What is Christian Philosophy?

thank you all for coming out my name is kelly burton and i want to state at the beginning that the views expressed in this talk are my own and don't represent any of the institutions i may be affiliated with i would also like to say that even though my talk is what is christian philosophy I really think there's such a thing as Christian philosophy just philosophy just like there's not Christian mathematics there's not Christian philosophy but there is a long rich historical tradition of Christian philosophy Christians involved in doing philosophy and that's what I was studying at the time when I was asked to come talk here so that's how I arrived at this topic for today I was reading Jill Suns but Christian philosophy and it raised a lot of questions in my mind some of which will come out in this talk today I'd like to share a little bit of my background with you so that you can see why I'm approaching the topic as I am and why this topic this is probably under cultural apologetics my talk maybe even the foundation of cultural apologetics so my background I have been a Christian for 24 years and I've been in the secular Academy for those 24 years so I came to Christ through philosophy so that's that's how I'm interested in this topic and it's kind of one of the same for me I've been part of teaching in a secular Academy for the past 16 years so I've run in the following circles maybe you've heard of some of these reformed epistemology tome ISM neo tome ISM natural law these are some of my background analytic philosophy where I've done most of my training at Arizona State University have been involved with analytic theology the great books recently post modernism that was a long time at ASU and apologetics for the past five years I've been involved locally and nationally so some of this is my background and it's part of the questions that I have so I gave you this background because a common theme that I've encountered in all of these contexts is that nobody can really know for sure have you heard this nobody can really know for sure this is skepticism and it comes with a religious version nobody can really know for sure but you just got to believe and I think we do this to preserve meaning you see what happens with skepticism and we want to preserve meaning so we just believe anyway right we'll call this feed a ism faith ISM so I think both of these are dissatisfying for a lot of us for me in particular as a person involved in philosophy and classically philosophy was the pursuit of knowledge so when you say nobody could really know for sure you're saying you don't get to do philosophy so I think there's a mistake here was saying nobody can really know for sure this may be the controversial part of my talk I'm gonna say I think we can know things for sure some things the basic things so I'm gonna propose a an alternative to skepticism and fede ISM which are dominant in our culture today and that alternative we'll call clarity that some things are clear some things are clear to reason all right now let's begin with justice let me know if this is clear either some things are clear or nothing is clear I want to put it on the board some things are clear or nothing is clear now why do I put it like that because if I were to do this that's called the square of Opposition in logic these are direct contradictions they can't both be true and they can't both be false so it has to be one or the other now if we go with nothing is clear then we can't really you know we can't really no nothing is clear I mean think about that what I'm saying right now is not clear but it does seem like what I'm seeing right now is clear at least something right so if we go with nothing is clear then then there's no meaning and if there is no meaning then we're left with skepticism and fidei ism and what happens with that no philosophy what's the alternative sophism the Sophists were the group of rhetorician z' that socrates was opposed to many times in the dialogues of Plato now what happens if some things are clear if some things are clear at least minimally some basic things are clear like maybe the distinctions between a and on a being and non-being so some things are clear then they would we could say that their basic things are clear we wouldn't want to go to non basic things first we would go to the most basic things now this is the exciting part for us what are these basic things the fundamental things well the fundamental things are philosophical things like the existence and nature of God does God exist or not it seems like that would be a fundamental question right a fundamental question of philosophy so can we know whether God exists or not that's that's going to be the thing right if we can't know then what's going to happen all right so here's another piece of philosophy all right so maybe the basic things that we're concerned with today are the existence of God the nature of God human nature what is a human and what is good and what is evil for humans can we know those things minimally from philosophy from reason from general revelation before we approach it through Scripture all right now philosophy is about knowing things historically classically and proving things so knowing involves proving and this seems to be the thing that our our age is really reluctant to do or they think we can't do it so I'm gonna maybe challenge that a little bit and I challenge you to to question those dominate assumptions we really can't know now I'm going to open this up for discussion at the end so please write down questions you might have you're free to disagree with me I invite it it helps me to grow when you can give me good objections I'm going to turn to the handout now though all about leading up to the handout right and I think this needs a little bit of coffee okay also on the handout I have my name in my contact information I have a website there with some of the work I've been