Wednesday, August 3, 2011

"Examining Presuppositions"

What do you believe to be genuinely true? It is all in the content and process of our minds and the presuppositions upon which that content and those processes rest!

What you believe to be true is the foundation upon which you build your belief system. It is those presuppositions or assumptions that require our close scrutiny. If they are wrong then in all likelihood that which flows from them is wrong. Arguments and ideas are only as strong as that upon which they are founded. This is a very real danger in this information age.

An example is that of evolutionary theory. What does one have to suppose to be true for one to believe in evolution? In order to believe some thing or another one must discount the opposite side of the question.

First, one has to discount several things among them the order of the universe and all that it contains (design theory), discount the notion that left alone all systems devolve into chaos (physics), discount among over 50,000 fossils there is not one legitimate example of a transitional animal, and discount the acceptance of Biblical creationism which has been around much longer than evolutionary theory, etc. Keep firmly in mind that what one presupposes to not be true is germane to what one believes to be true!

Second, one has to accept that evolution is supported by genuine science (science without presuppositional bias), accept that evolutionary development is the one exception to all systems devolving into chaos, accept that there is nothing in higher order animals that does not contribute to its evolutionary development (what about the appendix, what about emotional attachment to another person which mitigates against survival of the fittest), and much more. Again these assumptions are germane to what one believes and builds upon.

Of course when the evolutionist encountered some of these issues he had to make a choice. Among his options were to admit to the improbability of the theory and abandon it or introduce another factor. Most made the choice of adding the factor of time (either long-term time or crisis event time). Now that those have fallen into question what will they try to add next?

Well, they probably need not bother since the deception has been so ingrained in western thinking (even in the church) that it is viewed now as a law not a theory. Oh how blind the eyes that will not see--will not look past the theory to the presuppositions necessary for it to be true. It joins other theories now viewed as fact--atheism, man caused global warming, green house effect, global crowding, natural resource depletion, ozone depletion, noble savage, and the list goes on and on.

In the face of all of this and because we, even in the church, are illiterate in the Scriptures and not logical in our thinking, these and other "theories" have taken root and are even now growing. Just another case when those who are to be carriers of God's truth are influenced by the culture rather than influencing the culture!

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