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
"What's an easy way to demonstrate that polytheism is false?"
If two equally sovereign creator gods disagree on any point, noncontradiction is no longer a valid test of truth. Without noncontradiction, there can be no test of truth at all, and rational thought goes out the window. But the problem is worse than that. Since the gods are equally sovereign, neither is in control of the other one. This means that neither one can guarantee the behavior of the other one.
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"If God doesn't change over time, can He know tensed facts? If not, how is He omniscient?"
A tensed fact is a fact that is true in relation to present experience, but has no universal or permanent truth value. "Yesterday was July 26th", "today is Wednesday", or "I got a new job last month" are all tensed facts. Some people believe that God must know tensed facts to be omniscient. William Lane Craig formulates a hypothetical argument that God is not timeless as follows: 1. A temporal world exists. 2. God is omniscient. 3.
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"If God created everything and decided how it would be, wouldn't our sins be his fault?"
The word "fault" means a defect or an imperfection. God has no defects or imperfections, and it is nonsensical to suggest that the contrary could be true, for if God had defects or imperfections, they would not be recognized as defects or imperfections by anyone, including Him, and thus to call them defects or imperfections would be utterly meaningless. Further, if God were anything other than perfect-in-every-way, nothing could be trusted at all since He is the source of everything.
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