[Vision2020] The end of real slavery

[Douglas]

Visionaries,

I appreciate Andreas' use of our sources because I honestly think he is 
trying to understand what we are saying before critiquing it. And I would 
just like to add one additional note to his summary of our Van Tilian 
approach, which was generally quite fair.

All finite creatures must have an axiomatic starting point from which to 
begin their reasoning. That starting point must be assumed or "presupposed" 
-- hence the name "presuppositionalism" for the view that this is what we 
do in our reasoning. Note that a presuppositionalist is not someone who 
presupposes a starting point before he reasons; a presuppositionalist is 
someone who maintains that everyone does this whether they admit that they 
do or not. Thus, Andreas and I both begin our reasoning from an axiomatic 
starting point.

But does that mean that everything is up for grabs? What then, is the task 
of Christian apologetics if everyone, Christian and non-Christian, starts 
from different axioms? I just want to summarize here, and not go into great 
detail. Those hunting for more on this in presuppositional literature can 
look for the phrase, "the impossibility of the contrary."

Suppose Smith presupposes A, and Murphy presupposes G. The impossibility of 
the contrary would be shown by Smith (for example) concerning Murphy, if 
Smith demonstrated that all who presuppose G must necessarily affirm "not 
G." This excludes G as a legitimate axiom to start from. And if Smith does 
this to all the other worldviews around him, but his A cannot be made to 
reduce to "not A," then he has shown the impossibility of the contrary.

Put into plain English, C.S. Lewis said it this way in his book Miracles. 
"You can argue with a man who says , "Rice is unwholesome": but you neither 
can nor need argue with a man who says, "Rice is unwholesome, but I'm not 
saying this is true.""

Isn't it great not talking about slavery?

Cordially,


Douglas Wilson