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Atheism and free will (view source)
Revision as of 19:07, September 18, 2016
, 19:07, September 18, 2016no edit summary
*[http://str.typepad.com/weblog/2008/08/naturalisms-hot.html Naturalism's Hot Water]
*[http://str.typepad.com/weblog/2008/08/naturalisms-hot.html Naturalism's Hot Water]
</ref> See also: [[Intelligent design]] and [[Evolution]]
</ref> See also: [[Intelligent design]] and [[Evolution]]
How then can we have free will or attach any validity or importance to our reasoning processes? If we are bound to think or behave the way we do because of our internal biochemistry, how can we be free agents or know that we are in possession of objective truths about science, ethics, or politics? If our perception and use of the rules of logic are merely the inevitable end product of a long chain of random and purposeless physical and chemical events, how can we know that our examination of facts and arguments yields real knowledge? Surely, if atheism is true, our thoughts and values have no more significance than the sound of waves on a seashore, as [[C.S. Lewis]] argued at length and so convincingly in his famous book, ''Miracles''...
The truth, then, is that we can think and reason correctly, since the argument that we can’t, in itself involves an act of reasoning and is therefore self-contradictory. We cannot ‘know’ that we know nothing! Our belief that we have free will is similarly valid, not only because we are aware of our capacity to choose between alternatives and change our minds, but because the denial of free will also involves the use of a self-contradictory argument. If all our reasoning is solely ‘determined’ by our physical constitution and is therefore not ‘free’, so too is the belief that we have no free will, so how can we know that it is true? It is, again, an argument that refutes itself.
But if logical reasoning shows us that atheistic materialism cuts its own throat over the problem of knowledge and free will, how can we explain our ability to think, know, and choose? Surely the best answer is that we are spiritual as well as material beings, and as such, we are the creation of an eternal, self-existent Intelligence outside ourselves and the physical universe, from whom we derive our inner freedom and rationality. Our minds can discover truth because they are illuminated by the Divine Reason. Our spirits are similarly free because free will is a gift of the Omnipotent Creator. In short, we are, as the Bible tells us, made in the image of God.<ref>[http://www.bethinking.org/atheism/420-can-we-be-free-without-god Can We Be Free Without God?] by Philip Vander Elst</ref>}}
The [[CARM|Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry]] declares:
The [[CARM|Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry]] declares: