Today’s post is about how to witness when someone is challenging the Bible. Skeptics ask, “Why believe the Bible?” Some Christians say, “The Bible is the word of God because it says it is.” Or they’ll say, “The Bible is self-validating.” Both of those responses are circular reasoning fallacies and so unnecessary if we’ll just admit that the Holy Spirit is our teacher. We merely need to admit that the Holy Spirit speaks into our heart that the Bible is God’s word.

The Bible is His very utterance. Anyone hearing the Bible is hearing God speaking specifically to them. In a crowd of hundreds hearing the same Bible verse, God can speak a specific personal and unique message to each person through the same verse without distorting the meaning of the text. God also speaks through every means of divine revelation mentioned in the Bible, but He will never contradict what He says in Scripture. And, when we acknowledge Him, His voice has creative and transforming power in our lives.

If we deny Him, we become irrational, and everyone can spot it.

<quote from Real Faith & Reason>
Imagine you have a letter, and you tell me, “I know that my father wrote this letter because my father wrote this letter.” But that would be a circular reasoning fallacy. To avoid the fallacy, you could have said, “I know this letter is from my father because my father told me he wrote it,” and that wouldn’t be a circular reasoning fallacy. I could question the authority behind the statement. For instance, I might question whether you’re telling the truth—a question of authority. Just because you say something doesn’t mean you’re telling the truth.

Then you could take me to your father who would tell me he wrote the letter. Facing that, I might question whether your father is telling the truth, or I might even question whether your father is your father, and yet these are questions of authority and not circular reasoning. Otherwise, I might refuse to meet with your father in the same way that many ungodly thinkers refuse to seek Jesus Christ.
</end quote>
#RealFaith&Reason

Have you read this FREE book yet? “Real Faith & Reason” gives the absolutely certain proof of the Bible and the God of the Bible and shows how you can have real faith. This is faith that changes situations and transfigures you from glory to glory.

http://RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_1_-_Scientia.pdf

Amazon Review of Real Faith & Reason Library

This book series will bring you into reality. The layman explanations of true apologetics and epistemology are straightforward, honest, and lucid. How do we know things? Further, why do we know things? And even further, how do we know the things we know are true? Then, how does this compare to the atheist worldview of making up stuff and calling the made-up stuff “true”? And their inevitable and inescapable worldview of an infinite regression of so-called “proofs”? But aren’t we all in the same boat when it comes to discerning what is knowable and what is true? Aren’t we dependent on our own senses and reasoning to determine truth? Petros Scientia explores all of this in this series of books and provides real answers that your mind and soul will find refreshingly simple and yet incredibly profound. These truths are nothing new, just seemingly masked by our own fallen minds and the fact that we live in a society that stresses naturalism and tends to silence all who oppose it. But here I’m finding these suppressed truths to be fully exposed and brought from deep within from the only source of knowledge… Jesus Christ Himself.

Here’s the download Page: https://RealReality.org/downloads

Look the book over and leave a short review–just a line or two. Here’s a direct review link. https://www.amazon.com/Real-Faith-Reason-One-Absolute/dp/0986097217/ref=sr_1_4

<quote from Real Faith & Reason>
Here’s an example of a circular reasoning fallacy:

“Molecules-to-humankind evolution is the only explanation that makes sense because it’s the only rational explanation.”

This reasoning gives the illusion that “is rational” proves “makes sense.” These two terms have the same meaning. If something makes sense, it’s rational, and if something is rational, it makes sense. The statement pretends to prove molecules-to-humankind evolution, but it doesn’t prove it. The circular reasoning hides the axiomatic thinking fallacy, which is: “Molecules-to-humankind evolution is the only explanation that makes sense.”

The conclusion: Molecules-to-humankind evolution is the only explanation that makes sense (is rational)

The proof: because it’s the only rational (makes sense) explanation

This argument is a circular reasoning fallacy because it just claims that the story of evolution is true without proof. But the circular reference pretends to prove it. It’s an axiomatic thinking fallacy. However, when persuaders add the smokescreen fallacy of circular reasoning, they can make us believe they’re thinking rationally. They can make this fallacy more convincing by changing the term from “makes sense” to “is rational.” If they do, they pretend “is rational” proves “makes sense,” but both words have the same meaning. So this irrational reasoning proves nothing but pretends to prove molecules-to-humankind evolution is the only explanation. The illusion makes it a fallacy.

