Gary discusses two recent news stories involving abortion and childbirth.
You have a worldview—an underlying set of presuppositions about the nature of God and man, the world, how we know what we know, how we’re supposed to live our lives, and so on—and by that worldview you evaluate everything else. But you’re entering a discussion with someone who has his own worldview, with his own underlying presuppositions, his own way of evaluating facts, his own ideas about how he knows what he knows and how he’s supposed to live his life. In such a conversation, we have one worldview in conflict with another worldview. It’s surely occurred to you that if that’s the case, no one can make progress. It’s a standoff. Everything you throw at them, they reinterpret according to their underlying philosophy and worldview. Everything they throw at you, you reinterpret according to your own underlying philosophy and worldview.
You might be tempted to conclude that it does no good to argue. How on earth can we get to the bottom of anything when we have conflicting presuppositions? It’s not just that we have a different bank of information; we have a different way of evaluating that bank of information. You can never make any progress, then, when you argue.
The temptation when that problem arises—and it’s a temptation that Christians have given in to for hundreds of years that has an initial plausibility—is to think, “Well, then, everyone has to be neutral. I’ll put aside my presuppositions and you put aside your presuppositions, and we’ll just look at things from scratch, without any prejudices, without any assumptions. We’ll just be neutral.” Before we talk about how to encounter the unbeliever, we must deal with that question of neutrality.
People you debate with will tell you that you must lay your religious assumptions aside. You don’t come into a class in college as a Christian. You just come in as an open-minded student, willing to learn. Your professors will tell you that you cannot appeal to the Bible because that begs the question of religious authority—and besides, in this class we are not committed to any religious authority. They will say that you are required to set aside your assumptions, your commitments, and so forth, and come at things neutrally and see where the facts lead you.
There are two propositions about neutrality you need to remember when the unbeliever tries to press neutrality on you. Here they are: (1) They aren’t neutral. (2) And you shouldn’t be.
Against All Opposition
The starting point is the God of the Bible. The Bible begins with this foundational presupposition: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ (Gen. 1:1). Against All Opposition lays out the definitive apologetic model to help believers understand the biblical method of defending the Christian faith.
Buy NowGary discusses two recent news stories involving abortion and childbirth. Jane Fonda talked about murdering pro-lifers on a daytime talk show and Chuck Schumer’s lesbian daughter just gave birth to his third grandbaby. Both situations reveal the hypocrisy of the liberal agenda, but we are expected to act as everything is normal. Gary takes the opportunity to point out the “nakedness of the emperor” on today’s episode.