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Logic and the Bible 2: Unbliblical Worldviews

In "Logic and the Bible", we saw that the three main laws of logic are impossible without God. That does not mean a requirement to believe in God's existence, or to be a believer in Jesus Christ is necessary for logic to work. However, it works because God exists, whether someone believes or not. Now we can saddle up for another part of our journey.


people will try to generate excuses to get around the necessity of God for logic to exist
Credit: Freeimages / Drew Pendleton
It seems like we should be able to file this under "Completed", but some folks will not be satisfied with what Dr. Lisle said before. Just as we see Darwin's disciples use rescuing devices even after deep time and evolution are shown to be insufficient, people try to get around the necessity of God for logic to exist.

We cannot assume laws of logic exist because of our experiences, because we may have faulty memories, be deluded, and the irrational assumption that logic will be the same in the future. There is also the claim that logic is a convention; that is, the laws exist because we agree on them. That doesn't work, because other people may come up with their own logic systems and expect them to be true, but that cannot happen. Someone else may say that laws of logic are simply the way the universe is, and there is no need for God the Creator. Since the universe keeps changing, there is no reason to expect the laws of logic to remain constant. 
We saw previously that the Bible can make sense of laws of logic and their properties, and that the three laws of thought are rooted in the nature of God.  However, non-biblical worldviews cannot make sense of laws of logic or their properties.  As one example, consider materialism: the belief that all things that exist are physical and extended in space.  It is quite obvious that materialism cannot make sense of abstract laws because abstract things are non-material, and the materialist does not allow for the existence of the non-material.  But really, any worldview that denies the Bible cannot make sense of the existence and properties of laws of logic.  Why should there be abstract laws that govern all correct reasoning?  Who decides what these laws are?  Why would such laws be universal, and invariant?  Even if a person were to presume that laws of logic existed and had all these properties, how could that person possibly know that laws of logic are such?  What are some possible ways in which the non-Christian might attempt to account for laws of logic?

My remarks are just an overview, but you can read Dr. Jason Lisle's more detailed explanations about those points and more. I'd be much obliged if you'd read the rest by clicking on "The Failure of Unbiblical Worldviews to Justify Laws of Logic".