- Introductions: What do you think of when you think of philosophy?
- Restatement of theme:
- “If this issue was the reason a non-believer gave as their obstacle to Christianity, what would we say to them?”
- Theme verse: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.” (Matthew 13:19)
- Topic for Today: Philosophy and the Christian
- Or, What Does Christianity Have to do with Philosophy?
- (This is all borrowing heavily from Francis Schaeffer’s book He Is There and He Is Not Silent.)
- Why philosophy?
- Philosophy and religion deal with the same basic questions.
- Bob Sweetman says that philosophers were greatly attracted to Christianity once upon a time because if the answers it gave to their philosophy.
- This, of course, is talking about the philosophy that seeks to give meaning and answers to our life rather than abstract (and rather pointless) questions.
- Christians have tended to avoid philosophy—but why? “The Truth will set us free.” not “The Truth will be defeated by lies in philosophy class.” (John 8:31-33)
- Francis Schaeffer would argue that Christianity is the only system that really makes sense of reality.
- Basic Questions of Philosophy and of Life (from Schaeffer and Wikipedia)
- Activity: Given one of the main questions of philosophy, come up with Scriptures or other parts of the Christian faith (creeds, songs, books, etc.) that start to talk about this idea.
- Logical
- What is truth? How or why do we identify a statement as correct or false, and how do we reason? What is wisdom?
- John 14:6, John 17:17, John 18:38, Proverbs
- Epistimological (one of Schaeffer’s) and Logical (Wikipedia)
- How do we really know anything?
- Is knowledge possible? How do we know what we know? What is unknown? If knowledge is possible, what is known vs. unknown? How do we take what is “known” to extrapolate what is “unknown”.
- Ephesians 1:9, Romans 1:19
- Ethical/Morals
- How do we judge what is right and wrong?
- Is there a difference between morally right and wrong actions (or values, or institutions)? If so, what is that difference? Which actions are right, and which wrong? Are values absolute, or relative? In general or particular terms, how should I live? How is right and wrong defined?
- Genesis 4:7, Genesis 18:19, Micah 6:8
- Metaphysical
- Why the heck is anything here?
- Jean-Paul Sartre said, according to Schaeffer, that “the basic philosophic question is that something is there rather than nothing being there.”
- What is reality, and what things can be described as real? What is the nature of those things? Do some things exist independently of our perception? What is the nature of space and time? What is the nature of thought and thinking? What is it to be a person?
- John 1, Genesis 1: purpose and direction from the very beginning
- Aesthetic
- What is it to be beautiful? How do beautiful things differ from the everyday? What is Art? Does true beauty exist?
- 1 Peter 3:3-4, Proverbs 31
- Schaeffer’s Claim of Two Classes of Answers to Such Problems
- There is no logical, rational answer possible.
- Schaeffer’s observation is that things are rational until one is stuck, then we claim that they are irrational.
- There are rational answers possible.
- What do you think of this idea? How does it square with Scripture?
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