Kindle Notes & Highlights
Epistemology is not just something to tamper with for fun. It shapes our world and carries tremendous theological and apologetic weight. No introduction to the theory of knowledge is complete unless it can integrate a coherent vision of the world as a whole. If our knowledge is not properly grounded in reality then, sadly, we are insane (as I will later argue).
#insane
Our shared insanity leads to the denial and misuse of evidence and the inability to comprehend truth. It affects the way in which beliefs are formed and leads to the denial of that which should be most clear. Right and wrong, good and evil, and truth and falsity are confused, then muddled, and finally, flat-out denied. In our madness, beliefs are formed that have little to do with what is real. Our insanity leads us to construct philosophies and ideologies that offer trivial answers to life’s ultimate questions.
Our shared #insanity
The world is seething with untruth and confusion of mind. “Nothing is certain,” it says. Yet it is certain that there is certainly no certainty. “Strong convictions are a menace and a danger,” it shouts. Yet it believes this with unshakable and violent fervor. “Skepticism is a virtue to be upheld,” it spews. Yet it fails to be skeptical of its own skepticism. It belches forth the poisonous claim that there are absolutely no absolutes and that truth is truthfully non-existent. Again and again these self-stultifying dictums are mindlessly chanted until the chanter believes the lie of his own
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#certainty
The world is seething with untruth and confusion of mind. “Nothing is certain,” it says. Yet it is certain that there is certainly no certainty. “Strong convictions are a menace and a danger,” it shouts. Yet it believes this with unshakable and violent fervor. “Skepticism is a virtue to be upheld,” it spews. Yet it fails to be skeptical of its own skepticism. It belches forth the poisonous claim that there are absolutely no absolutes and that truth is truthfully non-existent. Again and again these self-stultifying dictums are mindlessly chanted until the chanter believes the lie of his own
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ride on #skeptical winds
Finally, we must recognize the fullness of God’s knowledge and savor the certainty that comes only from a source of knowledge outside us. Having done this, we may then grasp the hand extended before us and be hoisted from the abyss of cognitive aberration. We may safely put off the lunacy that impairs the world around us. True sanity must be our goal.
#certainty
My purpose is to demonstrate the sanity of a “Christian” theory of knowledge by showing that the most reasonable theory of knowledge must be one informed by an understanding of God. That is, God as revealed both in his creation and in his Word, the Bible. Man-made systems of knowledge will only and always lead to insanity. True knowledge is something given to us, never something made by us. This is surely a bold claim that, for many, borders on insanity. However, it is a claim that I ask my readers, both Christian and not, to consider with utmost openness and honesty. We are liable to
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#sanity
How troublesome the truth; how bothersome and nagging our beliefs. The more knowledge we have, the more responsibility is thrust upon us. It is better, though, to seek after knowledge with a sincere heart than to be prodded and driven toward true beliefs like a clumsy and stubborn beast.
seek after #knowledge
Only when our declarations of knowledge are put in their proper relationship to God can we hope to possess knowledge that is justified, true, and constructive.
#God and #knowledge
Beliefs must be tested, and it is the individual’s responsibility to do so lest his natural gullibility lead him far from the truth. Unfortunately, humans are gullible, and we tend to like it that way. Testing beliefs requires a tremendous amount of time and effort. Yet, when the beliefs are not put to the test the results can be grave. Religious, political, economic, historical, and scientific beliefs when not subjected to a healthy dose of doubt can be adopted far too easily and can lead to horrendous consequences.
#test all things
Skepticism does not provide meaning nor does it furnish an adequate means by which to understand the world.
#skepticism
Until the Reformation, religious knowledge was determined by popes and councils. But these were composed of men—men who contradicted themselves and made unsound judgments, men prone to error and encumbered by the illusions of their own insanity. For Luther, religious knowledge could come from no other source than God himself. This led him to stand at the Diet of Worms and declare this: Unless I am convinced by the testimony of Scriptures or by clear reason, for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they often err and contradict themselves, I am
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Until the #Reformation...
