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.
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 really did create everything, how would anyone know?"
From a Christian perspective, we recognize that God created everything because He has told us that He did (Romans 1:19; Genesis 1; John 1:3; Colossians 1:16); indeed, apart from divine revelation, it is impossible to know anything at all. After all, since God created everything, and "everything" includes knowledge, our knowledge is ultimately created by God, and God's provision of knowledge to us is the very definition of divine revelation.
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"Can you know anything independently of what god has revealed to you?"
The short answer is no. But depending on exactly how the words in the question are defined, that could make a difference in how the question is answered. KNOWLEDGE Knowledge is generally understood to at least require justified, true belief. It may entail more than that, but it at least requires those elements. What this means is that if someone is justified in believing something, but that something is false, then it cannot correctly be said that they "know" it.
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"How can man be blamed for his inbred sin when he did not ask to be born or even exist?"
Think about your favorite fictional book, or your favorite movie. If you're anything like me, your favorite story probably has a bad guy in it. The bad guy does bad things. And if the story is any good, then at the end of it, the villain either gets thrown in prison, or he's killed by the good guys, or else he turns away from his bad behavior and becomes good.
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