According to the correspondence theory of truth (espoused by John Locke), truth is what relates to reality.
How do you know anything for certain? The Eastern faiths and worldviews see all reality as Maya or illusion, i.e., reality cannot be perceived, and science and the scientific method never could have been developed under such a self-defeating system of knowledge, because we need an ordered, a consistent, and knowable universe that can be studied and made sense of. Descartes reasoned that he could know he existed: "I think, therefore I am." Augustine had said, "If I err, I am." Actually, if you think there must be a thinker to make though, so you can't use thought to disprove your existence. We need valid reasoning to prove our reasoning is valid: Jesus is the Logos or reason and logic behind everything.
Only God is capable of giving sound reason, for man's knowledge, by definition, is fallible and error-prone. Even science changes its truth claims--it's a moving train of knowledge (the world is no longer flat!): In 1861 the French Academy of Science listed fifty-one so-called scientific facts that controverted the Bible! Today none of these "facts" are believed. It is a principle of science and philosophy that to arrive at the truth you must admit you could be wrong--science today is biased!
It is self-defeating to say you cannot know anything (how can one ascertain that?) because then you are rejecting knowledge and knowledge begins with knowing God according to Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise instruction and learning." You don't know diddly squat without starting with God and Him as the reference point, without making yourself judge, jury, and ultimately God Himself. If you say: "I know I know nothing for certain," you have contradicted yourself, and this statement has no truth claim whatsoever. How can you know for certain that you can know nothing for certain?
The unbeliever ultimately has to admit that he could be wrong, and his worldview comes tumbling down. It is said that we can only know something from sources: Reasoning ability and revelation from God. Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV) says that God has revealed the truth to us in the Bible and He still has secrets we cannot know: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."
How does one account for knowledge and truth without God? We don't try to reason to God but from God as the starting point, not finishing point. Don't insult God by putting Him on trial by catering to the person's demand for evidence--we don't have to prove our God because God has made Himself known and this is evident--they are all without excuse. Just how can you make sense of anything without God? Children's inquiries cannot be satisfied without bringing Him up, and you practically have to indoctrinate or brainwash them not to believe. You cannot prove A without it being true, known, and logical. These three (truth, knowledge, and logic) assume and only make sense with God! "...[A]s the truth is in Jesus" (cf. Eph. 4:20).
Everything we know is based on presupposition and faith because to know anything you must know everything. Both the believer and the unbeliever have faith and is it evident unbelief takes more faith, due to the evidence. God is not going to force one to believe, He desires faith to please Him. To know A you must know B, and to know B you must know C, and so forth ad infinitum. All our knowledge is contingent then. This is called infinite regress and only God knows where it ends because He is omniscient. The only way we can know anything is if it is revealed to us, and this is the Christian worldview--Jesus is the incarnation and personification or embodiment of truth and came to bear witness of the truth, as he answered Pilate who asked, "What is truth?" People interpret their reality and information according to their worldview and presuppositions.
It is no use giving evidence to a person that doesn't want to believe because this makes him the judge of God. One gives evidence to a jury in a courtroom. How can one make truth claims when denying the source of truth (Jesus, cf. Eph. 4:20). "I don't know anything!" I can say: "How do you know this? Are you certain?" "Yes, I am certain I cannot be certain!" This kind of nonsense is what atheism leads to. Don't assume the unbeliever knows anything because without God he can't. But he does know something, and this is proof he knows or knew God. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Fools are those who deny God and know better.
All of creation speaks of God: They believe a lottery winner winning too often is the result of it being rigged, but the sunset isn't rigged. The whole creation is rigged and couldn't exist without God. "In Him, we live and move and have our being." They suppress the truth in unrighteousness, but how can they do this if they don't know the truth? If you look in the mirror you are seeing a miracle! Life is no fluke, it is rigged and couldn't have happened without God's intervention and creation.
Who is to say God can't use circular reasoning, because He is self-attesting or self-authenticating, and to appeal to some other authority would be to lose His ultimate authority. You might say: "I use my reason to believe reasoning is the best way to arrive at knowledge because it sounds reasonable--that is circular. But God is the Author of logic and we cannot "out-logic" or out-reason Him. God, not Aristotle formulated the rules of logic.
People beg the question when they claim they know something apart from God: I know I exist because of my own consciousness! The fact remains, we can know something for certain: All that God has revealed to us according to Deut. 29:29 "...[That] which is revealed belongs to us...." People use science to disprove Christianity when science depends on the Christian worldview. When people reject God, they are making themselves God and setting up an outside moral authority above the Bible in their own reasoning. If there was no intelligence behind the cosmos and consequently our brains were not designed for thought but are only the byproduct of atomic reactions how can we trust our own thinking? C. S. Lewis said, "...[How] can I trust my own thinking to be true? But if I can't trust my own thinking, of course, I can't trust the arguments leading to atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I can't believe in thought; so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God."
Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" Jesus came to bear witness of it and he who is of the truth hears His voice. "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life" (1 John 5:20, NASB). Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life..." (John 14:6). Soli Deo Gloria!
