There are many philosophical beliefs that do not mix with Christianity. These philosophical arguments cannot account for their system or contain inherent self-refuting contradictions and, most of the time, end up in the list of bold assertions about reality that resulted to irrationalism. One of such philosophies is logical positivism. Essentially, this philosophy is a fusion of a modified version of rationalism and empiricism – it believes that tangible and observational evidence is necessary to arrive at knowledge. This philosophy aimed to discredit all metaphysical arguments. John Locke’s popular version of empiricism that theorizes the mind as a clean slate (tabula rasa) at birth is a typical example.
The Positivists Philosophy
The main argument for Positivists starts with empirical verification. All knowledge exists because they can be proven empirically using known scientific facts and processes. A glass of water is true because one can see and feel both the glass and the water – they can be readily proven physically and one’s senses can perceive them. A metaphysical statement like “God exists” cannot be proven or perceived and therefore should be denied. One cannot bring God to a laboratory and studied. But then again, this philosophy collapsed based on its primary premise as well. How can positivists be certain that their statement “knowledge comes through sensations” is true when they cannot verify their own starting principle?
Still after this apparent downfall from grace, many followers tried to create variations of this school of thought but they all arrived in irrationalism. These schools of thought never stood again due primarily to their internally generated self contradictions. They are one and the same with another line of thinkers that assert “there is no truth“. How can they be so sure about their argument, that it’s the truth, when in the first place there is no such thing as truth? Such assertions are common for many non-Christian philosophies.
The Non-Christian Philosophy
People with non-Christian beliefs normally have atheistic or materialistic (or a combination of both) views. Pagan world-views revolve around principles of morality, science, and logic. However, if one is to look closely, adherents of this world-view fail to show how laws of morality, science, and logic can arise in a materialistic world. In other words, many of the non-Christians who have this view proclaim their beliefs in such things but fail to demonstrate the consistency and relevance in a materialistic setting.
In philosophy, this is termed “begging the question“. For instance, in the area of morality, non-Christians have a difficult time defining the difference between right and wrong in relation to their world-view. This is a clear cut example of ignorance. Nevertheless, there are still many people today that see this ignorance as a virtue to be promoted. This makes laws against evil such as crimes arbitrary formalities in society. In many of today’s pagan democracies, a small margin of majority votes can sway the general population to switch sides or go to a different direction. People with this belief system approach the issue of morality especially in defining right from wrong as if they have a blank mind (tabula rasa).
Their attempts to make clear the issues of morality are arbitrary and they usually borrow definitions from Christian world-view to fertilize the barren landscape of their own belief system.