Do you accept God for who he says he is in the Bible because the written words are true?
And do you know that the words are true because there is enough external evidence to warrant true belief?
Or do you trust God and his words because you always have and don’t really think about why you do?
I ask because I learned of another way to justify one’s belief in God. Listening to a podcasted discussion (Unbelievable with Justin Brierley) between 2 philosophers the other day introduced me to the concept of ‘properly basic beliefs’ and ‘non-propositional’ logic.
As a layperson, I gleaned that a properly basic belief is one not based on other propositional truth or on evidence, but accepted and trusted. These are beliefs that can’t be proven. Examples might be:
- the sense or knowing that there is more to life than what we see
- 2 + 2 = 4
The American philosopher, Alvin Plantinga, offers this example:
- I think other minds exist because I have a mind and I exist, but I can’t prove it. All might be an illusion (remember The Matrix?).
- Nonetheless, we humans do accept that if we exist, then others exist. And if we acknowledge THAT as a rational belief, then might we not also accept as rational the proposition that God exists?
This way of ‘argumentation’ does presuppose that we humans have the capacity to think rationally. (to use this lingo, “the belief that humans are designed to think rationally” is properly basic)
Plantinga points to the ‘sensus divinitatis’ in every human as evidence that the existence of God is a rational conclusion. This sense of the divine appears in every culture across the expanse of history.
So what do you think? For Christians who are commanded by Jesus to explain the good news of God’s rescue plans to all we encounter in our daily lives, is this approach sufficient? Probably not. But as we live out ‘the Great Commission’ we are learning and assembling a ‘tool kit’. I’m reassured just knowing that intelligent Christian thinkers across the centuries have vetted what is probably common to all people I meet. There ARE convictions we hold as rational without being able to articulate any propositional or evidential reason other than, “I just believe it!”
Logical Gal stumbles, and then remembers!
29 AprI felt intimidated!
A comment to one of these Logical Gal blog posts tripped me up. I couldn’t make heads or tails out of what my reader wrote in his ‘logical’ pushback. First of all, it was:
Thus, I felt stupid. At first.
Then I reread his words, and realized that it was also incomprehensible!
With that insight, my logical training kicked in and I felt empowered.
When someone responds to you and you don’t understand what they mean, the ONLY logical course of action is to ask them TWO clarifying questions:
When I replied to his lengthy comment with those questions, he DID try to clarify. And it was the same genre, to wit: scientific-sounding, smart-sounding BUT still incomprehensible. So I took it home to my resident scientific expert, my husband. And HE couldn’t make any sense out of what the guy was writing. I felt a bit better.
In all honesty, I did dialogue back and forth with this gentleman because I appreciated that he had READ my blog and also that he had taken the time to write a comment and share his thinking. In the end he and I both stopped because neither one of us was making headway toward mutual understanding.
But I learned a lot! When you don’t know WHAT to say, just ask some questions. This is wise AND easy and the pay off is three-fold:
Tags: Assertions, Claims, Clarity, Comments, Questions, Rational Thinking, Reasons