.6: Warranted Christian Belief, 303. [return to reading 27.6]
Note 27.7: Ibid., 304. [return to reading 27.7]
Note 27.8: Ibid., 309. [return to reading 27.8]
Note 27.9: Institutes, 1.2.1 [return to reading 27.9]

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Index of Names
A
Anaximenes, ref_1
Anselm, ref_1
Armbruster, Carl, ref_1, ref_2
Aristotle, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11, ref_12,
ref_13, ref_14, ref_15, ref_16, ref_17, ref_18
Anthony, Kenny, ref_1
Atkins, Peter, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5
Augustine, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6
Ayer, A. J., ref_1, ref_2, ref_3

B
Bacon, Francis, ref_1, ref_2
Bahnsen, Greg, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10
Barth, Karl, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4
Barzun, Jacques, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4
Baudrillard, Jean, ref_1
Bavinck, Herman, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4
Behe, Michael, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Bentham, Jeremy, ref_1
Berkhof, Louis, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Berlinski, David, ref_1, ref_2
Bernard of Clairvaux, ref_1
Beyssade, Jean-Marie, ref_1
Black, Jim Nelson, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6
Blanchard, John, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5
Bonaventure, ref_1, ref_2
Bosserman, B. A., ref_1
Bultmann, Rudolf, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Byl, John, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4

C
Cabanis, Pierre Jean Georges, ref_1
Calvin, John, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11, ref_12,
ref_13, ref_14, ref_15, ref_16, ref_17, ref_18, ref_19, ref_20, ref_21
Calvin, Melvin, ref_1
Camus, Albert, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7
Charlesworth, James, ref_1, ref_2
Charnock, Stephen, ref_1, ref_2
Clark, Gordon, ref_1, ref_2
Clifford, William K., ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Collett, Don, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Comfort, Philip, ref_1
Copernicus, Nicolaus, ref_1, ref_2
Cornell, Vincent J., ref_1, ref_2
Craig, William Lane, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Crick, Francis, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6

D
Dahmer, Jeffrey, ref_1
Darwin, Charles, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11, ref_12,
ref_13, ref_14, ref_15, ref_16, ref_17, ref_18, ref_19, ref_20, ref_21, ref_22, ref_23, ref_24, ref_25,
ref_26, ref_27, ref_28, ref_29, ref_30
Davies, Paul, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5
Dawkins, Richard, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11,
ref_12, ref_13
Dennett, Daniel, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8
Denton, Michael, ref_1
Derrida, Jacques, ref_1
Descartes, Ren, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10
Dionysius, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11, ref_12,
ref_13, ref_14, ref_15
Durant, Will, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3

E
Eckhart, Meister, ref_1, ref_2
Eddington, Arthur Stanley, ref_1, ref_2
Edwards, Jonathan, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11
Ehrman, Burt, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Einstein, Albert, ref_1
Eldredge, Niles, ref_1
Esau, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6
Evans, Stephen, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3

F
Fisher, George Park, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7
Fletcher, Joseph, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5
Flew, Antony, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4 , ref_5
Frame, John, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7
Francis of Assisi, ref_1
Freud, Sigmund, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5
Fuller, B. A. G., ref_1, ref_2, ref_3

G
Galilei, Galileo, ref_1, ref_2
Galton, Francis, ref_1
Gates, Bill, ref_1
Gerrish, B. A., ref_1
Goldsmith, Oliver, ref_1
Green, Ronald, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Griffiths, Paul J., ref_1

H
Haeckel, Ernst, ref_1
Harrison, Paul, ref_1, ref_2
Hawking, Stephen, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7
Hayman, Ronald, ref_1
Hefner, Hugh, ref_1
Heidegger, ref_1, ref_2
Helm, Paul, ref_1
Henry, Carl, ref_1, ref_2
Heraclitus, ref_1
Hick, John, ref_1
Hitchens, Christopher, ref_1, ref_2
Hitler, Adolf, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10
Hodge, Charles, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6
Hong, Edna H., ref_1
Hong, Howard V., ref_1
Hubble, Edwin, ref_1
Hume, David, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4
Hutchins, Robert, ref_1
Huxley, Julian, ref_1

I
Isaacson, Walter, ref_1

J
James, William, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Jaspers, Karl, ref_1, ref_2
Jeans, James, ref_1
Johnson, George, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5
Johnson, Phillip, ref_1, ref_2
Jones, Peter, ref_1
Josephus, Flavius, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3