Until the Reformation, religious knowledge was determined by popes and councils. But these were composed of men—men who contradicted themselves and made unsound judgments, men prone to error and encumbered by the illusions of their own insanity. For Luther, religious knowledge could come from no other source than God himself. This led him to stand at the Diet of Worms and declare this: Unless I am convinced by the testimony of Scriptures or by clear reason, for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they often err and contradict themselves, I am
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captive to the Word of #God
A new criterion for knowledge had been given. Knowledge of religious matters was to be defined in light of the conclusions drawn by the individual upon a careful reading of Scripture.
The philosophy of skepticism might be easily equivocated to one who speaks while denying he has a voice, or to one who thinks while doubting that thought is possible. The skeptic contradicts that which is most evident. The closer he leans toward skepticism the more he eschews the real, and then, toppling as if in a drunken stupor, he falls away from reality and so loses something of his mind. He becomes an intellectual lunatic.
skeptical #contradiction
It has become à la mode to flaunt skepticism as one might flaunt the latest trends in fashion. Skepticism is touted like a title or an advanced degree tacked to one’s name. This grand and distinguished designation has become synonymous with such concepts as free-thinking, unconventional, intellectual, and informed-in-all-things-modern. Men who wear this new style are skeptical of institutions, religions, God, and moral absolutes. They are above such things; they are the new agnostics—the skeptics who need not be troubled with religious nonsense. Privileged with the uncommon knowledge that they
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The skeptic is made insane, after all, by his denial of knowledge, and the rationalist by his unthinking confidence in himself. Yet, both are madmen.
#madmen
Insanity of insanities: The man who attempts to build complete certainty on his own fallible reason is insane.
#insane
Why do we exist? Why is knowledge meaningful? Only when these questions are answered will we move forward upon a sure foundation and build a knowledge that endures. Knowing how something works is useless unless we also know why it works. Knowing how to sing means nothing if we do not know why we sing. Knowing how to love is useless unless we know why we love. Knowing how to acquire knowledge is futile if we know not why we value knowledge nor how knowledge serves us.
What have the philosophers taught us? How have they led us toward knowledge and cured us of our insanity? Only by demonstrating that unless we look to the all-knowing God, every attempt at knowledge will end in failure.
#failure
Limiting what is known to some few impressions does not leave us with a tenable worldview. Nor does the reduction of inflated intellectual pride offer us an alternative to the gnawing uncertainty that leaves us unable to answer the nagging questions of meaning, origins, and eternity. Hume believed that impressions and ideas of these impressions would have to suffice as the building blocks of any kind of knowledge, but where did Hume get the impression that knowledge is based on impressions?67 His empiricism does little more than beg the question. Hume could not prove God’s existence by the use
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#limits
Limiting what is known to some few impressions does not leave us with a tenable worldview. Nor does the reduction of inflated intellectual pride offer us an alternative to the gnawing uncertainty that leaves us unable to answer the nagging questions of meaning, origins, and eternity. Hume believed that impressions and ideas of these impressions would have to suffice as the building blocks of any kind of knowledge, but where did Hume get the impression that knowledge is based on impressions?67 His empiricism does little more than beg the question. Hume could not prove God’s existence by the use
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#proof
Redemption of the mind cannot come from the mind when the mind itself is corrupt. Paul goes on to say that since “the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21). And what was this foolishness, if nothing more than the simple truth that if we are to be saved from the doom of the corruption that extends even to the furthest faculties of our minds, we must look for a source outside ourselves.
#redemption
G.K Chesterton rightly observed that “the madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.”78 When our own reason becomes our god, we have nowhere else to turn but inward. And while the ancient troglodyte built his god from stone, we have made ours from our own minds, and worshiped it with the same knowledge-corroding vulgarity. Yes, we are insane.
#reason
Do not for a moment forget about our shared condition of madness. We take our insanity with sugar and cream. Arsenic tastes better that way. The poisonous beliefs we swallow scream and sear through our minds, numbing us to the uncomfortable realities we wish to avoid. This is why beliefs often reflect what we want—and what we want is to scald our senses to the irritating reality that we are not the center of the universe, the means-and-end of knowledge. We want to be gods who judge the actions of our unthinking mother—she being the universe. But how has this improved us?
with #sugar and cream
In order to have knowledge, it must be shown that the mind of the knower is functioning properly, in which case he would be justified or warranted in his belief. Without the guarantee of proper function, he would be without the guarantee of solid justification for his beliefs and would be condemned to a life of skepticism. The only assurance, therefore, of proper function and thus, knowledge, is the existence of a designer who has put in place all the cognitive components conducive to knowledge production.