doing I hope to have a video of this session and I'll put it there when it's ready my email address is listed here too if you have questions about the content of the talk that you would like to email me about that's that's that would be great so I have three quotes that we're going to start with two from st. Paul one from CS Lewis I'm going to walk around I can't just be stuck it doesn't work for me alright so the first quote see to it that no one takes you captive through Hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world so a lot of people read this and go move stay away from philosophy it's bad right how many of you have had that impression that philosophy is bad Paul warns us not to go there oh good alright so we're gonna look at this quote CS Lewis says this good philosophy must exist if for no other reason because bad philosophy needs to be answered so I like this quote because he's he's not saying stay away from philosophy saying we need philosophy because we need to fight bad philosophy so I'm gonna use that concept of good and bad philosophy as part of my argument today and then st. Paul again in Romans 1:20 he says what may be known about God is plain for since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse so this is where we get that idea of some things are clear and it has to do with the eternal power and divine nature of God so that men are without excuse so that's going to be part of my argument so my goal today in this talk is to give an apology for philosophy it's like an apologetics or apologetics a defense of philosophy and not just philosophy but for Christians to do philosophy well I always have this idea of Daniel being 10 times better than the then wise people of his day so I feel like Christians would be 10 times better than the wise people of our day so that's what I mean by well not just I can do philosophy I can hold my own but how well can you do it can you well I'll see what's implied and doing good philosophy well all right so here's my argument and this may be where you want to find objections if you're human you are engaging in philosophy either consciously or unconsciously this is a human Enterprise we all do it you either are engaging in good philosophy or bad philosophy right Christians ought to be engaging in good philosophy good philosophy includes showing what is clear about God from the things that are made so I'm taking my argument from those three quotes and you're free to disagree with any one of those so here are my assumptions humans engage in philosophy it's a human enterprise and so why as we go along he there's a distinction between good and bad philosophy and this is going back to Socrates versus the sophist he thought there was bad philosophy or something that went under the name of philosophy that wasn't philosophy at all so we'll talk about that too there's a moral obligation for Christians to be engaged in good philosophy you know there's a moral obligation what but I'm not a philosopher I'm just I'm just an electrolyte electrical engineer we'll see are you just that good philosophy requires showing what is clear okay this is going to be the part that maybe the challenge may be new alright first let's talk about what is philosophy I have five features of philosophy listed here and you can get these five features by studying what Socrates does in Plato's dialogue Socrates is one of the first philosophers the first to engage in in this dialogical approach seeking truth so the first feature of philosophies that it's an area of study it's a discipline and the area of study has to do with foundational questions so we talked about three branches of philosophy the first branch is called epistemology the study of knowledge or the study of how we know things this has been my area of emphasis to push epistemology how do we know the second area is called metaphysics metaphysics studies what is real what is ultimate reality like modern and postmodern philosophy has largely abandoned in this project of trying to figure out what is real they think we can't do it so I would like us to question that assumption and then the third area is ethics ethics asks what is the good what is good what is evil and what is the good the Summa bonum and we've also abandoned that concept as well because when you abandon metaphysics you're abandoned and the good that's objective and true for everybody it's basically what's good for you is good for you what's good for me is good for me but philosophy has as its study what is the good all right so that's the foundational questions how do I know what is real and what is the good okay basic questions philosophy is an attitude and Socrates kind of demonstrates this attitude it's the love of wisdom and think about love not like agape love like eros love like romantic love like passion so being passionate about wisdom that takes a kind of drive to pursue it right so philosophy has a drive to pursue wisdom that's what the word philosophy means love of wisdom so should we be in love with wisdom what would that look like third is a method philosophy is definitely has a method and this seems to be the part that we emphasize the most in the discipline of philosophy as the method of flaws we use reason critically to test statements judgments for meaning words for meaning Socrates is always doing this what is beauty what is beauty in itself what is justice what is knowledge so we use reason critically this is the tool for philosophy reason we don't have a lab we don't use our senses I mean we might but not primarily the tool of philosophy is argument reason and by reason is meant the laws of thought so they have three laws the law of identity is a a thing is what it is markers marker rock is rock person is person the law of non-contradiction and this is a big one it can't be both Iraq and a non rock in the same respect at the same time it can't be both some things are clear and nothing is clear in the same respect