Answering An Objection To Presuppositionalism Raised By A Natural Law Fanboy

 “It’s (presuppositionalism) epistemological brain rot. They (Presuppositionalists) assume a coherence theory of knowledge, which redefines and subjectivizes knowledge, grounding it in your own “worldview” consistency rather than the objective world.

I once asked a staunch presup guy if an unregenerate person can understand the number 4. The response I got: “The unbeliever can’t A C C O U N T for the number four or understand why it is meaningful”. And it does quickly turn into arrogance on the popular level, spraying genetic fallacies in every direction.”

Natural Law Fanboy

1.) Inasmuch as one’s worldview is consistent with and reflective of the objective world I don’t see how this is a problem. Is it the case that our Natural Law Fanboy (NLF) believes that an objective world can be arrived at by beginning with the subjective categories of the fallen self as the epistemological legislating authority?

2.) It is only the Christian presuppositionalist who can have an objective world since the Christian presuppositionalist presupposes that an objective God has created an objective world and made it knowable by an objective revelatory word. The objectiveness of the world can only be obtained as in a presuppositionalist world and life view since only the presuppositionalist is beginning the reasoning process by presupposing an objective God who created an objective world that can be known by objective revelation.

3.) If our unregenerate person in question is a materialist he certainly can’t understand the number 4 since the number 4 is not a material reality. Now, he may well use fourness in any number of ways but his avowed worldview of materialism means that he indeed can’t account for the number 4 that he uses with regularity. If our unregenerate person in question is a spiritualist (believing that all reality is spiritual) then the number 4 is a spiritual reality but then so are the numbers 5 – 9 and every other number and as all is spiritual then any distinctions between any of the numbers is completely arbitrary on the part of our New Age friend.

So, “no,” the unregenerate person cannot “understand the number 4,” though we are glad to concede that the unregenerate person seldom acts consistently with his unregenerate Natural Law world and life view. Because the unbeliever acts inconsistently with his self-avowed world and life view you can find him everywhere fouring and fiving all over the place.

Of course it is Greg Bahnsen himself who said that the unregenerate can indeed count but he cannot account for his ability to count. Bahnsen was correct and I should think that folks dealing with Bahnsen seldom got away with accusing Bahnsen of “spraying genetic fallacies in every direction.”

Of course it is the view of the presuppositionalist that it is the Natural Law types who are the arrogant ones. Here we find folks who are championing the idea that starting from their subjective selves and their fallen minds they can arrive at the objective. But fallen man is like a zero in a multiplication problem. No matter how many other numbers one puts in the equation that 0 is going to make the answer 0.

The fact that fallen man gets right whatever it is he gets right is not explained by fallen man’s native epistemological ability. No, fallen man gets right what he gets right because he surreptitiously borrows from the Christian world and life view in order to get his Christ denying world and life view off the ground and operating.

It reminds us of the old joke Van Til used to enjoy telling.

One day a bunch of scientists came to God and said; “God, we have decided we don’t need you anymore. We have arrived to the point where we can create life and we are now quite done with any need of your services.”

God looked upon them amusingly and said … “Very well then, let us have a contest. You create life and then I’ll create life.”

This was amenable to the Natural Law scientists and so they agreed.

At that point they grabbed some dirt in order to create life whereupon God objected saying… “Oh no you don’t. That is my dirt. You get your own dirt.”

Natural Law fallen man may indeed get things “right” but they only do so by using borrowed capital from a Christian world and life view.

Whose brain is rotting now I wonder?

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

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