The Great Divorce Remarried Part 3: Philosophy--Anti-theism presupposes theism

Anti-theism presupposes theism. Now what does that mean? Van Til explains this with a useful illustration: a child can only slap his father in the face if the father first puts him on his knee. All arguments against Biblical Christianity have to borrow from Christianity to then oppose it. For example, only from Biblical Revelation can we account for 'reason'. God has revealed Himself through the Bible and given us knowledge of Himself and of man. Because this has occurred, we can account for reason and justify our belief that reason is not just an evolutionary glitch of some kind. Even more so, the very fact that we can even make that statement is based on the fact that we can logically make that conclusion.

When the anti-theist tries to attack Christianity, what is he doing? What he is really doing is stealing from the Biblical worldview to then argue against it. When pressed, the anti-theist admits this problem and has to then appeal to the absurd to attack Christianity. Essentially, he acknowledges this dilemma of his inability to account for 'reason' (among other things) and what it leads to but then blindly believes that reason exists, though he has not accounted for it. Man wants to believe in reason because he cannot cope otherwise, but he wants to do this apart from God so that he can be autonomous, which is to say that he wants to determine truth from himself apart from God. This is problematic because only belief in the Biblical God accounts for reason itself. Everything else leads to absurdity.

Nietchze went insane because he tried to live out his evolutionary presuppositions which lead to the absurdity of reason from a non-theistic base. The ironic thing is that he had to assume the absurdity of reason from an evolutionary worldview to then argue against the reality of it. This nihilism, which is commonly called the zero point--the point of unknowing, is what he tried to reach, but in trying to reach it he created a purpose, which does not exist in a purely materialistic chance universe. It was impossible for him not to create some kind of purpose because in doing that very thing a purpose is created. Words then become meaningless and all is vanity. This is why he is called the post-modern prophet because so many today deny purpose, being, and the usefulness of words. In reality, most people refuse to accept the end of evolutionary philosophy which is nihilism, so they invent a reality in which to live and cope even though they know it is absurd to create purpose and use reason when neither can be accounted for in a non-theistic worldview.

Man would rather appeal to the absurd that he knows is absurd rather than repent and believe the good news of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible. This magnifies the horrific nature of sin and why God must intervene to save man and open his blind eyes. Let us therefore pray for the lost people around us that God would graciously open their eyes to see the reality of who He is as revealed in Divine Scripture. Let us also be thankful with all humility that He has opened our eyes.

To Him be the glory alone! Amen!