Perhaps nothing is more provocative of philosophical reflection than looking up at night. This upward gaze issues in all sorts of experiences, but one I think is constant:
the sensation of radical finitude. We feel very small, very “located” in something vast. Beyond this felt smallness, thoughts and experiences are diverse.
The diversity of thought and experience that is of particular interest to me has to do with, for lack of a more fashionable term, worldview. An atheist looks up and feels even more certain that, since we are but a particle of dust in a vast cosmos, surely we are insignificant, and surely we are not image bearers of some super being like the God of the Bible. A Christian, like me, looks up and sees “the Heavens!” and is nearly dumbstruck by the hugeness of God’s Creation. But, more than that, a Christian like me is well nigh bowled over by the impression that knowledge is a rare and precious gift to us and that we would not have that gift if there were not a God who cared for us deeply. (This impression is not unique to me but can be found in various forms in the work of René Descartes, Friedrich Nietzsche, C.S. Lewis, and—most recently and most articulately—Alvin Plantinga.)
Both the atheist and the Christian are struck by their radical finitude, but whereas the atheist sees even more evidence of an indifferent universe, the Christian sees a Creation of bewildering and wondrous magnitude, mystery, and beauty. Such is the power of worldview.
Yet, as I see it, the Christian has the advantage in this conflict of impressions, for the Christian has a powerful argument ready to hand. Roughly it goes like this:
- If the Christian impression that knowledge and atheism are incompatible is veridical, then atheists have no good grounds on which to claim to know anything at all.
- If atheists have no good grounds on which to claim to know anything at all, then Christian theism is rationally superior to atheism.
- The Christian impression that knowledge and atheism are incompatible is veridical.
- Hence, Christian theism is rationally superior to atheism.
Or something like that. Read Plantinga for a tight argument. Then go look at the night sky. Then read Plantinga again. Then look again. Then report back to me.
Some links to Plantinga's work:
Enjoy.
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5 comments:
Do you have a link to that "tight argument" by plantinga?
Yes! Sorry I didn't include it in the post.
A rather rigorous and difficult presentation: http://philofreligion.homestead.com/files/alspaper.htm
A more popular level (but still very good) presentation: http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/julaug/11.37.html
For an audio version, find the link to "An Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism" here: http://www.hisdefense.org/OnlineLectures/tabid/136/Default.aspx
I'd recommend you read the popular level article first, then listen to the lecture. Then if you're wanting more, read the "rigorous" one.
Now there are embedded links in the blog too. Thanks for pointing out the need for them.
Amazing! First post I read and you have already stunned me. I have a new respect for anyone who is religious. I love the logic in the four points.
Thanks so much Kat. You're too kind. :) And I'm glad to have boosted your respect for the religious...or at least for the thoughtfully religious ;)
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