Posts Tagged ‘impossibility of the contrary’

The Maranatha Manuscripts

Posted: 02/05/2017 in Absolute certainty, Absolute Truth, atheism, Christian Doctrine, Creation vs. Evolution, Defending the Faith, Defense of Doctrine, Divine Revelation, folly of atheism, irrefutable truth, Justified Faith, Laws of logic, presuppositional apologetics, presuppositions, self-deception, special revelation, Ultimate Authority, Witnessing, worldviews
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(A series of scripted correspondences from a ‘Heavenly helper’ to a Christian Soldier)

[Letter 17: The Impossibility of the Contrary]

Greetings Soldier,

Indeed, I did see the latest remarks from the unbeliever who continues to assert that you are engaging in fallacious reasoning (i.e. an argument from ignorance) by claiming that Christianity is true by the impossibility of the contrary. It is important to remember two things when dealing with this type of objection from a professed unbeliever:

1.  The unbeliever has no basis whatsoever for attempting to impose any sort of meaningful logical standard upon your (or any) arguments, since he professes to believe in a universe in which abstract, invariant, universal standards could not possibly exist if his worldview were true (which, it isn’t). Therefore, when he makes such a claim, just simply ask him by what absolute standard he deems your argument fallacious, how he arrives at such standards in his worldview, and why that standard must necessarily apply to anyone or anything. Of course, he will not be able to sufficiently answer these questions, but it may be helpful for aiding him in honestly thinking through this issue (if he is willing to do so, of course).

2.  The argument is NOT that Christianity is true BECAUSE the unbeliever’s position is false (since all non-Christian worldviews ultimately undermine the existence of logic, knowledge, truth, etc.).  The argument IS that Christianity is true AND their position is false–big difference.

Remember, according to the professed unbeliever, ANY standard that they seek to impose on someone else would necessarily be a purely arbitrary one if their position were really true. This reduces their complaints against other people’s behaviors and/or reasoning to that of mere opinion and leaves them with no real objective, rational reasons for attempting to impose those standards upon anyone else. Feel free to gently make them aware of this fact and also point out that rational people have good reasons for the things they believe in and act upon. Therefore, the unbeliever is behaving irrationally when they behave the way they are behaving. In reality, they have no choice given what they profess to believe, as no one cannot possibly live consistently with the profession that God does not exist and the Bible is not true (since everyone lives in God’s universe and is inescapably forced to ultimately rely upon Him and abide by his rules, whether they want to or not). As such, the unbeliever plays the hypocrite since they professes to believe one thing, but do not (and cannot) really live according to their professed beliefs. You will do well to keep this is mind as you continue to evaluate the arguments/objections from them. Here to serve,

Your Heavenly ‘Angent’

The Maranatha Manuscripts

Posted: 02/04/2017 in Absolute Truth, bias, Christian Doctrine, Defending the Faith, Defense of Doctrine, Divine Revelation, folly of atheism, irrefutable truth, Justified Faith, Natural Revelation, Preaching the Gospel, presuppositional apologetics, presuppositions, self-deception, special revelation, Ultimate Authority, Witnessing, worldviews
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(A series of scripted correspondences from a ‘Heavenly helper’ to a Christian Soldier)

[Letter 18]:

Greetings Soldier,

Regarding your last correspondence; I assure you that you’re doing fine. No need to be concerned about the empty allegation that you are engaging in a double standard or being ‘unfair’ in your requests for the unbelievers to provide their worldview’s objective, consistent basis for the existence of preconditions of intelligibility (which must be appealed to and utilized in order to even begin to hold a rational discussion). Besides, as should be crystal clear by now, the unbeliever has no way of justifying such an allegation to begin with, since there can exist no objective standard of logical ‘fairness’ in a worldview without God. Not only that, it should also be pointed out that you have already provided the justification for how abstract, universal, invariants are justified in the Christian worldview, from the get go (as they are a reflection of the abstract, universal, invariant nature of the God of the Bible). Perhaps it would be helpful to remind those making the allegations of how discussions work: you provide your logically defensible argument, they provide theirs, and THEN they are compared and contrasted via internal critique to see whose is true.

Of course, because the unbeliever has no rationally defensible argument or justification to support their belief in abstract, universal, invariants (logic, truth, knowledge, etc.) there can really be no discussion at all, since they must borrow these concepts from the Christian worldview in order to even begin to levy any argument against the Christian worldview. Needless to say, in doing so, they are assuming the truth of the very thing they are trying to refute and, subsequently, destroying their own position. This only further substantiates the undeniable reality that Christianity is true by the impossibility of the contrary (since the contrary position cannot be rationally defended and always ends in some form of absurdity). Don’t ever be shy about exposing this for the unbeliever’s own benefit. Here to serve,

Your Heavenly ‘Angent’