#intelligent #design
Skepticism is the logical result of materialism. Knowledge is not possible in a godless universe because justification for the truth of beliefs is not possible in a godless universe.
#Knowledge is not possible in a godless universe
Between our malfunctioning intellect and perfectly healthy ignorance, we think that commitment to human reason will lead the honest, rational, thinking man away from belief in God. On the contrary, commitment to human reason leads to nowhere but skepticism. Only when God designs the cognitive material and instills proper function can knowledge happen. If anyone is so bold as to suggest that knowledge exists, his claim must be accompanied by belief in God.
On the contrary...
If you want to make any knowledge-claim whatsoever, God is a necessary condition to that claim.
a necessary condition
Where then is the philosopher of this age? Where is the wise man? I think the apostle Paul’s question still retains its validity (1 Cor. 1:18–31). Human wisdom leads to many great discoveries, but it can never explain itself. An explanation of our capacity to possess knowledge can only come from God.
explanation
You cannot deny God and love knowledge, because to deny God is to hate the very Source of knowledge. This is indubitable.
You cannot deny #God and love #knowledge
Kierkegaard’s blind faith undermines the very meaning of biblical faith by accenting a passion of the heart devoid of knowable truth about the real historical Jesus. Passions that remain unguided by knowledge can lead anywhere, not least of all into theological error. The spiritual life must never be reduced to capricious fits of passion no matter how sincere. Passion may bring us closer to God, but to which God, exactly, are we being brought closer?
The problem with blind #faith
Faith is belief in the promises of God, spoken in truth, supported by evidence, and accepted by the reasonable mind. As John Stott puts it, “Faith is a reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently on the trustworthiness of God.”127 For Stott, faith is impossible without thinking.128 He states that “true faith is essentially reasonable because it trusts in the character and the promises of God.”
#faith
The imaginary battle between faith and reason, between theology and science, is a ploy to distract us from proper knowledge acquisition. Matters of faith are rarely, if ever, in conflict with matters of reason. This conflict model is at odds with both the biblical mandate to rule over the earth and create civilization through knowledge (Gen. 1:27–31; Ps. 8), and the historical evidence which suggests men of faith were the true founders of modern science.
the imaginary #battle
Faith is an utter confidence in the promises of a fully trustworthy God who is the Source and Giver of knowledge and the only guarantee that we can truly know anything.
utter #confidence in the Source
Our one fixed point, our source of knowing, our certainty, and our foundation for knowledge is simply this: God, the all-knowing infinite Knower, Creator and Sustainer of human justified true beliefs. God is the only viable possibility for establishing human knowledge. The philosophers cannot do it, nor can the deities of our own making muster the strength to guarantee our beliefs. The madmen of the world must resign themselves to this simple answer.
establishing #knowledge
It is naïvely assumed that the next three-thousand years of philosophy will untangle the problems created by the last three-thousand years of philosophy. Just give it some more time.
#time
There is great irony in denying God as the ultimate Source of knowledge, for to claim knowledge that God does not exist, or that he is unknowable, is to assume his existence in the first place. Since God is the only viable explanation for knowledge, any argument brought against him must presuppose his existence. The folly of claiming to possess justified true beliefs while denying the existence of God may be likened to the folly of claiming to be a mother while denying the existence of children, or claiming to be a dentist while denying the existence of teeth.
#irony
We did not arrive at the conclusion that God is the Source and Guarantee of all knowledge simply because it seemed like a good idea after drinking too much Communion wine one Sunday morning. Theism is offered as the only reasonable alternative to the ludicrous intellectual springe imposed by skepticism and the irrational certainty proposed by the ironically uncertain radical empiricist. The skeptic is an antagonist to knowledge, who flees in its wake. The devotee to human reason is not a free-thinker but an unthinking automaton who has been preprogrammed by his equally unthinking mother, Madam
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Communion #wine
We did not arrive at the conclusion that God is the Source and Guarantee of all knowledge simply because it seemed like a good idea after drinking too much Communion wine one Sunday morning. Theism is offered as the only reasonable alternative to the ludicrous intellectual springe imposed by skepticism and the irrational certainty proposed by the ironically uncertain radical empiricist. The skeptic is an antagonist to knowledge, who flees in its wake. The devotee to human reason is not a free-thinker but an unthinking automaton who has been preprogrammed by his equally unthinking mother, Madam
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Madam #Cosmos
The resistance to knowledge is quite easy. To do it we must simply continue to subject ourselves to every mind-numbing distraction that comes along. We must simply put roadblocks before our minds so as to arrest any possibility of thinking. We must flip a switch, light a screen, or plug various stereophonic devices into our ears. We must prevent rational reflection by listlessly staring with near Zen-like indifference at inert entertainment devices.
