Christian Epistemology and the Argument from Argument

• John Vandivier

This article will briefly discuss why Christians have a justified epistomology, atheists/agnostics/etc do not (although other theists may) and the argument from argument.

Christians Have a Justified Epistomology

  • Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (John 1:1)
  • For anyone who has been baptized into the spirit (of Christ, the Holy Spirit), it is not that person who lives any longer, but Christ who lives in that person (Galatians 2:2).
  • Therefore truth is alive and exists inside the Christian. If Christians have truth (not necessarily all truth, but some amount of truth), then it becomes possible (although not always the case, Christians can be wrong too) for them to have knowledge, under the usual definition of justified and true belief.
The Argument from Argument

To argue rationally, one must presuppose that truth exists. Some characteristics of truth include the fact that it is composed of meaningful information, it is immaterial, and it is absolute. At least some truths are timeless as well. It follows that the source of truth must have these characteristics:

  1. Immaterial
  2. Absolute
  3. Capable of producing meaningful information
  4. Timeless
Sounds kind of like God to me!

In some sense this proof is more a statement than an argument, but it plays into an argument in this way:

  1. I claim God exists
  2. You can confirm or deny
  3. If you deny, you are arguing
  4. Given the argument from argument, either God exists or you are irrational/incorrect/etc
I did not come up with this argument. Visit proofthatgodexists.org to learn more about this proof which I heard about from Sye Ten Bruggencate although he claims it is much older, even found in the Bible itself, and he just rehashed it essentially.

You can also watch this rather long debate video to observe the proof in action: