WHY RATIONALISM IS IRRATIONAL
Some thoughts by
Gary Ray Branscome
“Beware lest any man take you captive through
hollow
and deceptive philosophy. // The heart is deceitful above all things,
and
desperately wicked.” (Colossians 2:8, Jeremiah 17:9)
Rationalism,
the arrogant attempt by foolish men to make their own mind the highest
authority, to set themselves in judgment over the Word of God as if
they know
more than Him, is the blight and curse of our present age and a cheap
form of
egotistic self-deification.
If the fuzzy-headed thinkers who
proudly claim to be making “Reason” their highest authority, would only
use
their reason for one minute they would realize how ignorant they really
are,
and how little they actually know. If they would use their reason, they
would
realize that “Reason” cannot be a source of knowledge because no one
reasons in
a vacuum. The function of reason is to tell us which conclusions are
warranted
by the information we have, and which are not. For that reason,
everyone who
claims to be guided by reason is actually reasoning from information
that they
assume to be true. And, that means that they are actually reasoning
from their own
worldview, a worldview that was developed piecemeal during their
formative
years.
Because that is the case, if the
people who proudly call themselves “Rationalists” would actually use
their
reason, they would find that most of their opinions would not be
allowed as
evidence in a court of law. They would not be allowed as evidence
because those
opinions do not consist of actual fact or firsthand knowledge, but of
conclusions based upon hearsay and conjecture. And such conclusions are
notoriously unreliable.
Reason tells us that our worldview
consists largely of ideas and conclusions that were accepted
uncritically in
our youth, ideas and conclusions that are constantly changing because
they are
often wrong, often based on incomplete or inaccurate information and
often
contradictory. A view of reality that is not based on fact, or even
first hand
information, but on impressions, feelings and what we have been told by
others.
Because reason tells us that heavy
objects should fall faster than light objects that was the view taken
by
Aristotle. But Aristotle was wrong! He was wrong because he assumed
that the
weight of an object was something inherent in the object, rather than
the pull
of an outside force upon that object.
Two hundred years ago, doctors thought
that bleeding a person was a good cure for certain diseases. George
Washington
died because a doctor thought that cure was reasonable.
As late as one hundred years ago,
scientists denied the existence of meteors, because “reason” told them
that
rocks could not possibly fall from the sky because there were no rocks
in the
sky.
Charles Darwin believed that life
originated in a warm little pond. To him that seemed perfectly
reasonable. But,
it was wrong! In 1859 Louis Pasteur devised an experiment that utilized
several
long-necked flasks containing beef broth. After the broth was boiled
the necks
on some of the flasks were heated and bent in an s-curve. As predicted,
bacteria only infested the broth that was in flasks with straight
necks. When
the flasks had curved necks, the bacteria stuck to the side of the neck
and
could not get to the broth. Those experiments, coupled with the
invention of a
dust-free box at the end of the nineteenth-century, convinced the
scientific
community that life does not come from non-life.
Have rationalists learned anything
from those experiments? Evidently not! I often see articles in
“Astronomy”
magazine which hold out hope that liquid water might be found on Mars,
Europa,
or one of the planets that circle other stars. And why water? Because
they
still cling to the irrational hope that where there is a “warm little
pond”
there will be life.
If you are one of those who think that
life will spontaneously generate in a “warm little pond,” let me bring
you back
to reality. Just as the non-living matter in sterile beef broth will
not come
to life, the non-living matter in sterile water will not come to life.
In fact,
water breaks down bio-molecules. Those who blind themselves to these facts
may
call themselves “Rationalists”, but in reality they are irrational
(Luke
GOING FROM BAD TO WORSE
Those who make “Reason” the highest
authority in their life often wind up rejecting the Doctrine of the
Trinity”.
How, they argue, could three possibly be one? However, what they fail
to
realize is that their question assumes that God has the same
limitations we
have. And that is silly! Our reason tells us that there is design in
nature.
