Authored by: Mitchell LeBlanc.

A blogger who goes by the handle “ZaoThanatoo” has offered a response to my paper on the Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God. I regret responding to this almost a month after it was posted but I was only made aware of its existence today. In order to keep things fairly brief, I’ll simply attempt to respond to Zao’s criticisms but I will not offer much in the way of elucidation on the source material. I trust, rather, that those who are interested have read it already!

Before I begin, I would like to make the point that the claims in my paper do not need to be true for the TAG to be defeated (with regard to logic, in this circumstance). The TAG fails due to the fact that logical conventionalism is coherent. Zao briefly touches upon this point, which I will address later, but I want to make it clear that my paper attempts to go beyond the mere claim that “logic does not presuppose God” and suggest something closer to the idea that it cannot.

The Criticisms

In my paper, I remark:

It seems to me that some hybridization of any of the mentioned means of justification may bring about a new means of justification. For example, a hybridization of an a priori and conventionalist system may succeed in providing the justification of logic sought by Bahnsen, but in a manner wherein the new system may be thought of as unique to both previous a priori systems, and forms of conventionalism.

Zao takes issue with this, stating:

Mitch starts off on the wrong foot immediately by proposing a hypothetical “hybridization” of two positions which is also “unique” to those other positions. So, is it a “hybrid” or is it “unique”?

I don’t think that one needs to choose between something being a hybrid, or unique. It’s doesn’t seem to be an either/or situation. For example, take gas-powered automobiles  and electric automobiles and combine the two concepts so that we create a gas-electric hybrid. In this circumstance we have a car that is unique in that there is a property that members of the previous categories do not have, namely, the property of being both gas and electric powered. Must we agree with Zao’s criteria that because this car is a hybrid, it cannot be unique or vice versa? I don’t think so, in fact it seems to me that it may be unique by being a hybrid!

Zao suggests that if there is such a system, I should present it rather than bringing it up as a hypothetical because it isn’t an objection. I think, however, if Zao understood me correctly he(?) would see that I merely rely on the possibility of a system and that this possibility is enough to make the point I wanted to make.

He also takes issue with the formal presentation of the TAG I’ve included in my paper which I’ve borrowed from Sean Choi. Zao states:

…advances have been made in presuppositionalism which have shown Choi’s position to be mistaken. Don Collett has argued effectively (in Revelation and Reason edited by K. Scott Oliphint) that Van Til’s conception of presuppositional semantics is identical to the Strawson/Van Fraasen semantics, which makes a clear distinction between “presupposition” and “implication.” (Even John Frame has accepted Collett’s argumentation in this respect.)

Choi presents his formulation of the TAG as a traditional transcendental argument (a la Kant) which would suggest (in this context) that the existence of logic implies the existence of God. Strawson in attempting to formalize a sufficient theory of presupposition proposes something similar to the following:

P presupposes Q if and only if Q is true provided P is true or P is false.

Where P is logic and Q is God, if one is to use this formulation instead of the previous, we would not say that the existence of logic implies God but that even the denial of the existence of logic also presupposes God. But what real difference does this make to our discussion? If I’m missing something then I wait to be informed, but it seems to me that even under this view the claim that “Both the truth of P or falisity of P presupposes Q” will reduce, in our discussion, to the claim that “logic presupposes the existence of God” since I am not denying the existence of logic. In other words, what difference does this make to any of my subsequent criticisms insofar as they pertain to the presuppositionalist ideas I mention?

This much can be said about the entire section of my paper where I introduce Choi’s formalism. It is of course nice to have something with which to work, but I am not dependent on this formulation. The arguments in my paper can be extended and applied to any (as I can conceive) assertion that amounts to “logic presupposes God.”

I go on to criticize Bahnsen’s idea of the “impossibility of the contrary” stating:

But what might this mean for our discussion? If Bahnsen is permitted to carry on with his criteria, then if any a priori, a posteriori or conventionalist justifications of logic are shown to be false (and subsequently, the worldviews that house and depend on them) all other formulations which properly fall under those headings will also be false (worldviews included) since they employ the same proposition, namely, ‘Christianity is false’. Of course, this is not sound reasoning unless the shared proposition is what is causing the justification to be false. Bahnsen needs to show that ‘Christianity is false’ is the ‘false-making’ proposition of all non-Christian worldviews, and it doesn’t seem that this is possible by any means other than (i) showing that all possible non-Christian justifications will have ‘Christianity is false’ as the onlyproposition in common (for if there is even one other proposition shared by these worldviews, how might one disqualify that proposition as possibly being the ‘false-maker’?), and (ii) showing that Christianity is not false. The obvious problem is that if (ii) is shown, the TAG becomes superfluous as it is no longer needed; one has already arrived at the truth of Christian theism, and for (i) to be shown, one still has to have an awareness of “every single variation of unbelieving philosophy.”

