Jesus Freak

The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall

Why do you use reason?

Because it works. It has been responsible for the great technological achievements of man

How do you know it works?

I can see it’s effects.

How do you know you can ‘see’ it’s effects?

There is a very high probability that my eyesight works

How do you know that?

Through reason.

So you are using reason to support the use of reason.

I must use reason, what else can I use

That is an assertion, not based on reason. If you disagree, write out the logic you used to arrive at that point.

But reason clearly works.

That is just an assertion. Since it is not based on reason it is irrational, and therefore contradictory.

But you’re using reason to prove reason doesn’t exist

I never said it didn’t exist

OK, you using reason to prove to me that I can’t use reason.

That’s right, I’m using reason to show that the use of reason is irrational, and hence self-contradictory. Nothing you can say to me has any logical validity.

But surely everything you say is irrational too.

No. As a Christian I believe that God has planted knowledge of himself in our hearts. Therefore no knowledge is arrived at either by reason or the senses. Since God’s intellect is vast enough to know everything that can be known, when I look at the outside world, or use logic, I am merely being reminded of, or having revealed the truths which God has already implanted in my mind. When I read the Bible, which is the infallible word of God, God himself is revealing the truths about the world and about himself to me and immediately conveying them to my mind. From this premise I am able to reason deductively to true conclusions. Something you are unable to do.

How do I know this is true?

What did you just call me?

I didn’t call you anything

That’s not what your mum said!

This is completely irrational

I’m being no more irrational than you. In fact, because I begin with an infallible first premise whilst you begin with an irrational one I am automatically more rational than you in everything I say. Even if I receive brain damage, or I’m talking in my sleep I will still be able to defeat you in an argument. You have no knowledge about anything, and are incapable of doing anything meaningful without using biblical presuppositions. However you have no reason to believe any of the Bible’s teachings about God unless you believe the whole Bible, because the Bible also claims that the whole Bible is the infallible word of God. Since you are not a Christian you have no rational way of proving that Christianity is false. Furthermore, the Bible says that every other world view is false.

What about non-Christian religions?

No non-christian religions apart from Judaism have this teaching. The Muslims believe that God is unknowable, therefore their God cannot communicate any knowledge to them, and therefore all that they say is irrational. The same problems exist in all other non-Christian religions and worldviews. Since the god’s of other religions lack ultimate power they can’t know the answers to the ultimate questions, and hence can’t know anything, which means that they are completely irrational, and since the Bible is the only source of rationality, and the Bible denies the existence of any other gods, belief in them is simply incoherent.

I disagree

That is simply assertion and has precisely zero logical validity.