Even rationalists like Richard Dawkins recognize that fact [See “The
Blind
Watchmaker” first page.]. And, our reason also tells us that for every
design
there must also be a designer. However, it is not reasonable to believe
that
God is a part of His own creation. It is far more reasonable to believe
that
God exists outside of the universe (In a different dimension, a
spiritual
dimension). And, when the Bible says, “In the beginning God created the
heaven,” that is exactly what it is saying. In other words, in the
beginning of
time, God created time and space (the heaven). And, if God created time
and
space, then His existence transcends time and space. For that reason,
it is not
only perfectly reasonable to believe that He is not bound by the same
limitations that bind those of us that exist inside time and space, it
would be
unreasonable to believe otherwise. Rationalists fail to see this
because they
reason from their own fallible worldview, not reality. And, that is why
blind,
fallible humanity needs guidance from God’s Word.
Nevertheless, only those who are
willing to admit their own ignorance and limitations will be open to
what the
Bible says. Those who have an exalted view of their own reason may
instead claim
that the Bible is full of contradictions. However, that, again, is the
result
of reasoning from one’s own worldview, not reality. The claim of
contradictions
seems reasonable to them because part of education has to do with
eliminating
contradictions from our worldview. But, they fail to see that just
because
something seems contradictory to our puny finite minds does not mean
that it
actually is a contradiction. For example: The fact that we need iodine
in our
diet seems to contradict the fact that it is poison. The fact that cold
water
sinks to the bottom seems to contradict the fact that ice forms on the
top. The
fact that like charges repel seems to contradict the fact that
positively
charged particles bind together in the nucleus of an atom. Those facts
all seem
contradictory. But they only seem that way if we do not have the
information
necessary to resolve the seeming contradiction.
In other words, we see a contradiction
because of our ignorance not because an actual contradiction exists. We
see a contradiction
because we do not know how the particular facts fit together. For that
reason,
just as it would be foolish for you to insist that two facts contradict
each
other just because you do not know how they can be reconciled; it would
be equally
foolish to insist that two statements of Scripture contradict each
other just because
you do not know how they can be reconciled. And, believe me, I have
studied all
of the alleged contradictions in Scripture, and they can all be
reconciled.
There is not one case where an actual contradiction exists! Instead,
the people
who claim to be guided by reason simply interpret passages to
contradict when
they could just as well interpret them to agree, and that is irrational.
Another claim made by “Rationalists” is that
miracles
are impossible because they are contrary to the “Laws of Nature”.
However, if “Rationalists”
would actually use their reason, they would realize that the Bible
nowhere even
implies that miracles are natural events. On the contrary, the miracles
described in Scripture are always the work of an intelligent being,
namely God.
And, intelligent beings can easily cause matter to do what the “Laws of
Nature”
would never allow it to do. If you want an example, then the next time
that you
sit down at the table with a plate of food before you, instead of
picking up
your fork just wait for the “Laws of Nature” to cause bite size
portions of
food to rise up from the plate and enter your mouth. Don’t be
impatient, wait
for it to happen. If you are convinced that the “Laws of Nature” will
never
cause bite size portions of food to rise from the plate on their own,
then
every time you take a spoonful you are overriding the “Laws of Nature”,
and if
you can do it God can do it. In fact, it would be irrational to think
otherwise!
CONCLUSION
What “Rationalists” generally fail to
see is that any conclusion can seem reasonable to the fallible human
mind, if
the person doing the reasoning accepts premises that lead to that
conclusion.
That is why any idea that can be “proved” by reason, can be disproved
by
reason. Our reasoning is no better than our premises, and our premises
are
often wrong.
Therefore, rather than arrogantly regarding
our own “reason” as the standard of all knowledge, we ought to honestly
admit
our ignorance and approach what the Bible says with an open mind (Luke
24:25). Sadly,
however, it seems that “Rationalists” would rather believe that truth
itself is
subjective than admit that their own opinions are wrong. That sort of
irrationality is what led one professor, whom I read of, to hold up a
pencil
and tell his class that if they really believed the pencil was a cow,
then for
them it would actually be a cow. Nevertheless, as one bright student
put it,
“Even if you all believe that it is a cow, it still will not give milk”.