at the same time and then the third law is the law of excluded middle either or it's either a marker or it's not a marker now these three laws are the basis of reason the starting point and we go from there and we make judgments and we make arguments and we test them so that's the method of philosophy think of this critical analysis the method and then third is an application we apply philosophy to ourselves in self-examination Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living it's not it's less than human life to go through life unconsciously thoughtfully so we apply it to ourselves what do I think is eternal what do I think is the good why do I have good reasons for that and then lastly philosophy is a system and this may be more connected to this conference it's a world in life view and we use philosophy we use reason to make sure the whole system fits together that there are no contradictions in the system so do my views about how we know things fit with my views about what I could know if I if I start off saying we can't know anything then how do I live my life are those things consistent so this system building may be called the constructive use of Reason we construct a coherent world and life view in class I often draw a picture of a house we're sitting on ground a foundation and then you have your you have the ground and then you have a foundation this is your metaphysics the foundation and the house is your ethics the whole way live your life out and that's a part of philosophy too so a system of truth we can see is that system of truth in something we're going to talk about as Christian philosophy alright now we already talked about philosophy and sophist tree they're kind of opposites so philosophy would say some things are clear so victory would say no so they're opposites now what is bad philosophy I I've had to think about this quote from Saint Paul a lot right because I hear it often you're a Christian and you're doing philosophy how is that possible and you're doing it in the secular Academy well how do you express her face well I don't I don't I see seek truth and truth is universal for everyone right so how do we avoid bad philosophy what is hollow philosophy in this in this quote so he says see to it that no one takes you captive through Hollow philosophy what would that be so I thought about this a lot it seems like Hollow is empty and we do this a lot or the worldly philosophy does this a lot we empty words of meaning think about all I I used this term semantics I'd in in a document I recently wrote the killing of language and Samantha side has roots in the loge aside the killing of the logos so this deep and it's it's bad when we empty words of meaning an example I've seen lately is someone saying being can come from non-being being can come from non-being what does that even mean just maybe turn on the news and you'll see some mantis ID happening alright deceptive philosophy what does deceptive deceptive philosophy deception it's false right it's untrue so there are lots of false assumptions in the history of philosophy here's an example and I'm willing to be challenged on this in the history of philosophy it starts with this assumption that matter is all that exists in matters eternal naturalism right a Christian would have to say that's not a true assumption but that assumption permeates so much of our thinking in our culture so bad philosophy creeps into Christian philosophy or a human tradition I've listed a few here I'm connecting human tradition to uncritically held assumptions particularly our assumptions about how we know things here's a few human traditions that creep into our thinking empiricism this is the view that all that we could know is through our senses if you can't see it hear it smell it taste it touch it you can't know it God can't be seen here heard smelled taste or touch so God must not exist or the human soul doesn't exist right rationalism in the history of philosophy this view has tried to use reason to pursue truth directly it is it was has fallen into unfavored on't like rationalism probably gives you the heebie-jeebies even thinking about it right rationalism was a plato was a rationalist he tried to pursue truth directly and it turned out his view of ultimate reality was not supported by reason so rationalism could be a source of skepticism it's a human tradition that leads to skepticism how about intuition ISM where we take the sign to be the reality this is also non cognitivism a non cognitive approach to to knowing things it's a I know it because I feel it deep down inside how often have we heard that I know because I feel it but feeling is a different category than knowing knowing is cognitive it has a basis for discussion so this could be a way that human tradition creeps into our thinking and then common sense this is pervasive actually this is the one when I was reading Jill Suns book this is the one that really got to me because he was saying we just assume reality when we face it we know this is here and knowing the history of philosophy and the challenge of idealism which is a view that says no all that exists are ideas and maybe ideas in the mind of some other being like God he was just bypassing that and asserting that with if you see it it's real so appearance is reality that's the very thing that that worldly philosophy will challenge so we'll call that naive realism maybe there's a way to support realism there has to be a way to support realism because John and his prologue does but we don't want to be naive about it so common sense philosophy has definitely influenced some Christian thinking and then I just put in tradition and custom here because we we tend to think whoa it's raised this way feels good to me it's comfortable most people I know think this way act this way I don't know why you would question it but then we are faced especially in our day in a multicultural context other people have traditions