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
"If God condemned people to Hell because of free will, yet He wanted to save them, would that mean He isn't capable of saving them?"
If "free will" means that the activities of the human will are not in any way caused by the God who created the humans, then humans do not have free will. The idea of a God who causes people to exist, which people then in turn cause events to occur, and said events are not in any way caused by the aforementioned God, is completely incoherent. I cannot answer the question, because as I understand it, it is meaningless.
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"How can someone who is changeless do anything at all?"
The Bible states that God spoke and created light on the first day of creation (Genesis 1:3). On subsequent days He created other elements of the universe, and on the seventh day He rested (Genesis 2:2). The Bible also tells us that God does not change (Malachi 3:6; Psalm 102:27; Isaiah 46:4). To many, this seems to be contradictory. It isn't.
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"What kind of god would give people cancer, aids, epilepsy, emphysema, diarrhea, or any of the other medical problems people get? Why worship a god that isn't good, even if he does exist?"
Interestingly enough, in presupposing that there is such a thing as "good", we must acknowledge that there is some kind of "rule of behavior" that transcends individual humans. However, if there is no good God, then such a transcendent rule of behavior cannot exist. In other words, the only reason we can identify things as being good is because there is a good God who is the very measure of goodness.
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