Zao replies that the false-maker of the proposition is its axiomatic nature. But I cannot see any reason to accept the claim that every worldview which has the proposition “Christianity is false” has that proposition as an axiom.

He states:

If the most basic presupposition of a non-Christian worldview is “not Christianity” (which appears to be definitional, given the above framework), then it is the basic nature of the presupposition which exerts a rational controlling influence on all other worldview content. It is not merely one proposition among many, floating loose and free in a certain worldview, but is rather foundational.

Again, why is this true? It seems to me that the only reason for claiming that “Christianity is false” is the most basic presupposition of non-Christian worldviews lies simply in identifying them as non-Christian worldviews. That is to say, I might identify some worldview as being non-Mitchist because I see that their worldview does not utilize what I utilize as my axiomatic foundation but I cannot see how this entails that “Mitchism is false” becomes their foundational axiom. It also seems that depending on who is looking at Bob’s worldview, he has several other axioms! For instance, what if a Muslim is looking at Bob’s worldview, does he now have as a foundational axiom that “Islam is false?” If a Hindu is looking at his worldview, does he now have as foundational the axiom that “Hinduism is false?” It even seems that atheists can analyze Zao’s worldview under his own criteria and suggest that he has as a foundational axiom that “Atheism is false” as his most basic presupposition.

Further, imagine Bob the Buddhist who has as his foundational axiom “Buddhism is true.” If we take Zao’s criteria, then since Bob the Buddhist can be identified as possessing a non-Christian worldview it follows that he has, also as a foundational axiom that “Christianity is false.” We can say that he’d also have as foundational axioms, under Zao’s criteria, propositions such as “Islam is false,” “Confucianism is false,” and “Scientology is false.” It seems more proper to say that Bob merely has the axiom “Buddhism is true” (if even this), and that he deduces from this postulate all of the other aforementioned propositions. That is to say, “Christianity is false” is not an axiom for Bob, it’s a deduction and so like other deductions it is “floating loose and free”. If we are to follow Zao’s criteria, it seems we render the term “axiom” meaningless. In fact Bob would have possibly an infinite number of axioms about religions of which he has not even heard! I see no reason to accept such absurdity.

In further response to my mention of Fristianity, Zao responds:

Being quite thoroughly familiar with various Fristianity objections, I had to chuckle at this one. I apologize for it, but I did. Let’s be perfectly clear here: an atheist can get zero cash value out of the Fristianity objection in debate with a Christian. Are you planning on being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit and “Fred” anytime soon, Mitch?

The Fristianity objection, if sound, merely shows that the central claim of presuppositionalism is false. That is, if the Fristianity objection holds then it is false that no non-Christian theistic methods can possibly justify X, Y, Z. This is all I was intending to show.

Moving right along we come to my application of a Euthyphro-like dilemma to the laws of logic. Similar to many Christians with regard to the actual Euthyphro dilemma, Zao takes the route of stating:

The Christian’s argument is that logical laws are a reflection of God’s thought which is in accordance with God’s nature, which are all necessary.

But analyze what I said in the section, as Zao even quoted himself:

Frame essentially makes the claim that it is logically impossible for the nature of God to change. But the standard Frame is using to identify logical possibility is allegedly the nature of God. As such, his claim appears to be represented more accurately as:

(C)  Based on God’s nature it is logically impossible for God’s nature to be different because God is necessarily a rational God

This does not seem to assist in any regard as what is rational is allegedly determined by God’s nature. So to argue that God’s nature must be the way it is because God is necessarily rational seems to only appeal to a standard of rationality that is separate from God, otherwise it is clearly circular.

In what manner would it be the case that God’s nature was not rational? It does not seem that a God who forms the basis of logical principles and thereby is the standard of rationality can ever be irrational (though he may certainly appear irrational when judged by a foreign standard). That is to say, if one wants to state that the Christian God forms the basis of rationality and the logical principles thereby in effect cannot be anything other than what they are, they must be appealing to a standard of logic that is separate from God’s nature as to appeal solely to God’s nature does not sufficiently answer the question; it is a non-answer.