For comparison, here’s another example of a non-fallacy.

“If Christ didn’t exist, we wouldn’t experience His leading. However, moment by moment in every situation Christ leads all of us who follow Christ. Therefore, Christ exists.”

This statement doesn’t commit a circular reasoning fallacy, but the reasoning still wouldn’t prove the conclusion to anyone else. It’s a testimony of how Christ proves His existence by revealing Himself to us. However, since anyone who seeks Him will find Him, anyone can check Him out. There’s no need to take the word of any other person because when God proves something, it’s absolute. Therefore, anyone who’s interested in truth can also know Christ and experience the same proof of Christ, and none of this is a circular reasoning fallacy.

An ungodly disbeliever could challenge the authority of God Himself. God’s claim of being God is circular. He mentions it through Scripture:

“When God made His promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself.” (Hebrews 6:13 Berean Study Bible)

Here, God references Himself as authority, but He isn’t committing a faulty appeal to authority since He’s the only authority who knows everything and can’t lie. Since His claim is based on reality, on God Himself, it’s not a circular reasoning fallacy even though it’s circular. God asks us to believe Him rather than believing the made-up stuff coming from our minds, from the ungodly culture, and from demonic liars. He reveals His reality to us and asks us to receive this revelation from Him. If we do, He authors His faith in our innermost minds and builds His essence there as we sense His presence with all our spiritual senses and yield to His will.
</end quote>

#RealFaith&Reason

Have you read this FREE book yet? “Real Faith & Reason” gives the absolutely certain proof of the Bible and the God of the Bible and shows how you can have real faith. This is faith that changes situations and transfigures you from glory to glory.

You can BUY it on Amazon, but you can get your FREE copy of Real Faith & Reason, which shows the intersection of faith, reason, truth, and sanity.
http://RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_1_-_Scientia.pdf

Infinite Regression of a Deep Thinker

<quote from Real Faith & Reason>

So we meet a deep thinker, and we try to find out how many layers of his infinite regression he can articulate. But it makes no difference because stacking up unknowns doesn’t create truth. He doesn’t gain any intellectual “friction” to make the unknowns true. The more cogent he is, the more deceptive he is.

Consider a man who had received some teaching that sounded good. Let’s call him Sandy. Sandy had taken this reasoning to its logical end, which was destroying his wife and children. And yet, people would sit at Sandy’s feet to listen to him teach his theology and philosophy. One student of philosophy decided to test him by searching for root causes, so he asked Sandy for the cause five times. After this test, the student declared that Sandy had a well-reasoned philosophy.

One day, God gave Sandy a vision of a huge mansion. This mansion was as large as a city, and half of it stood on a rock. The rock was massive like a mountain and extended down past what Sandy could see. However, that city also extended over the edge of the cliff and out over the abyss. It was cantilevered over nothing. It’s not that it was unsupported, though. Under the city, a hodgepodge of two-by-fours braced it up from the bottom. They were at odd angles, and many of them were fastened together to share the load. Charlie followed the structure down and found that each two-by-four rested on supporting two-by-fours, and those two-by-fours rested on other two-by-fours. This amazing structure continued down until the final two-by-fours rested on nothing at all. They just hung over the abyss. Sandy didn’t understand. Then, a voice said, “That’s how you think.”

Someone may think that many layers of unproven proofs will eventually build up “intellectual friction,” but it doesn’t work that way. Many unknowns don’t eventually lead to truth any more than many empty propane tanks can cook the burgers on your grill.

</end quote>

#RealFaith&Reason

Have you read this FREE book yet? “Real Faith & Reason” gives the absolutely certain proof of the Bible and the God of the Bible and shows how you can have real faith. This is faith that changes situations and transfigures you from glory to glory.

http://RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_1_-_Scientia.pdf

Reader Review on Amazon

If you take the time to read just one book, make this the one. I’ve read many inspirational and theological Christian books. This book is not one of those, although what is taught is inspiring and helps to form your theology.

