Ever since becoming an Atheist I debated a lot of Christians on the existence of God and while not all of them were Presuppositionalists I was frequently accused of hating God and my Atheism being a result of my love for my sin. It seems to be the case that a lot of Christians think that everyone knows that a god exists and that Atheists are purposefully denying the Christian God specifically.
I can only say that this is not the case. However I do want to look at certain passages that Presupps provide in order to “show” that everyone knows God. I can inform everyone reading this, that if the Bible endorses Presuppositionalism then the Bible is wrong and the God of the Bible most certainly does not exist. My argument for this would be the following:
-P1: Either the God of the Bible exists or he does not exist
-P2: The Bible, proclaimed to be God’s word says that everyone knows that God exists
-P3: There are existing Humans who do not know that God exists (e.g. me)
C: The God of the Bible does not exist
The argument above is a strong deductive argument known as Modus Tollendo Ponens which means that if we have two options both of which can’t be true at the same time but one of them must be true and one of those two options is negated then the other one must be true by necessity.
There are two premises under dispute namely 2 and 3. If you are a Presuppositionalist then you can reject 3 and be done with the argument. If you’re not then you’ll have to reject 2.
Since this article is addressed to non-Presuppositionalists I’ll have a look at certain passages Presupps provide in order to support their conclusion that everyone knows God and whether their position has merit.
By doing this one of two things will happen: Either I conclude that the Bible does not support the Presuppositional stance in which case I know that their position is not biblically sound and I shall use this article in order to demonstrate this to them or I will conclude that their position is sound in which case premise 2 is supported and I know that the God of the Bible does not exist.
For this purpose I want to take a look at the Passage Presupps quite frequently pull out: Romans 1: 18-20.
Let’s look at Romans first. It is a letter from the Apostle Paul to Roman Saints.
At first Paul explains some tenets of his belief in Christianity and discusses his views on Jesus namely that Jesus was God’s son. After his introduction then he wants to teach the gospel to the people he writes to in this case the Romans. Then he starts preaching and this is where we approach the relevant part:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1: 18-20)
Similarly to my last post I once again want to examine a few relevant words in the orginal language in this case Greek. The words in question are “revealed” “known” “manifest” and “understood” .
the first word in question is “revealed” ἀποκαλύπτεται ( apokaluptó ) and it means to bring to light or to uncover or to reveal.
The second word in question in is “known” or “to know” . the word used in this passage is γινώσκω ( ginóskó) and as you may have guessed it does translate to knowing something or to realize something.
Up next is the word “manifest” in greek φανερός ( phaneros ) and once again we have definition which would seem to support Presuppositionalism as it means apparent or clear or evident or even well known.
Last but not least let’s look what we can find for the word “understood” . the word in question is νοέω ( noeó ). It has a few definitions such as “to perceive” or “to think” but one usage is also “to understand” which seems to make the most sense.
I think with what we read in Romans we have an open and shut case that the Bible indeed does support the notion that everyone knows that God exists. The implications of this are significant for Christianity:
When the Bible claims that the Bible is wrong and I can know that for certain and so can every nonbeliever in the world.
Goodbye from yours truly,
Rene von Boenninghausen @Renevelation
Tarsier Renevelations 