Cornelius Van Til was a 20th century theologian and a pioneer in presuppositional apologetics. He taught at Westminster Theological Seminary for over 40 years. In his classic work, The Defense of the Faith, Van Til outlines basic Christian theology and philosophy and then explains Biblical methodology for defending the faith.
On page 102, he discusses the necessity of the Christian faith for the basis of reason and science. The unbeliever who holds to cosmological and biological evolution must admit that his own rationality is a product of time and chance.
“On his [natural man's] assumption his own rationality is a product of chance. On his assumption even the laws of logic which he employs are products of chance. The rationality and purpose that he may be searching for are still bound to be products of chance… It will then appear that Christian theism, which was first rejected because of its supposed authoritarian character, is the only position which gives human reason a field for successful operation and a method of true progress in knowledge.”
If rationality and logic are products of chance, then how can they be used to accurately investigate and describe truth? If these are the mere products of the minds of humans who have descended by natural selection from biological chemicals that formed by chance, then why do they work? What basis do we have for them working? These are questions that an atheistic, naturalistic worldview cannot answer.
The Christian’s answer to this problem is that the universe was created by God and is providentially governed by Him. God created the universe with order, and He created man with the ability to investigate and understand that order, to a certain degree. The universe maintains that order by God’s sovereign control. This is the position that “gives human reason a field for successful operation,” as Van Til put it.
May these truths move us to praise the Lord God for His wonderful governing of all things for His glory and for the good of His people! May we be moved to praise the God of the Bible, who is a God of order. May we also be moved to praise our great Creator, for making man in His image, that we might bring more glory to Him.
(C) Dustin Crider 2010
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