I don’t personally know the author. However, I feel like I know him at a very deep level as a brother in Christ. His love of the Lord and Jesus’ love itself just oozes from his every word. I have no doubt that he has a strong relationship with His Lord and Savior, which makes the reader want that same relationship.

The book has deepened my relationship with God in ways most books could never do. It leads YOU to seek the Lord in new and deeper ways… ways you may not have known were possible or had only hoped for. The title of the book is about the creation and evolution debate. But the deeper truths found within the series of books leads you to so much more!

If I could give this book a higher rating, I would. It’s more than worth your time to read. It can change your whole view on the Christian walk.

Want to know what Jesus meant when He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life”? Read this book! ~ Brenda

Infinite Regression of Citations

<quote from Real Faith & Reason>

How do we know that an academic intellectual’s claims are true? We see the citations that reference the claims of other academic intellectuals. How do we know that those claims are true? We see that they base their claims on citations that reference the claims of still other academic intellectuals. But how do we know about those claims? They cite others who cite others who cite others to infinity. We never get to anything we can call “the truth.”

</end quote>

#RealFaith&Reason

Have you read this FREE book yet? “Real Faith & Reason” gives the absolutely certain proof of the Bible and the God of the Bible and shows how you can have real faith. This is faith that changes situations and transfigures you from glory to glory.

You can BUY  it on Amazon, but you can get your FREE copy of Real Faith & Reason, which shows the intersection of faith, reason, truth, and sanity.

http://RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_1_-_Scientia.pdf

Without a foundation for reason, we can’t know anything.

<quote from Real Faith & Reason>

Without a foundation for reason, we can’t know anything. So, we create a strong illusion of knowing and defend this illusion until we’re dogmatically closed-minded. Thinking this way, we can’t have precise and accurate knowledge of truth with certainty. We can’t have knowledge because we’re rationalizing instead of reasoning rationally. And though we can observe reality around us, how do we reason from those observations to a conclusion?

</end quote>

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:11

Notice the Foundation.

Is it human reason?

Is it science?

Is it philosophy?

Is it religion?

Is it doctrine?

Is it theology?

Is it a denomination?

Is it the Bible?

That’s not to put down any of these, but none of these is a god we’re supposed to worship. Jesus is the Foundation of the Bible, true theology, true doctrine, true religion, true philosophy, true science, and true religion.

#RealFaith&Reason

Have you read this FREE book yet? “Real Faith & Reason” gives the absolutely certain proof of the Bible and the God of the Bible and shows how you can have real faith. This is faith that changes situations and transfigures you from glory to glory.

http://RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_1_-_Scientia.pdf

<quote from Real Faith & Reason>
Infinite Regression

Here’s an example of how infinite regression works. Sandy makes a bare claim. Rocky asks for proof. Sandy says, “The proof is . . .” and makes another bare claim as proof, without proving the so-called “proof.” Then Rocky asks for proof of the so-called proof. So Sandy says, “The proof is . . .” and makes another bare claim as proof. Sandy has an unsolvable problem. When Sandy tries to prove his claim, he uses proof, but he has no proof for his proof other than yet another unproven claim. So he can never prove any proof. He can’t rationally draw any conclusion. With infinite regression, showing unproven proof continues to infinity. Therefore, Sandy never shows real proof for anything, and every statement of supposed proof is just one more bare assertion.

Since Sandy never decisively proves any proof, he only creates the illusion of proof. Sandy never has proof and never has certainty, and because of this problem in thinking, Sandy can never prove any conclusion true. Therefore, Sandy can’t know anything by infinite regression. Consider a conversation between another Sandy and Rocky.

Sandy, a dedicated atheist, challenged Rocky, a Christian co-worker, to a Creation-evolution debate, and though Rocky said he didn’t want to debate, he said he’d be glad to have lunch with Sandy. At the restaurant, they sat at a small corner table. Sandy immediately gave Rocky what he considered evidence for molecules-to-humankind evolution. Rocky tried to understand what Sandy was saying instead of arguing. He asked, “What makes you think your claim is true?” Sandy enthusiastically answered with a rationalization to support his “evidence.” Rocky asked, “You probably have a reason for believing that this statement supports your proposition; would you mind explaining your reasoning to me?”

