1825- PHILOSOPHY [conclusion]
Today let’s wrap up the last
philosophy post for now.
Over the last 6 months or so I
have posted around 25 posts- covering the pre Socratic thinkers [800 B.C.] and
we made it all the way up to the 19th century.
The main philosophical thought of
the 20th century was called Logical Positivism.
This idea said there were 3 stages
to Western thought/culture;
First- Infancy [religious/myth]
Second- adolescence [philosophy]
Third- adult [science/empirical]
This idea said that man in the 20th
century has finally advanced beyond the silly stages of religion and has now
moved into a stage where the only true things are empirical in nature.
That is- for something to be
true- you must be able to show it scientifically [or mathematically].
It did not take too long before
the critics figured out the major flaw with this idea.
This philosophy states ‘the only
truth is empirical’ this statement in itself [as well as all the books written
on it] is not an empirically proven statement.
Therefore- according to its own
criterion- it is false.
This particular aspect of the
philosophy was called The Verification Principle [had to be proven/verified
scientifically to be valid].
Pragmatism- this is the only home
grown philosophy that had its roots in the U.S.
Founded by Dewey and Peirce- this
thought denied objective reality and states that ‘whatever works- use it’.
Of course being ‘pragmatic’ in a
practical way is fine- we do want things to work.
But at its core Pragmatism says
there are no real ethics- no right or wrong- just things people do.
In the beginning of the 20th
century you had the British thinker/mathematician Bertrand Russell.
Russell was a good man- raised as
a Christian.
But as a young man he read a book
by John Stuart Mill [19th century] that questioned one of the
classic arguments for the existence of God [the argument from first cause].
Mill said ‘if everything has to have
a cause- then why not God- who caused him’.
Russell accepted Mills claim- and
became an influential atheist/agnostic.
The main flaw with this argument-
that everything ‘has a cause’ is that it’s false.
The law of Cause and Effect
[Causality] does not state that everything has a cause- it says that ‘every
effect has a cause’.
That is- there is nothing in existence-
an effect- that came from nothing.
Some argued that there was no
initial cause- but an infinite series of ‘little’ cause and effects that go on
forever.
This too is wrong- it leads to
another problem called the Infinite Regress.
If there is no First cause- then logically you
can never arrive at ‘Now’
There had to have been a starting
point somewhere [Einstein has since proved this] and the starting point [Big
Bang] could not have come from nothing.
This too is a very common belief
among many well meaning people- that somehow science has taught us that all
things came from nothing.
This could not be further from
the truth- this is referred to as Creation Ex Nihilo- which too is scientifically
false.
The only other option- beside the
Infinite Regress- and the creation out of nothing- is there had to have been
some type of first cause- who is not limited to the material realm.
By nature this being would have
to be Metaphysical [outside the physical realm] and would have to be self
existent- having no beginning.
To have a First cause- who
himself is infinite- is indeed consistent with the principals of logic- and at
the end of the day is the only reasonable explanation for the existence of all
other things.
Okay- as we end our posts on philosophy
for now- why did I cover this?
Thru out the history of the
church Christians have grappled and challenged the other world views- and have
done a good job at it.
The Christian perspective is not
some silly religious way of life that has no real proof.
To the contrary- the church has
had the upper hand in all these debates down thru the centuries.
But in today’s ‘media market’ Christianity-
the proliferation of self help books [everyday day a Friday?]
The nonstop talk about becoming
rich- or sending your money to ‘my ministry’ as a ‘seed faith’ to become rich.
In this environment- many
outsiders see the church as an irrelevant- never ending drum beat that they can’t
wait to switch to another channel.
This is not the history of the
church- and the church has historically won the debate on the reality of God.
It’s just the average person does
not know it.
So- for the Christian to be
learned in these fields- to have a working knowledge of the opposing world
views- is a good thing.
Why do so many believers avoid a field
like philosophy?
The apostle Paul warned the
Colossians ‘beware of the philosophies of men’.
He also wrote to his protégé
Timothy ‘beware of the oppositions of science- falsely so called’.
The word for science in this text
is Gnosis- the Greek work for knowledge.
In the early days of the church
there was a Christian cult that rose up- called Gnosticism.
More than likely- Paul was not
saying that all science- as we use the term today- is bad- but he was warning against
a particular from of science- called Gnosticism.
The same with the warning on
philosophy- while you could apply it to all philosophy- that is to say that we
should be careful when people try to give us opposing ways of thought- yet in
context it seems like the apostle is dealing with the philosophies that oppose Christian
thought.
For the first 1500 years of the Christian
church the study of Theology and Philosophy went hand and hand.
After the Protestant Reformation
[15th century] many Protestants avoided the field- which I think was
a mistake.
So- as we close up this subject
for now- maybe review a few of the posts on the blog that I did these last few months-
become more familiar with the apologetic arguments for the existence of God.
Christians do not have to argue-
or oppose atheists- or other religions that hold a different view than we do.
But we should be able to give a
defense for the faith- to explain to society around us why we believe the
things we do.
At the end of the day- we really
do have the winning argument.
Note- Do me a favor, those who
read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read
them on. Thanks- John
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