too and they feel just as strongly as I do about my traditions so what happens when traditions clash and there's no other basis then that's the way I was raised so people might fall into skepticism about their own tradition at that point or they maybe fall into prejudice those people you know those people are wrong I'm right so those are those are undesirable effects right so this is I think some of what Paul could be warning against when he's talking about hollow and deceptive philosophy and human tradition and the basic principles of this world I've put the alternatives to theism on here monism all that exists is one and this comes in several forms it could be all is one and it's matter like secular humanism all is one in its spirit like some Eastern religions platonic dualism so I put dualism there to two things that are eternal matter and spirit are Co eternal which is different than substance dualism that there's a body and a soul that's not the same as as a metaphysical dualism and then I put the alternatives in ethics deontology says there is no good that is objective that we could all know there's just doing your duty this is Conti and ethics duty for duties sake that's a that's an alternative and then consequentialism is probably the dominant ethics of our day do it because it feels good pleasure is the good and it could be individual pleasure ethical egoism I'm looking out for number one or it could be collective pleasure like utilitarianism communism get the greatest amount of pleasure for the greatest number of people so these are all I would say basic principles of this world so this is bad philosophy all right now remember to write down your questions you're anything like a mini-lesson in philosophy today all right why all right I have Christianity in philosophy here why is that when I study the history of philosophy which is my I've this five-year plan for myself I just completed your one today to study the history of philosophy very deeply so that I can see connections of ideas why does this happen actually I want to know why did we get where we are today why are we here what is the history of ideas that led to where we are here and I'm going to be honest the history of Christianity in the history of ideas has been sort of frustrating because what happens in early Christianity is it christianity begins in the context of of greek dualism as well as hebrew thinking so the greek dualism is Plato and Aristotle so they immediately the early church fathers are having to figure out what do we do with this philosophy stuff what do we do with these famous philosophers Tertullian an early church father said what has Jerusalem to do with Athens what has revealed religion have to do with these worldly philosophies right some philosophers said they should be married and so in studying the history of philosophy you see that some thinkers consciously or unconsciously married the philosophy of Plato to Christianity st. Agustin one of the first Christian philosophers kind of does this and then it gets picked up by others and and held onto so unexamined assumptions from worldly philosophy get into Christianity and they're still with us so that critical thinking we have to think critically and separate those two Aristotle and and Christianity are married through thinkers like Thomas Aquinas he basically just takes Aristotle and says he's about right he just needs scripture let's put it there it's very frustrating because you're like no but Aristotle is NOT a theist he's a duelist and dualistic thinking and not is now in here Descartes sometimes Descartes gets married to Christianity and what's called foundationalism Immanuel Kant gets married to Christianity so a lot of times Thomas read these these thinkers are trying to say well look these guys are really good there's some truth here and Christianity is true too so truth is truth right let's put them together but it seems like we need to be able to sort through what is actually true and what is an assumption that is not supported by reason so these these things we do when we marry Christianity and an unworldly philosophy leads to feed a ISM in the church and feed ISM in the church I think leads to this isn't in the world so when we can't show what we're claiming to be true people turn away and then they say we can't know right so that's why I'm addressing a Christian crowd with this topic I wouldn't take this topic to a secular crowd because they're just gonna be like you guys are just talking what do you know all right let's talk about good philosophy finally right let's get to the positive part all right now think critically about those two because I could be wrong I am still learning so what I'm going to say is that I think this is true that there's this principle of clarity that is part of philosophy some things are clear and it's part of Scripture that part I'm not willing to let go of but what I am willing to let go of is that I've gotten to clarity and I can show it to you that part maybe I could do what I can do and you can test it and we can grow together in that but I'm not willing to let go of this principle of clarity all right so let's look at philosophy from a Christian perspective now I'm assuming Christianity I'm not proving it if we were going to do good philosophy as Christians what would it look like so remember philosophy is an area it's a it has to do with foundational question so what are the foundational answers that Christianity would provide how do we know what would Christians say about how do we know I'm gonna suggest something through the word but what does that mean the word is it just the Bible I can't take the Bible to my secular classroom this is going to be something more than that so how do we know things metaphysics God exists right God is eternal everything else is created human beings are created human beings are created in the image of God right so there's a lot of this we can do from philosophy