Presuppositionalism
Overview
Presuppositionalism is a school of Christian apologetics which holds that the Christian God must be presupposed as the foundation of all reasoning, and that arguments for God from evidence are therefore both unnecessary and improper, since the evidence can only be assessed by a mind that already depends on God. Rather than argue for God, the presuppositionalist argues that the opponent cannot account for logic, knowledge, or morality without him, and treats any failure to do so as a win.
The school was founded by Cornelius Van Til and developed by Greg Bahnsen. Its online practitioners include Sye Ten Bruggencate, Eric Hovind, and Darth Dawkins, whose standard opening is "how do you know anything without God?"
Notes
- The argument it rests on is the Transcendental Argument, which I address there. In short: it is circular by its own admission, its central premise (that only the Christian God can ground logic) is never argued for, and the demand that one "account for" logic by deriving it from something more fundamental cannot be met by anyone, including the presuppositionalist, because there is nothing more fundamental than logic to derive it from (Münchhausen trilemma).
- The method is, in practice, a refusal to argue. The presuppositionalist will not accept any burden of proof for their own claim and instead demands that the interlocutor prove the possibility of knowledge from scratch. The correct response is to decline the game.
- I note the irony that my own presuppositions are stated openly, as rationally motivated assumptions, while the presuppositionalist's are smuggled in as the conclusion.