Lessons in Critical Thinking (1 of 12)

Beginning with an Absolute.

You have heard me encourage and even exhort you from time to time to be as the Bereans, who were of a more noble character and checked out everything Paul told them. They checked Paul’s words against God’s Word to make sure what he said was true. You have heard me tell you to be discerning. In order to help you to be discerning as the Bereans, over the next few months I will include these articles on “Critical Thinking.”

We live in a world in which we all begin with certain presuppositions, that is that we all have things in our minds that we know, think, or “feel” to be true, these are the things that we “suppose” to be true before we begin thinking, thus they are pre-suppose(itions). Unfortunately, these presuppositions are not inborn but are learned. Since they are not inborn but learned, how does one know what presuppositions to believe and which to not believe?

Basically there are two presuppositions. One presuppositions is “In the beginning there was nothing.” This is a presupposition of no god. This is a supposition in which, in reality, we become our own god, because if there is nothing in the beginning, then there is nothing to depend on except our own reason and intellect, and so we are truly our own god. Thus, it follows then that there are no absolutes and no one is responsible to anyone except themselves because we are each our own god.

There is a second presupposition and that is, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1 (ESV)). This presupposition begins with the understanding that there is something bigger than all of us, all of humanity, all of the world, all of creation, all of the universe. If there is a God, then there are things that are absolute, absolutely right, absolutely wrong, absolutely true and absolutely false. If there is a God, then there is someone (or something) to which we must all be accountable.

Where one begins, one’s presuppositions, leads to where one concludes. The first presupposition, “In the beginning there was nothing,” leads to chaos and despair. The second presupposition, “In the beginning God . . . ,” leads to responsibility, order, and purpose (and a reason to think critically in the first place).