we don't have to go to the Bible this is called general revelation right ethics what would Christianity say is the good the goal of life maybe I'm just going to leave that out there for you to think about all I can I say you think about this what would be the ethical foundation of Christianity what is the good the goal of life all right how about this I picked out a verse that you heard today already what is the attitude of Christian philosophy or Christians doing philosophy love the Lord your God with all your heart which includes your mind your soul and your strength right your whole being and what does that look like to love God with your whole being remember that passion that's involved in in pursuing wisdom the method of philosophy since the method has to do with the critical use of reason I'm going to suggest that a Christian application of this would be taking every thought captive that's raised up against the knowledge of God we have to look at other views critically and test them so all of those worldly philosophies can we show where they are mistaken that would be good philosophy right application be prepared in season and out of season how do you get prepared you have to be discipled right discipline part of this this is preparation I'm anticipating you're going to ask me questions it's going to help me to grow and help me to become more clear next time I do something like this so you have to be prepared and we have to be taught and so and we have to look at ourselves do I know what I ought to know am I prepared to teach others if not should I get prepared to teach others and then the philosophical system that we should have we should know the truth and probably the whole truth in all of its fullness and the truth will set you free set you free from what falsehood false philosophy bad philosophy so if you know the truth you won't be subject to false philosophy and we want to construct a whole system of Christian truth and this is going to apply to all of life every aspect of life every institution of culture the family church the state business economy media social media everything do we have a system of truth that we can take out there and that is answering the questions of the world and then sanctify them by that truth thy Word is truth thy word again there's the word again the word is the logos what is this logos so I'm gonna suggest instead of going to Aristotle and Plato a Descartes and Conte and read and all these philosophers to figure out how to do philosophy I'm going to suggest we go to John's prologue in the prologue to the Gospel of John he gives us a template I don't think he well actually I gave a paper two weeks ago that I suggested he was sort of saying here's how we could do philosophy and answered the questions the Greeks were answering asking but he gives us a template and it's very beautiful and rich and you can think about this for the rest of your life I just started to get into this but thinking about the logos the word is the logos and this logos is it's very full and rich in fact the Greek philosophers from the time of Heraclitus to the time of John's Gospel they were looking for this thing the logos what they were recognizing is that there's a logos in me reason the light of man and there's a logos in the world the laws of nature there's an order we can't explain it and how does my mind fit the order of the world and John seems to be answering hey I got the thing you're looking for that logos I have it and he talks about the the word and truth so I was looking at Socrates in my talk I did two weeks ago and he has this analogy between light and the things that we see we don't look directly at the Sun especially during the time of the Eclipse it'll ruin our eyes right but if we don't have the Sun then we can't understand what's in front of us so light is the thing that mediates between the Sun and the things we want to see so light is this mediator and he called that light logos logos is the mediator between the source of being and the beings that we see and so seems to be using that metaphor of a mediator the logos is the mediator I'm just gonna say that but in every aspect that he talks about he talks about the logos as eternal he was with God and he was gone he talks about the logos in man as as light it's that by which we see so we don't look at God directly we can't see God he's invisible right but we can see God through the things that he's made and everything reveals God so we have this source of understanding that we can understand the things that is made through the logos so the logos is in the world as natural laws and in nature and it's in us as moral law - so John gives us the logos in the world the logos in ourselves and he also talked about logos in Scripture the word written and the word is written because of our need for redemption so that's the part where we're not doing philosophy anymore we're now doing theology when we get into the scriptures and the word incarnate the word came to his own and he was rejected he's actually rejected at every level he's rejected in in humans as reason loge aside that's the killing of the logos it's also deicide the killing of God it's rejected in nature we don't see it now Heraclitus this is really super interesting he was a Greek philosopher and he recognized the logos is all around us and he was very excited about this the logos the laws of nature the world is understandable but guess what men are deaf to the logos and he's depicted in an RAF is Raphael's painting the School of Athens and he's at the very front he's kind of sitting there brooding and I'd kind of think he's brooding because he sees the logos and others don't and he's frustrated about this and I think John is reminding us hey the logos is all around you wisdom cries out in this square right the logos is everywhere but men are deaf to the logos so I think that's where Romans comes in Romans 1:20 where Paul is talking about the judgment