How do you know anything for certain? The Eastern faiths and worldviews see all reality as Maya or illusion, i.e., reality cannot be perceived, and science and the scientific method never could have been developed under such a self-defeating system of knowledge, because we need an ordered, a consistent, and knowable universe that can be studied and made sense of. Descartes reasoned that he could know he existed: "I think, therefore I am." Augustine had said, "If I err, I am." Actually, if you think there must be a thinker to make though, so you can't use thought to disprove your existence. We need valid reasoning to prove our reasoning is valid: Jesus is the Logos or reason and logic behind everything.
Only God is capable of giving sound reason, for man's knowledge, by definition, is fallible and error-prone. Even science changes its truth claims--it's a moving train of knowledge (the world is no longer flat!): In 1861 the French Academy of Science listed fifty-one so-called scientific facts that controverted the Bible! Today none of these "facts" are believed. It is a principle of science and philosophy that to arrive at the truth you must admit you could be wrong--science today is biased!
It is self-defeating to say you cannot know anything (how can one ascertain that?) because then you are rejecting knowledge and knowledge begins with knowing God according to Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise instruction and learning." You don't know diddly squat without starting with God and Him as the reference point, without making yourself judge, jury, and ultimately God Himself. If you say: "I know I know nothing for certain," you have contradicted yourself, and this statement has no truth claim whatsoever. How can you know for certain that you can know nothing for certain?
The unbeliever ultimately has to admit that he could be wrong, and his worldview comes tumbling down. It is said that we can only know something from sources: Reasoning ability and revelation from God. Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV) says that God has revealed the truth to us in the Bible and He still has secrets we cannot know: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."
How does one account for knowledge and truth without God? We don't try to reason to God but from God as the starting point, not finishing point. Don't insult God by putting Him on trial by catering to the person's demand for evidence--we don't have to prove our God because God has made Himself known and this is evident--they are all without excuse. Just how can you make sense of anything without God? Children's inquiries cannot be satisfied without bringing Him up, and you practically have to indoctrinate or brainwash them not to believe. You cannot prove A without it being true, known, and logical. These three (truth, knowledge, and logic) assume and only make sense with God! "...[A]s the truth is in Jesus" (cf. Eph. 4:20).
Everything we know is based on presupposition and faith because to know anything you must know everything. Both the believer and the unbeliever have faith and is it evident unbelief takes more faith, due to the evidence. God is not going to force one to believe, He desires faith to please Him. To know A you must know B, and to know B you must know C, and so forth ad infinitum. All our knowledge is contingent then. This is called infinite regress and only God knows where it ends because He is omniscient. The only way we can know anything is if it is revealed to us, and this is the Christian worldview--Jesus is the incarnation and personification or embodiment of truth and came to bear witness of the truth, as he answered Pilate who asked, "What is truth?" People interpret their reality and information according to their worldview and presuppositions.
It is no use giving evidence to a person that doesn't want to believe because this makes him the judge of God. One gives evidence to a jury in a courtroom. How can one make truth claims when denying the source of truth (Jesus, cf. Eph. 4:20). "I don't know anything!" I can say: "How do you know this? Are you certain?" "Yes, I am certain I cannot be certain!" This kind of nonsense is what atheism leads to. Don't assume the unbeliever knows anything because without God he can't. But he does know something, and this is proof he knows or knew God. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Fools are those who deny God and know better.
All of creation speaks of God: They believe a lottery winner winning too often is the result of it being rigged, but the sunset isn't rigged. The whole creation is rigged and couldn't exist without God. "In Him, we live and move and have our being." They suppress the truth in unrighteousness, but how can they do this if they don't know the truth? If you look in the mirror you are seeing a miracle! Life is no fluke, it is rigged and couldn't have happened without God's intervention and creation.
Who is to say God can't use circular reasoning, because He is self-attesting or self-authenticating, and to appeal to some other authority would be to lose His ultimate authority. You might say: "I use my reason to believe reasoning is the best way to arrive at knowledge because it sounds reasonable--that is circular. But God is the Author of logic and we cannot "out-logic" or out-reason Him. God, not Aristotle formulated the rules of logic.
People beg the question when they claim they know something apart from God: I know I exist because of my own consciousness! The fact remains, we can know something for certain: All that God has revealed to us according to Deut. 29:29 "...[That] which is revealed belongs to us...." People use science to disprove Christianity when science depends on the Christian worldview. When people reject God, they are making themselves God and setting up an outside moral authority above the Bible in their own reasoning. If there was no intelligence behind the cosmos and consequently our brains were not designed for thought but are only the byproduct of atomic reactions how can we trust our own thinking? C. S. Lewis said, "...[How] can I trust my own thinking to be true? But if I can't trust my own thinking, of course, I can't trust the arguments leading to atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I can't believe in thought; so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God."
Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" Jesus came to bear witness of it and he who is of the truth hears His voice. "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life" (1 John 5:20, NASB). Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life..." (John 14:6). Soli Deo Gloria!
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