K
Kant, Immanuel, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11, ref_12,
ref_13, ref_14, ref_15, ref_16, ref_17, ref_18, ref_19
Kaufman, Gordon, ref_1
Kaufmann, Walter, ref_1, ref_2
Keith, Arthur, ref_1
Kenyon, Dean, ref_1
Kierkegaard, Sren, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11,
ref_12, ref_13, ref_14, ref_15, ref_16, ref_17, ref_18, ref_19, ref_20
Klein, George, ref_1, ref_2
Kline, Meredith, ref_1

L
Lasch, Christopher, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Lematre, Georges, ref_1
Lessing, Gotthold, ref_1
Lenin, Vladimir, ref_1
Lennox, John, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11
Letham, Robert, ref_1, ref_2
Lewis, C. S., ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11, ref_12
Lewontin, Richard, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5
Lincoln, Abraham, ref_1
Locke, John, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6
London, Jack, ref_1
Lucas, J. R., ref_1
Luther, Martin, ref_1, ref_2
Lyotard, Jean-Pranois, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4

M
Magee, Bryan, ref_1, ref_2
Magnussen, Karin, ref_1
Maier, Paul L., ref_1, ref_2
Maslow, Abraham, ref_1
McCall, Thomas H, ref_1, ref_2
McDonald, Martin, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4
McGrath, Alister, ref_1, ref_2
Mengele, Josef, ref_1
Meyer, Stephen C., ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8
Mill, John Stuart, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6
Mlodinow, Leonard, ref_1, ref_2
Monod, Jacques, ref_1
Morris, Thomas, ref_1
Moshe ben Maimon, ref_1
Muggeridge, Malcom, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5
Muller, Richard, ref_1
Murphy, John L., ref_1
Murray, John, ref_1, ref_2

N
Nagel, Thomas, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7
Nash, Ronald, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6
Nero, ref_1, ref_2
Newton, Isaac, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7
Nietzsche, Friedrich, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11,
ref_12, ref_13, ref_14, ref_15, ref_16, ref_17, ref_18, ref_19, ref_20, ref_21, ref_22, ref_23, ref_24,
ref_25, ref_26

O
Oliphint, Scott, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11, ref_12,
ref_13, ref_14
Owen, John, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6

P
Paley, William, ref_1
Parmenides, ref_1
Pascal, Blaise, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4
Pasteur, Louis, ref_1, ref_2
Patterson, Colin, ref_1
Penrose, Roger, ref_1
Pinnock, Clark, ref_1
Plantinga, Alvin, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11, ref_12,
ref_13, ref_14, ref_15, ref_16
Plato, ref_1, ref_2
Plotinus, ref_1, ref_2
Pot, Pol, ref_1
Poythress, Vern, ref_1, ref_2
Provine, William, ref_1
Pythagoras, ref_1

R
Raup, David, ref_1
Reeves, Michael, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4
Rice, Richard, ref_1
Richards, Jay Wesley, ref_1, ref_2
Robinson, Richard, ref_1, ref_2
Rolt, C. E., ref_1, ref_2
Russell, Bertrand, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4 , ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11,
ref_12, ref_13, ref_14, ref_15, ref_16, ref_17, ref_18, ref_19

S
Sagan, Carl, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Sanders, John, ref_1
Sarfati, Jonathan, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Sartre, John-Paul, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5
Schaeffer, Francis, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6
Schleiermacher, Friedrich, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6
Schweitzer, William M., ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Shirer, William L., ref_1
Singer, Peter, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5
Sire, James, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10
Skinner, C. F., ref_1, ref_2
Smith, George H., ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Smith, Joseph, ref_1
Smith, Wolfgang, ref_1
Socrates, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Spinoza, Benedict De, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_5
Sproul, R. C., ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6
Stalin, Joseph, ref_1
Swinburne, Richard, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5

T
Tacitus, Cornelius, ref_1
Taliaferro, Charles, ref_1
Taylor, Charles, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7
Thales, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4
Til, Cornelius Van, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6, ref_7, ref_8, ref_9, ref_10, ref_11
Tillich, Paul, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5
Tipton, Lane G., ref_1, ref_2
Tour, James M., ref_1, ref_2
Trefil, James, ref_1
Turretin, Francies, ref_1, ref_2

V
Varghese, Abraham, ref_1
Verschuer, Otmar von, ref_1
Voltaire, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3
Vos, Geerhardus, ref_1

W
Wald, George, ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4
Warfield. B. B., ref_1, ref_2
Washington, George, ref_1
Watson, James, ref_1
White, James, ref_1
William of Ockham, ref_1
Williams, Christopher, ref_1
Wilson, Edward O., ref_1
Wright, N. T., ref_1, ref_2, ref_3, ref_4, ref_5, ref_6

Y
Young, Edward, ref_1

Z
Zacharias, Ravi, ref_1, ref_2
Zimmern, Helen, ref_1