(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

Foundation of Thought

Since we interpret experiences and observations by thought, thought must have a firm foundation to be trustworthy. However, assumptions are a terrible foundation because assumptions prove nothing. Let’s look at the foundation of the big-bang-billions-of-years-no-Flood-molecules-to-humankind story.

It begins with experiences filtered by assumptions, stories, fallacies, and the existing paradigm.

Based on this vapor, the evolutionist creates a convincing worldview.

Based on the fake reality of this worldview, the evolutionist makes assumptions.

The evolutionist makes a story seem as if it were science. It’s not science, but it creates the illusion of reality.

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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

The Weakest Link

As we discovered previously, we can’t know assumptions. That means we can’t know anything we derive from assumptions. An assumption is the weakest link in a chain of thought since an assumption has zero strength. That means the entire chain of thought is an illusion. It’s a vapor.

Ungodly thinkers claim to have “a high level of certainty” at times. Then they flip-flop and use words like “assumption” or “axiom” at other times. Their ways are moveable, so you can’t pin them down. As stated earlier, it’s not that ungodly thinkers don’t know anything. God reveals both natural and spiritual reality to ungodly thinkers, but they don’t acknowledge Him or thank Him. That’s why they can’t tell the difference between truth and imagination. So they have both reality and make-believe, but they can’t tell the difference. By contrast, those who acknowledge Christ are learning to discern good from evil, truth from error, and reality from make-believe. They’re learning discernment on the pathway from glory to glory as the Holy Spirit transfigures them into the image of Christ. (Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 3) While they have incomplete discernment, they have true knowledge. However, they only have true knowledge of what God has revealed, so they have partial but true knowledge.

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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

Godly thinking involves God rather than assumptions, and God reveals reality. Godly thinking acknowledges God’s leading, teaching, and correcting. Equally important, Godly thinking yields to God’s Spirit and allows Him to lead, so He says His words and does His works through us. And yet we have a part in it. Our part is to yield ourselves to His righteousness and His love.

If we yield in this way, do we eliminate the possibility of being wrong? Of course not. We’re fighting a war with Satan, the culture, and our sinful fleshly natures, so everyone makes many mistakes just as the original apostles confessed they also made many mistakes.

However, since we focus on Christ, He gives the discernment, and we don’t depend on ourselves for this discernment. Maturity increases discernment. We become mature as we yield to the Holy Spirit. We don’t have a way to know how far we are down this path of maturity since God hasn’t given us a foolproof way to judge our maturity. However, we know we must keep walking in the Spirit because we haven’t arrived at the fullness. The fourth chapter of Ephesians lets us know God has a plan and a method for making us complete and mature in Christ.

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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

Going back to the worldview, which is a fake reality, we’ve already seen that whatever conflicts with a thinker’s fake reality seems false and insane. Whatever matches a thinker’s fake reality seems obviously true. The idea that it’s sane to rely on assumptions matches an ungodly thinker’s worldview, so it seems obviously true. This idea fits into the ungodly thinker’s fake reality, and anything outside this fake reality seems insane. Therefore, the ungodly thinker assumes assumptions are a good basis for reason. For those who follow Christ, God is teaching us to be godly thinkers. God is teaching us to listen to Him and yield to Him even though we often slip back into ungodly thinking. We often go back to our old habit of leaning on our own understanding.

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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

Since assumptions go beyond knowledge, we assume what we can’t know. We can make those assumptions anything we want them to be, so they’re a good basis for wishful thinking but not for finding truth. Consequently, if we allow even a single assumption in our thinking, we can “prove” anything to ourselves. So if we want to pretend to know what we don’t know, assumptions supply what we need. Often, our pride directs us to seek our own minds rather than God’s mind. Human pride insists the human mind is trustworthy. However, insisting the human mind is trustworthy denies what God says about the human mind. Perhaps everyone is guilty of putting too much confidence in human ideas and too little confidence in God at times. We must remember what God says. God says the desperately wicked human mind deceives, and we shouldn’t trust it.

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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

But as we’ve already discovered, no one needs assumptions since assumptions imagine beyond what we know. So it becomes clear that if we build reason on assumption, we build on sand. And the house built on sand will fall when the storms come. Rather than assumptions, we can get to know Jesus Christ. We can depend on divine revelation for all the reasoning the intellectuals tell us about. Then we don’t presuppose or assume. We can stop adding to God’s words. We can stop diminishing God’s words. We can stop making up stories to our own liking. Then we can be rational.

