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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"Assuming I accept your arguments that there is a God, it is still a huge leap for me to therefore cut off my son's foreskin, avoid clothes of mixed fibers, and give 10% of my earnings to Pat Robertson."
Christianity does not advocate cutting off your son's foreskin, avoiding clothes of mixed fibers, or giving 10% of your earnings to Pat Robertson. So it seems as though there is nothing in your way to becoming a Christian! Since you haven't actually asked a question, I'm going to have to do a little guesswork to try to figure out how to properly address this comment. PAT ROBERTSON I'll start with the easiest one first -- the Bible never even mentions Pat Robertson.
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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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