12 August 2008

The Great Debate

Twenty years ago, a Christian philosopher named Dr. Greg Bahnsen (now deceased) debated atheist Gordon Stein, and made history. Dr. Bahnsen went on to publicly debate several more atheists, convincingly winning each debate and earning the reputation of "the man atheists fear most."

Anyone familiar with presuppositionalism already knows about the debate; twenty years on, people are still talking about it. If you are unfamiliar with presuppositionalism, the debate presents an electrifying and inspiring introduction. To date, no atheist has adequately responded to what Dr. Bahnsen termed "The Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God."

You can hear the entire debate at this link.

Nota bene: it's an epistemological heavy-hitter, but the good professor tries to explain his argument in layman's terms. In short, Bahnsen argues the Christian worldview is the most rational system because it is the only one that can account for the laws of logic, uniformity, science, and moral absolutes; atheism can account for none of these and thus results in absurdity and irrationality. The existence of God is necessary for the preconditions of knowledge. But don't take my word for it; listen to him.

Follow-up: Michael Butler, who worked closely with Dr. Bahnsen, offers a more recent defense of the Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God, effectively dealing with objections and finetuning the proof.