If Zao does not think that (C) is circular, I suggest he read a bit closer. He says that my dilemma is circular in itself because the first horn “…asserts that there is a meaningful sense in which logic is independent of the thought of God.” What is the implication of the aforementioned circularity in basing them on God? It seems to me that, as a direct implication, we must conclude that the necessary principles of logic indeed are external to God just as is the case with necessary moral principles and the original Euthyphro dilemma. I have not, as Zao has suggested, assumed that they are independent to show they are independent, I’ve formulated a dilemma and shown that given the alternatives are incoherent we have no choice but to accept that logical principles exist independently of God.

We might even supplement this by raising a point that was conveyed to me by a fellow UP.net member. Zao stated that the logical laws are a reflection of God’s thought and that God thinks logically. Moving over the seemingly obvious incoherence in such a statement, one might want to ask what it even means to say that God thinks logically? Logic permits us to deduce from premises, distinguish conclusions and so on. But God, if he is omniscient, surely does not have to do any of these things to have knowledge. God does not “reason” to his conclusions, he simply knows them. To say that the logical laws are reflections of God’s logical thinking stands in opposition to the idea that God knows all there is to know. Truly omniscient beings do not require logic, because they do not require a means to apprehend knowledge. This, I think, just adds to the incoherence of stating that logical principles reflect God’s rational thought.

In my section entitled “God and the Abstract” I offered an argument which is basically as follows:

The dependence relationship between “God exists” and “logical principles exist” seems problematic. If God is the source of all things other than himself, and he depends on nothing for his existence, surely the relationship must be asymmetrical (with primacy granted to God), but it appears not to be. It can be shown, in fact, that God depends on logical principles for his existence.

Lewis’ counterfactual semantics tell us that ‘any proposition is counterfactually implied by a necessarily false proposition’. Since “logical principles do not exist” is a necessarily false proposition, it counterfactually implies any proposition whatsoever.[21] So it is also true that if logical principles did not exist, neither would God. Thus, God depends on logical principles for his existence.

The relationship between the existence of logical principles and the existence of God would be asymmetrical iff God depended on nothing for his being and logical principles depended wholly on him. In this regard, the relationship of dependence is one-way; logical principles depend on God but not vice versa. If dependence is asymmetrical, then logic cannot depend on God as it has been shown that God depends on logic.

The asymmetrical relationship can be depicted further: where P refers to logical principles and Q refers to God. If P depends on Q asymmetrically, then the worlds in which P is true must be a proper subset of the worlds in which Q is true. Since it is the case that the principles of logic hold in every world, and the set of all worlds is not a proper subset of any other set of worlds, the laws of logic cannot depend on anything, including God.

Zao responds:

Given the nature of the points under contention (the existence of God and the relationship between God and logic), to argue that “logical principles do not exist” counterfactually implies that God depends on logical principles for his existence is to beg the question in a rather bald and obvious sort of way. How about, “God does not exist” is a necessarily false statement? Given that TAG is intended to argue for the necessary existence of God, to assume the contingency of God’s existence upon logic in order to prove God is contingent upon logic is, well, unpersuasive (to put it mildly).

I might be mistaken, but it seems to me that Zao interprets my argument as an argument against the existence of God. This is not the case, however. I can accept both the necessary existence of God and the necessary existence of logical principles, and still deny the type of relationship that the presuppositionalist is proposing. It’s not the necessary existence of either of these things that is the issue, it’s the proposed asymmetrical relationship between God and logic. I think Zao has really misunderstood the thrust of my argument here.

After a point about my brief treatment of divine simplicity and Trinitarianism (I agree, that could be a paper unto itself!) Zao closes with a very brief criticism of logical conventionalism. Zao states:

Finally, we have a section where logic is said to be both conventional while necessary and universal. This is rather fun. It’s like something from Alice in Wonderland. “Sentence first – verdict afterwards!

This is a claim that is thrown around a lot, and it is a claim that is just simply false. There simply is no problem with logic being conventional, while having its principles be necessarily true. Zao is welcome to either read the literature cited in my paper, the brief treatment here or wait for an upcoming article I’m expecting authored by a logician.

Conclusion

Again, the arguments in my paper are not needed to show that the TAG fails, the mere coherence of Conventionalism serves as a defeater for the endeavor. What my arguments seek to show is that logic cannot be based on God in any such implied way. I can only say that Zao’s brief treatment of Conventionalism towards the end of his post seems to violate his own suggestion of “… [understanding] the matter for [one's self] before attempting to criticize…”

P.S: I’d like to politely ask that in the future Zao link to my articles rather than pasting them in full. I’d also like to ask that he adds a hyperlink to the specific post he’s writing about. Thanks!