Rocky continually probed. He was looking for substance. He was looking for some proof that didn’t need further proof. He was looking for definite proof. Sandy continually answered with a confident tone, even bravado. After about an hour, Rocky considered ending the conversation since it wasn’t moving toward any solid point. Sandy had presented an infinite regression of proofs. Not one so-called “proof” was conclusive. Each so-called “proof” was unproven.

Rather than cut off the conversation, Rocky decided to be patient. He’d see what Sandy would say. Sandy confidently gave one more bit of “proof.” Rocky once again asked for the proof of the proof. Sandy, who had been so bold and sure of himself, suddenly got a startled look on his face. He said, “I guess I’m making the whole thing up.” Time stopped for a moment. Then both men laughed.

As Sandy and Rocky began to walk back to the office where they worked, Sandy suddenly stopped and turned to Rocky as if remembering something, “Wait! You have to prove God’s existence to me.” The answer from Rocky came as a prophecy. “Why would you listen to me, Sandy? You don’t listen to God, and He’s speaking to you all the time.” After a moment of shock, both men laughed again.

Someone here lost touch with reality. If we lose touch with reality, we’re insane, but if we know the difference between good versus evil, truth versus error, or reality versus make-believe we’re sane.

The next week was hard for Sandy. When he discovered he was basing all his beliefs on made-up stuff, it shook his self-confidence. He even stopped himself in mid-sentence while speaking to a group about how a piece of software works and admitted he was just making up the whole thing. He didn’t really know. Time passed. Memories faded. Sandy returned to his old self. He again had full confidence in his atheistic worldview, unhindered by his discovery because he forgot what he had discovered.

In this scenario, Sandy finally realized that he was basing all his thinking on made-up stuff. Even so, he fell back into his old ways of thinking within a few weeks. He decided that he prefers life without God despite knowing that he’s stuck making up stuff and calling the made-up stuff real.
</end quote>

#RealFaith&Reason

Have you read this FREE book yet? “Real Faith & Reason” gives the absolutely certain proof of the Bible and the God of the Bible and shows how you can have real faith. This is faith that changes situations and transfigures you from glory to glory.

You can BUY it on Amazon, but you can get your FREE copy of Real Faith & Reason, which shows the intersection of faith, reason, truth, and sanity.
http://RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_1_-_Scientia.pdf

<quote from Real Faith & Reason>
Now that we understand the three horns of the trilemma, what’s the scope? For scope, this trilemma applies to any claim, but we must be aware that ungodly thinkers have developed mindless pat answers to this problem. Mostly, they say the trilemma only applies to absolute knowledge. To state it another way, they claim that, without knowing Jesus Christ, humans can know truth but not absolutely. But that’s also a bare claim. It’s an axiomatic thinking fallacy. It fails because of one of the horns of the trilemma.

They can’t escape the trilemma that way. So they say that we’re just supposed to believe them when they say, “Humans can know truth, just not absolutely.” And we’re not supposed to question this claim. However, it’s a lie to claim that the trilemma only applies to absolute knowledge. It applies to all knowledge since all knowledge is either absolute or just opinion masquerading as knowledge. (We’re defining “knowledge” as “knowledge of truth” rather than “knowledge of lies.” We find that no one can name an ungodly conclusion about anything that couldn’t have a different explanation, yet ungodly thinkers argue absolutely for their made-up stuff. Therefore, we can’t have knowledge of any kind if we don’t base our thinking on divine revelation. The trilemma destroys rational thought for ungodly thinkers.

Nevertheless, we can know things, but we know them because God reveals them. We don’t know them because we make up stuff and call the made-up stuff true. Just because ungodly thinkers refuse to thank God and give Him glory for what He reveals to them, the fact that they reject God doesn’t mean that no one can know anything.