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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

Some people truly believe making up stuff is the only way to know truth. How do they prove it to themselves? They use made-up stuff to prove it to themselves. Since they believe making up stuff is proof, they see nothing wrong with using made-up stuff as proof that made-up stuff can be proof. In other words, they tell a story. In their story, they say we must base all knowledge on made-up stuff. Then, they use their story to prove their story is true, which is a circular-reasoning fallacy.

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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

We’ve looked at two secular quotes where we would expect to see them eliminating God and suggesting godless reasoning. Now let’s look at some quotes from the Christian community:

“But if the apologist presents an argument that does not presuppose the truths of scripture, how can he be faithful to his Lord? And how can he produce an intelligible argument unless he presupposes those conditions that are necessary for intelligibility?” ~ John Frame

“Second, no system can escape circularity because all systems – non-Christian as well as Christian are based on presuppositions that control their epistemologies, argumentation and use of evidence.” ~ John Frame

“Being a science, theology has one more characteristic in common with the other sciences: it is based on presuppositions that it itself cannot prove.” ~ Tom Greggs, Rachel Muers, Simeon Zahl, Theology as a Vocation

“Christian handling of evidence must always start from Christian presuppositions about the framework of interpretation for that evidence.” ~ David Gibson

“Defending the biblical worldview means pointing out that all of us argue from a non-neutral starting point. None of us is objective. The facts are interpreted in terms of our belief patterns, our presuppositions. The Christian is not given an option of arguing from a supposed neutral starting point. If he begins with the assumption that God’s Word is not true, then he adopts the worldview assumptions of unbelievers and is a fool, biblically speaking. And that’s the worst kind.” ~ American Vision

“When we Christians make arguments for God, we presuppose that he exists. We also presuppose that the Bible is truly the word of God. The existence of God and the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible are touchstone truths for the Christian. They are foundational truths from which we can argue, though we can’t prove them beyond the shadow of a doubt.” ~ Brian Watson

Did you notice Who is missing from all these quotes by Christian intellectuals? God is missing. The Father is missing. Jesus Christ is missing. The Holy Spirit is missing. Without God, we would all be stuck. We would base all our thinking on made-up stuff. We can presuppose our made-up stuff, suppose our made-up stuff, assume our made-up stuff, or do whatever we like with our made-up stuff, but it’s still made-up stuff. God hid all Truth in Christ Jesus. God hid all knowledge in Him.

As we’ve seen, many secular intellectuals believe making up stuff is the only way to know anything. They find convincing ways to say it. They don’t use the term “made-up stuff.” However, we’re using this term so we don’t deceive ourselves. However, many Christians also believe in the power of made-up stuff, and it’s a dogmatic belief. Both secularists and Christians believe it.

The naturalistic world brainwashes Christians into becoming functional atheists. However, it’s possible the intellectuals we quoted don’t really believe they have to base every thought on presupposition. We pray they all know Jesus Christ in a real way. We pray they’re aware and thankful they enjoy the Light of the world Who Lights every person who comes into the world.

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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

“Science, like art, religion, commerce, warfare, and even sleep, is based on presuppositions.” ~ Gregory Bateson

Gregory is making a claim. He claims everything is based on presuppositions. He offers no proof. His claim is a bare claim based on a presupposition. It’s an axiomatic-thinking fallacy. He gives no other alternative. Why? What about divine revelation? Divine revelation is excluded. Why? Divine revelation is presupposed out of existence.

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(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)

“It was already clear to Aristotle that all our reasoning must be based on assumptions, and that therefore we have to start with some assumption(s) that cannot themselves (at that point) be explained or entailed by yet other assumptions.

To call these assumptions that are necessary to base any conclusion upon ‘intuitive knowledge’ seems to involve a rather self-congratulatory account of human capacities. That is: Why style it ‘knowledge’ if it is clear that often it is at best some guess based on some particular evidence?

And in any case, a philosopher should be aware that most assumptions men have framed to account for their commonsense experiences have been refuted in the course of time, for which reasons it seems better to avoid the term ‘knowledge’ in the present context, and to stick to ‘belief’ or ‘guess’.” ~ Maarten Maartensz

It seems Maartensz is questioning the validity of thought based on assumptions, yet he offers no alternative. Perhaps he didn’t know Jesus Christ. Many people don’t follow Jesus. They don’t even know He’s willing and able to lead them and teach them. They walk in a dense fog. They follow a mirage. Atheists don’t know, but many Christians also don’t know.

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