that's on man because hey the logos is all around us but we don't see it the eternal power and divine nature of God are clearly revealed so that men are without excuse we could know it but we don't know it and so I think that's that's why we need redemptive revelation this is a clear revelation of God for all humans to see the humans in their fallenness don't see it and so God comes to us again through the Scriptures and he comes to us again incarnate to redeem us he comes full of grace and truth right so he's redeeming us from falsehood to truth right just a few more notes I want to leave it a moment for questions but I put some things here sometimes we talk about faith and philosophy some of the big philosophy journals the Journal of faith and philosophy what is the relationship between those and some an early Christian philosopher and the 11-hundred said I believe in order that I may understand so he thinks belief comes first understanding later there's another guy named Abelard I like his version better he says I understand so I believe you could only under you can only believe what you understand right if I say blix are grew and you're like I believe that and I say what do you mean but looks are grew like I have no idea but I believe it this is like a meaningless statement right so it seems like understanding comes first and then we believe it because we get it we understand it what about the relationship between philosophy and apologetics what what are those because I've been in both camps and and they're kind of different so I suggest and I could be wrong that philosophy is offensive we are trying to understand what is what is the nature of reality what is the nature of human beings and developing that whereas apologetics is more defense giving a defense protecting the the faith so offense and defense but they go together and idea of taking every thought captive is is one thing we do in apologetics but you need the tools of philosophy to do that so you can maybe test that see if it's true and then another thing is philosophy of religion I've been involved in philosophy of religion since I started this is really a fascinating area you could think about this there's popular religion where most people live and this is concerned with practical and psychological needs like prayer and God getting you through the day then there's the historical level of religion where we have creeds and confessions and a deeper awareness of our tradition philosophical religion is where there are new challenges addressed to from the culture that need need to be answered that aren't answered in the Creed's in the confessions yet so today that the challenges that we face are science and religion what's the relationship what's the relationship between faith and reason has anyone addressed that in the Creed's what about post-modernism how do we address that stuff so these are remaining challenges for good philosophy to address and I think we can and should do it all right last last little section here is the implications of clarity I started with this idea of some things being clear versus nothing is clear so here's an implication if we seek to know if it's clear then you will know does that make sense if you seek to know and knowledge is possible then you will know so in Hebrews says this he who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek Him so this diligence it's not something that just comes you know out of the sky we have to do something it's like that pursuit of wisdom so it seems that if we if we did diligently seek then we would be rewarded what's the reward knowing God do you want that is that part of what is the good for Christians man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever seems like that's connected right so there may be some objections like what is clarity how do we know what's what's clear I would say minimally and and we could develop this some more clarity has to do with something that can't be logically doubted so it could be objectively clear but subjectively I don't see it yet and maybe because I wasn't seeking to see it I'm gonna trying what about how do we know if we've actually gotten to clarity well then we've gotten to a logical necessity a truth that can't be doubted like this either this or this I I don't know if there's a way to doubt either this or this is clarity the same for everyone this is a good question right because it seems like what about that uneducated abused child and you bangee bangy that some of you heard about some of you are students of mine you know the the kid that's in a village somewhere that doesn't have Scripture what about them are they held accountable well Heraclitus you said that logos is all around us and if general revelation is clear then there's something that everyone is held accountable for I would say it's truth if it's if there's truth that could be knowable and you have the tools for knowing then it seems like yeah everyone's held accountable for the same thing and not everything is clear but it seems like if basic things are clear we could go step by step to things that are not clear and it won't be hard so you don't my professor described going up a staircase you don't go from the bottom step to the top that would be hard right you go step by step and each step is not hard each step is as difficult as the last one so if you have a reasoning process going from let's say is a - I want to go from as a - the existence of God there's probably a step-by-step process we can do to get there you don't have to jump up the stairs alright so it seems like humans are held the morally accountable for this the knowing the existence of God has eternal power and divine nature and the moral law Romans chapter 2 talks about the moral law written on the heart so it seems that if Christians claim to know that God exists they should be able to show it and the world is asking for this prove it right so I would say the number one job