Rationalism
Definition
Rationalism describes any philosophy that claims that beliefs and opinions should always be logical, deductive conclusions rather than being based on experience, observations, religious teachings, or divine revelation.
Keywords: Rationalism, Philosophy, Logical, Reasoning, Deductive, Experience, Observations, Religious, Revelation, Contradictory.
Veracity
Rationalistic claims are false .
Proof
All self-refuting or contradictory claims are deductively false.
Premise 1: Only deductive conclusions should be believed.
Premise 2: Premise 1, being the foundation or starting point of the philosophy, is not itself a deductive conclusion.
Conclusion: Therefore, premise 1, also known as "rationalism", should not be believed.
Rationalistic claims, when adhered to, require the rejection of rationalistic claims. To accept them is to reject them, making rationalism inherently contradictory and deductively false.
Gilbert Guttlebocker, Defender of Dragons
Riveting, yet absurd; romantic, yet innocent; Gilbert Guttlebocker, Defender of Dragons is a little Roald Dahl, a little Harry Potter, and a little Chronicles of Narnia, all rolled into one. Timothy McCabe collaborates with the great Benedict Ballyhoot to bring you the novel of the century!
In Printed Form
Along with numerous other authors including Don Landis, Bodie Hodge and Roger Patterson, Timothy McCabe contributes analyses of various world religions and cults in this volume from Master Books.
Other Writings
"Has God always existed and always will? If so, how did God design the universe if nothing existed to guide him and nothing existed for him to think about."
I don't think I completely understand your question. The question itself seems to presuppose some things that are not accurate, and so I'm not really sure how to answer it. If your basic question is "how did God design the universe?" then I can honestly tell you that I have no idea -- God didn't specifically tell us how He did it and I have never designed a universe myself, so I wouldn't know the first thing about it.
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"Why?"
God. (John 1:3; Acts 17:24-25; Colossians 1:16-18; Genesis 1:1; Malachi 3:18; Revelation 21:6, 22:13; Psalm 135:6; Isaiah 48:11) Since God knows that He alone is the reason, and since He is perfectly rational (indeed, He is the original rationality and the foundation and source of all derived rationality), when He conceives of His reason (which is always), His conception is the very image of Himself. This conception of Himself is the divine, eternal, personal reason for all things.
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"Why can't the universe have come from nothing? Why do you insist there had to be a God?"
Atheism is forced to claim that either (1) time and the universe have been around for an infinite duration, or that (2) they sprang from nothing. Atheism is forced to claim one of these options because the only other option is that something created time and the universe. If atheists believed that, they would no longer be atheists. However, both atheistic contentions are logically impossible.
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