How do we know, what we know?
In this post we will be looking at the subject of Epistemology. This is the subject of how we justify our beliefs and how we know that we know something. It is a subject that not many people every think about but is in fact very important.
If I was to ask, "What is your reference point for truth", how would you answer? Or if I asked what is the standard you judge your thoughts and beliefs against, what would you say?
For most people today this standard is their own mind, what man says, "IS". All is relative.
We will be looking at how man can attain true knowledge without God! The whole history of thought has struggled to find a way on how the mind can gain knowledge of the impersonal world. There has been three main views on how we can gain knowledge, these include Rationalism, Empiricism, and Subjectivism.
Rationalism believes that our laws of thought, logic and theory’s bring us true knowledge of the world.
Empiricism believes that the facts are outside our minds and come to us through the senses.
Subjectivism believes that knowledge is personal and experienced and is judged by ones own feelings.
In an impersonal world all these views have major problems in justifying what true knowledge is. Most of them are looking for facts in the world, or should I say looking for knowledge. But what are facts and what is knowledge? A fact is an interpretation of something. Interpretation is a mind of meaning given to something. For all these views, how is one to find facts in the world when it is impersonal with know interpretation behind it. They just claim that brute facts just live in the world for us to find, this is false as we never encounter brute facts, that are, uninterpreted facts.
Why should we expect our rational thinking minds of logic and reason to correspond to an impersonal world. All we are doing is labeling objects with concepts and theories. Mater in itself has told us nothing. The reasoning mind is not in fact passive, but plays an active role in forming its ideas, imposing conditions and concepts upon matter. This is where we get the rational irrational tension. All one is doing is reasoning upon his reasoning. The non-rational can not be the source of intellectual knowledge. As for the Empiricist, he waits for the facts to come to his mind as he looks out, but there are none. The subjectivist just claims knowledge for himself. These views make man the sole judge of truth and all become subjectivists. To claim one has true knowledge one must have a reference point to judge his thoughts and beliefs against.
On a non-Christian basis facts are rationalized for the first time when interpreted by man. Man becomes all-knowing and the sole subjective source for knowledge. But there is no reason why it should correspond to reality. True knowledge without God is impossible.
The difference between a Christian and an Atheist is that for a Christian, God is the final standard for truth and he has interpreted all reality, and for the Atheist man becomes the final authority for truth.
For they’re to be facts, there must be a rational mind behind the universe. Man interprets Gods revelation in a finite form. Minds corresponds to the rational ordered universe. Human thinking must be subject to a norm of thought. Truth is when a thought or belief corresponds to God's ultimate interpretation of his creation. If man was all-knowing, then he would not need God, but he is not!
The great Apologist Greg Bahnsen says,
For the Christian, all the facts are part of Gods personal plan and serve his personal purpose; all of the laws by which we relate the facts (whether conceptually, logically, or causally) are a reflection of God’s personal mind and his ordering of reality. Man’s mind was created to imitate God’s thinking with respect to these personally qualified facts and personally qualified laws. God’s personal influence over all the objects of knowledge as well as the mind of man, and his purpose to have man understand and control the facts of his environment, provide for the possibility of the mind accurately apprehending the extramental world. Every thing and every event must be ultimately related to God, who controls the relations between things and between events in order to be part of a coherent and intelligible system.
If I was to ask, "What is your reference point for truth", how would you answer? Or if I asked what is the standard you judge your thoughts and beliefs against, what would you say?
For most people today this standard is their own mind, what man says, "IS". All is relative.
We will be looking at how man can attain true knowledge without God! The whole history of thought has struggled to find a way on how the mind can gain knowledge of the impersonal world. There has been three main views on how we can gain knowledge, these include Rationalism, Empiricism, and Subjectivism.
Rationalism believes that our laws of thought, logic and theory’s bring us true knowledge of the world.
Empiricism believes that the facts are outside our minds and come to us through the senses.
Subjectivism believes that knowledge is personal and experienced and is judged by ones own feelings.
In an impersonal world all these views have major problems in justifying what true knowledge is. Most of them are looking for facts in the world, or should I say looking for knowledge. But what are facts and what is knowledge? A fact is an interpretation of something. Interpretation is a mind of meaning given to something. For all these views, how is one to find facts in the world when it is impersonal with know interpretation behind it. They just claim that brute facts just live in the world for us to find, this is false as we never encounter brute facts, that are, uninterpreted facts.
Why should we expect our rational thinking minds of logic and reason to correspond to an impersonal world. All we are doing is labeling objects with concepts and theories. Mater in itself has told us nothing. The reasoning mind is not in fact passive, but plays an active role in forming its ideas, imposing conditions and concepts upon matter. This is where we get the rational irrational tension. All one is doing is reasoning upon his reasoning. The non-rational can not be the source of intellectual knowledge. As for the Empiricist, he waits for the facts to come to his mind as he looks out, but there are none. The subjectivist just claims knowledge for himself. These views make man the sole judge of truth and all become subjectivists. To claim one has true knowledge one must have a reference point to judge his thoughts and beliefs against.
On a non-Christian basis facts are rationalized for the first time when interpreted by man. Man becomes all-knowing and the sole subjective source for knowledge. But there is no reason why it should correspond to reality. True knowledge without God is impossible.
The difference between a Christian and an Atheist is that for a Christian, God is the final standard for truth and he has interpreted all reality, and for the Atheist man becomes the final authority for truth.
For they’re to be facts, there must be a rational mind behind the universe. Man interprets Gods revelation in a finite form. Minds corresponds to the rational ordered universe. Human thinking must be subject to a norm of thought. Truth is when a thought or belief corresponds to God's ultimate interpretation of his creation. If man was all-knowing, then he would not need God, but he is not!
The great Apologist Greg Bahnsen says,
For the Christian, all the facts are part of Gods personal plan and serve his personal purpose; all of the laws by which we relate the facts (whether conceptually, logically, or causally) are a reflection of God’s personal mind and his ordering of reality. Man’s mind was created to imitate God’s thinking with respect to these personally qualified facts and personally qualified laws. God’s personal influence over all the objects of knowledge as well as the mind of man, and his purpose to have man understand and control the facts of his environment, provide for the possibility of the mind accurately apprehending the extramental world. Every thing and every event must be ultimately related to God, who controls the relations between things and between events in order to be part of a coherent and intelligible system.
posted by Rich7 at 10:22 PM
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