of Christian philosophy is to show that God exists right and I'll pause here to see if you have any questions and thank you for being patient through all that yes [Music] Oh because I don't think you need to stop there you need to broaden the Word of God to include all the created order if the logos is in the world this includes everything everything screams out hey I'm created I'm not eternal think of Psalm 8 the Sun is is available for everyone to see the Sun is crying out hey I'm created I'm not eternal don't worship Me but the history of humans have worshiped the Sun right so it seems like the created order is crying out that it's created so we should be able to show that to people hey do you think the Sun is eternal it's finite size it's giving off heat it can't do this forever it's going to burn out oh yeah I shouldn't worship it huh and we could take it to the Egyptians so I think if we had a broader view of what the word was study that prologue to John it's deep it's rich it's full it applies to here's here's a challenge go on Wikipedia and look up all the words that end in all oh gee I did this the other day Sunday I was like I could list like 15 words the end enology that's the logos what we study sociology anthropology biology this list of words is huge and I was blown away like look at what we do we're naming the creation that's good philosophy right go and fill the earth and name the creation that's what we're called to do so we have been doing that but we have been doing that not in the name of the word the logos but in the name of the world so take back all of that study [Music] yeah I I engage the world every single day in the classroom my students are not going to let me off the hook they are not going to let me make any assumptions and they're gonna say look you you say it's clear to prove it so I think the way I engage I listen to what they're actually saying and I think about their assumptions because I think part of what we need to do is study bad philosophy to see what are those bad assumptions and then I I try to drive try to draw them out my students have some of these bad assumptions and once we go over them objectively and then we start having conversations and I say hey are you assuming empiricism right now they go oh yeah I guess I was and empiricism never leads to knowledge but I do want knowledge so I think patiently with humility because you know what I'm wrong a lot of the times and in community I think we can't do this on our own so I really think the Christian community needs to get on the same page together before we address the world I mean like we have to do both but I don't think we can say hey world you're all wrong when there's so much division in the Christian community so maybe we need to have an in-house conversation about how we do philosophy and then we can go to the world that's kind of why I'm here today so are you saying in some ways that you're justifying true in ways pointing back and say well we've talked about what is truth I would start yes I would start with meaning meaning is more basic than truth what do we mean you use this word human yeah this is how philosophy begins with Socrates what do you mean what do you mean human this is the huge topic today what is a human what is male and female are they even anything are they part of biology are they part of the soul and if I mean we don't even know what a human is how do we how do we answer that question yes fede ism is the view that you you believe without proof or maybe even in despite proof you know these people are just like I can't prove it I understand it but I believe it anyway Sophie deism is like faith ISM and it's not real faith they say faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things unseen this substance is this underlying support and there's evidence for things unseen it's not empirical evidence it's rational evidence so faith and reason can't be separated [Music] yeah yeah definitely thank you that's a good suggestion I should actually put a little glossary good point these philosophies Pierce's in its strong form yes leads to nonsense and so does rationalism but how we think of the softworks knowledge through the senses like we do astronomy right we're seeing less so we're gaining knowledge they okay okay rationalism we condemn reason okay at the Universitat a beginning and therefore okay good so in other contexts I talked about the distinction between strong evidence and weak evidence or justification so things like astronomy leads to a high probability of truth but not certainty strong justification we want certainty so we don't want probably God exists philosophy is looking for I know this is everyone hates me for this certainty what you can't get it are you sure you sure so you certainly I can't know one of these all right I am this is my challenge because I've heard this four times in the last two weeks I'm gonna make a little blog post about certainty about what is knowledge so if you go to my website give me a couple weeks because we're at the end of the semester I'm gonna write a paper on what is knowledge and does knowledge involve certainty okay that it's a throw down now because I I feel like if I've said it I should chew it right so if you if you know it you should show it so now I feel like I should show it okay maybe we could pause here cuz I just got the five I got the minute mark I got the sign one more question yes that stands for retrieval philosophy and I think dr. Fergus for encouraging you to make that so yeah that's my website all right thank you all have a good day I hope the rest big [Applause]

Channel: Kelly Fitzsimmons Burton

Views: 6,240

Rating: 4.8421054 out of 5

Keywords: christian, philosophy, phoenix, apologetics, what is Christian Philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, Apostle Paul, Clarity, Skepticism, Fideism, Burton

Id: vERzEAO3fhA

Length: 49min 52sec (2992 seconds)

Published: Sun May 20 2018