#resistance
Diversion may very well be the most formidable enemy of justified true belief. Man has always found ways to divert himself from thinking about the ultimate questions of life, death, meaning, and salvation. Even in the seventeenth century, Pascal commented on the use of gambling, hunting, and billiards for the distraction of humanity and the avoidance of thoughtful reflection.148 Pascal would likely turn in his grave were he to see the diversion machines that man has made for himself in present times.
#diversion
Only by throwing off diversion and turning our knowledge-building faculties back toward their Creator, can we hope to know rightly.
...to #know rightly
In gazing at the clockwork of nature we might just see a Creator at its origin. At least, this has been the claim of theologians and God-fearing scientists throughout the centuries. Traditionally, natural theology (the study of the ways in which God reveals his existence and character in nature) has purported that the clicking and ticking of the tick-tock universe attest to the existence of a wise and grand Designer, whose infinite knowledge defies the insanity of a world whose cognitive dyslexia prohibits it from reading the sign inscribed “answer” that points beyond itself.149 Questions
#clockwork
Knowledge of God is the ultimate goal. And according to natural theology, God is right there—you can’t miss him.157 Since knowledge about the universe is possible, we cannot help but infer from it certain ideas about God. You might look out into the universe and pretend you did not see him, but according to proponents of natural theology, we all know that is not true. As the cosmological argument shows, God is the logical conclusion reached by our observations. If you do not and cannot see him, it is only because you do not want to.
#knowledge of #God
Belief in the God who grants and substantiates human justified true beliefs is the best explanation for everything we know about the natural world. And what we know about the natural world has the explanatory power to point us back to God. It only makes sense that the God who lies at the source of our knowledge of the world is the end to which our knowledge of the world leads. Without God, we cannot have knowledge, and without knowledge we cannot know God. In this way, God gives us our knowledge so that our knowledge can give us God.
making sense
This may seem circular, but the argument from knowledge and the arguments of natural theology converge after arriving from two different points of departure. The deductive arguments of natural theology are telling us that nature points to God’s existence. At the same time, by explaining knowledge of the world in light of God’s existence, we can trust our knowledge-building faculties to lead us to the acceptance of natural theology in the first place.
As concluded here, the universe is best explained by God. And as we have concluded earlier in this book, the human capacity to know is explained only by God. Without a designed plan and purpose behind the human mind, knowledge would be impossible. Before you so much as expend an ounce of mental energy to reflect on an idea and make a knowledge-claim, you are already assuming God’s existence. Without God, there is no possibility of knowing anything.
assuming #God's existence
John Frame says this of God: “He does not wait passively for us to discover Him, but He makes himself known.”
He makes himself known
Have you seen such men—hunch-shouldered yet astute—pouring over musty holy books in near monastic meditation as they inquire of the eternal God? There they sit in silence, eyes fixed on the text below, minds lifted toward God’s resplendent glory. They know the limits of human knowledge. They know that if ultimate reality is to be known, the Source of knowledge himself must make it known. They are not ruled by crushing Pyrrhonian doubts or inflated rationalistic self-surety. They trust that knowledge of the world is possible and that their common sense realism will take them to the limits of
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they know
To know of someone is to know that they exist and little more. To know about someone takes your knowledge to a further intermediary place but still lacks the intimacy of relationship. General revelation affords us knowledge of God’s existence and activity in the universe. Special revelation in Scripture gives us much knowledge about God and his dealings with man. But until we receive the Word made flesh and come to know him, we will always be hopelessly banished from God’s presence.
Special Revelation
