“When we say all truth is God’s truth, we do not mean to say that this truth that we just thought we discovered ten minutes ago should be used to trump what we have known to be true for centuries. That is quite a different thing” (Mere Fundamentalism, p. 88).
One Voice
“When someone claims that they do contradict [Christ, Scripture, and natural revelation], this is generally a preface to an attempt at poor exegesis on the form of revelation they consider supreme. If they say that Jesus Himself is to be preferred (over against Scripture and natural revelation), this is likely because Jesus is about to …
Less Than False
“In short, ‘God does not exist’ is not a false statement. It is nonsense, incoherent” (Mere Fundamentalism, p. 86).
The One Thing They Can’t Do
“It follows from this that no primary axiom can destroy itself. If it destroys itself, it is not a primary axiom” (Mere Fundamentalism, p. 83).
Even Believing that Nothing Makes Sense Makes No Sense
“If we are the end product of so many years of time acting on matter as governed by chance, then we have no reason to believe any of our thoughts to be true. Our current thoughts, whatever they are, are the simple behavior exhibited by these chemicals under these conditions and at this temperature. And …
Standing on Air
“Either first principles are axiomatic and self-evident, or there are no principles at all anywhere, including the nihilistic principle that there are no principles” (Mere Fundamentalism, p. 82).
More Than Difficult
“Autonomous and humanistic epistemology is the ultimate exercise in picking yourself up by your own coat collar, lifting yourself by your own bootstraps, or standing in a bucket in order to carry yourself upstairs” (Mere Fundamentalism, p. 82).
Magic Balcony
“Everyone wants to pretend that he can postulate a magic balcony upon which a finite creature can stand, and from which vantage that finite creature can survey everything in the cosmos that has any epistemological bearing or significance at all. Part of the deal is that everyone agrees not to ask too many questions about …
Proving the Proofs
“Finite creatures always have to begin from somewhere. Finite creatures have to start. God has created us in such a way as to be able to reason axiomatically, and for that to be the only way we could be able to reason. These axioms can be of pure reason (parallel lines don’t cross each other), …
Epistemic Weird
“Epistemology is like taking your eyeballs out to look at them. If your optic nerve were elastic, and you could pull your eyeballs out and point them at each other, what exactly would you see?” (Mere Fundamentalism, p. 80)