Even though they deny Him, God mercifully reveals reality to them and gives them everything else they need for survival because if God didn’t show mercy to them, they wouldn’t survive. And Apostle Paul explained this truth to the Greeks on Mars Hill. Ungodly thinkers receive divine revelation, but they refuse to acknowledge God, so they can’t tell the difference between what they base on made-up stuff and what they base on God’s revelation. As a result, they lose the distinction between good versus evil, truth versus error, or reality versus make-believe. For this reason, they defend lies with the same enthusiasm they defend truth because they can’t tell the difference between truth and lies.

Also, God has given each of us a brute-beast mind. With this mind, we can react to our senses as we’ve already discovered. The trilemma notes that we can’t know that a real world exists unless Christ reveals this fact to us. We can’t know that our senses aren’t fooling us. We can’t know that we aren’t in a dream. We can’t know that logic and reason are of any value at all. While we can stay alive for a while by responding to our senses, we can’t know truth by responding to our senses alone. Responding to our senses isn’t always reliable, but it’s pragmatic.

Ungodly thinkers try to reason beyond their senses without divine revelation, but they become irrational every time they do that. When they try to reason about history, God, morality, ontology, epistemology, or anything else that they can’t sense, they’re irrational. They can define concepts and opinions, but concepts and opinions aren’t part of reality.

So obviously, none of the three choices of the trilemma can create knowledge of truth. All three choices result in not knowing. With these three choices, ungodly thinkers can’t know that anything is true, nor can they know that anything is false. Even when they’re feeling self-confident, they can’t even “sort of” know anything using any of these three fallacies. They can only think pragmatically. They can’t go beyond their immediate sensations. Well, they can go beyond their immediate sensations, but not rationally. The more they extrapolate, the more errors they make.

The trilemma affects the starting point for thinking. It claims that no one has a rational starting point. It asserts a universal negative, and we would need infinite knowledge to assert a universal negative. That means the trilemma is self-refuting since it’s claiming to have infinite knowledge to claim to have zero knowledge. Still, we can see that the trilemma limits knowledge to divine revelation and divine revelation alone. We see this truth by divine revelation, and we’ll further explore why the trilemma limits ungodly thinking as we proceed.

Ungodly thinkers observe the problem of the trilemma. They see it in their own lives and in the lives of everyone they observe. Then they assert a universal negative beyond their sensory experience. That’s irrational.

When we merely think that something is true, we can’t say, “We know,” and still be rational. Of course, we can have our opinions, but they’re just opinions, and opinions are vapor. By experience, we find that ungodly thinkers almost always deal with this problem in one of two ways. Some will go to skepticism and say no one can know anything, but this skepticism refutes itself as we’ve already discovered. Others will just make bare claims without proof to assert that the trilemma isn’t a problem for them, but that’s irrational. In every case, they use the fallacies of the trilemma to assert their opinions. That means they’re proving their problem with the trilemma while denying their problem with the trilemma.

There we have the ungodly thinking fallacy. Without divine revelation, we have three possible foundations for thought. In naturalistic thinking, we’re limited to axiomatic thinking fallacies, circular reasoning, or infinite regression. Without Christ, we can make up stuff (axioms), use circular reasoning, or lose our minds in an infinite regression of unproved proofs. Without Christ, we have no rational choices for concluding anything.

This trilemma leaves no rational starting point for thought, and no one can be rational without an absolute starting point for thought. As the top ungodly thinkers freely admit, having no absolute starting point for thought would destroy science, logic, reason, and evidence as we’ve already seen. Here’s the most insane part: ungodly thinkers claim to use science, logic, reason, and evidence, but their ungodly worldview excludes all of these.

So we have the three horns of the trilemma: (1) infinite regression, (2) circular reasoning, and (3) axiomatic thinking. Simply put, infinite regression and circular reasoning are smokescreens for axiomatic thinking fallacies. That means the first two horns are ways to fog up the third horn. The first two horns make it seem sane when we make up stuff and call the made-up stuff “true.” In the next leg of this trip, we examine each of these three horns in more depth as promised.
</end quote>
#RealFaith&Reason

Have you read this FREE book yet? “Real Faith & Reason” gives the absolutely certain proof of the Bible and the God of the Bible and shows how you can have real faith. This is faith that changes situations and transfigures you from glory to glory.

http://RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_1_-_Scientia.pdf