Do Christians Use Circular Reasoning? (Episode 37)

One objection to Christianity is that it’s circular reasoning to say, “God’s Word is true because the Bible says so.” And left at that, this argument is indeed circular. Does that mean Christianity is founded on a fallacy? The short answer is no, but let’s unpack why.

DIGGING DEEPER

CITED REFERENCES
• MacDonald & Vaughn (2016). Faulty Reasoning. In, The power of critical thinking (4th Canadian ed., pp. 186-187). Don Mills, Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press.

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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

#pengleraig

[EnavSounds]

I do like to give a constructive criticism. The video is too fast for such a dense content. The camera changes tend to distract. I would recommend to slow down, make pauses during the key parts of the video and create emphasis during the finalization of the ideas that this video is trying to convey.

[offrdk]

So if we take away the holy bible, is there anything else to stand on?

[notanexpert]

Saying that logic and morality are "meaningless chemical reactions" is designed to diminish perspectives that don't rely on supernatural explanations. Biblical interpretation is not universal. Neither is the character of God. Old Testament God is very different from New Testament Jesus. Meaning that "objective morality" isn't so consistent. Seems to depend on the times. Kind of like "subjective morality." How humans define meaning and morality is as useful as anything God defines considering that humans literally wrote the Bible. There's practically zero to suggest that it's not just based on old wives tales that got passed down from generation to generation. None of the ideas in the Bible are so unique or novel as to require anything beyond human reasoning to write it. In fact, it just mirrors the superstitions of our ancestors, things that today we tend to reject, except for very specific religious ideas. But most people today probably reject angelic sightings unless the person having them shares their specific belief system. And even then, lots of like-minded people will still feel incredulous. It's like as soon as the advent of recording technology came about all the public miracles stopped.