Evolution, a Bag of Doritos and the Existence of God

 

 

 

A Study in Christian Epistemology and Verification of the Christian Worldview and Philosophy of Life (German: Die Weltanschauung).

By Lee Edward Enochs

 

A Study in Christian Epistemology and Verification of the Christian Worldview and Philosophy of Life (German: Die Weltanschauung).

"Without the God of the Bible, the God of authority,the God who is self-contained and therefore incomprehensible to men, there would be no reason in anything. No human being can explain in the sense of seeing through all things, but only he who believes in God has the right to hold that there is an explanation at all."

Dr. Cornelius Van Til, "Why I Believe in God."

"God exists and is not silent"
Francis A. Schaeffer

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."(Romans 1:20)

I grew up in a university town where the the theory of evolution was the religion of the land and where Charles Darwin was the patron Saint of science and human progress.

I was always taught that all biological life forms were on a journey and a process in which everything that lives gradually changes into a more complex and better form.

I was taught that a change in the genetic composition of a biological species produces a higher and more complex life form though an infinite succession of generations via evolutionary natural selection. I always believed that until I went on this journey. On the road to Utah, I inevitably had to pass through Vegas. Despite my certain predilection for losing money via the one armed bandit, I was in search for pristine shrimp tails and superior prime rib from Sin City's
multiplicity of all night buffets.

However, to my eternal chagrin, my car conked out square dab in the desert, several miles outside of Barstow near the base of the Soda Mountains.

Then, wiping some frenzied gnats from my face, out of the corner of my left eye I saw a rather decrepit and haggard looking coyote scurrying about and I kicked the dirt in disgruntled disdain as I contemplated making the heat drenched trek to the next semblance of civilization.

However, while standing around languishing in the arid desert, I had a momentary insight on the nature of reality and the existence of Almighty God.

A crumpled and rather empty old bag of Doritos blew past my feet in the swirling desert wind, and beads of perspiration dotted my forehead as I introspectively looked past the cactus laden horizon, towards the formulation of the cosmos.

As I stood in the desert for once, without the creature comforts of the technological media and consumer orientated American digital empire to drown out my cognitive thinking processes, my rationale for believing in the existence of God followed this line of thinking:I believe that the existence of God is self evident to all and not illusions, since the Almighty has affixed via creation the nature of humanity and the Word of God, tangible and objectively verifiable evidences to substantiate the viability of faith in God in counter distinction to other epistemological and ideological options."For in him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).


Take the crumpled bag of Doritos, (a product of the multi- nationalist Frito-Lay corporation by the way) I believe that discarded item of trash can demonstrate the existence of the God of historic Christianity.If a man finds himself alone in the desert with only the hollowing wilderness to his left and to his right and a crumpled bag of Doritos at his feet, the question must be asked; "How did that bag get here?"One may postulate the existence of the bag of Doritos on exclusively naturalistic grounds, that the discarded bag of chips (if you call Doritos real food) was once petroleum that was extracted in liquid form the bowels of the earth, then manufactured into a disposable bag, in turn was filled with Doritos, then sealed, gathered and shipped off to a sore by a massive network of machinery.

Then the Doritos were purchased by a person who ate the chips and tossed the bag to the ground.

The bag of Doritos in turn, blew in the wind, tumbled on the desert ground and ultimately arrived at his feet.

All these basic facts are true enough, but they do not answer the essential epistemological and metaphysical questions surrounding the ultimate origin of the earth and it's reality that gave birth to the petroleum that was extracted to form the bag of Doritos. that blew in the wind and ultimately landed at his feet.

Some Observations Regarding the Bag of Doritos:"It is the function of the wise man to know order."-Aristotle

The existence of the bag of Doritos demonstrates as well, the existence of an objective reality guided by the universal and transcendent laws of logic.

The existence of the bag of Doritos demonstrates that reality has a definite form and order since one can identify that there is an actual bag of Doritos at his feet and not something else.The logical law of identity demonstrates Everything that exists has a specific nature. Each entity exists as something in particular and it has characteristics that are a part of what it is.

The fact that we can identify that there is a bag of Doritos at his feet and not something else demonstrates self evidently that:We find ourselves in a physical world with an objective reality.

The fact that the bag of Doritos exists demonstrates that human beings exist and can differentiate its form from other objects.

The bag of Doritos in turn demonstrates humanities existence, the existence of an external world and the existence of an objective reality that is guided by transcendent laws of logic.

There is a causal, complementary, parallel, or reciprocal relationship or correspondence between the bag of Doritos and the existence of a external and objective world and reality it finds itself in:

1) T he bag of Doritos exists.

2) I can recognize the Doritos.

3) Therefore I and the objective world exist.

4) I can distinguish the Doritos from other things.

5) Therefore laws of logic exist.The existence of the bag of Doritos demonstrates the epistemological certitude of:

1) My existence

2) The existence of an objective world that is real and not illusions and:

3) The existence of tangible and objective laws of logic from which I can differentiate the bag of Doritos from other things.

A skeptic may posit that that the bag of Doritos, the objective world and the laws of logic are illusions but will instantaneously contradict himself when he acknowledges the existence of the Doritos and in turn acknowledges his or her own existence and the existence of the external world wherein the Doritos finds it's existence in.

When the person distinguishes the Doritos from other things he will acknowledge a transcendent logical law demonstrating that such a body of laws exists as well.

Thus skepticism, agnosticism and atheistic denial of the existence of objective reality and logic will only lead to self contradiction. For one cannot deny his or her own existence and the ability to distinguish themselves from it without at once acknowledging his existence thus leading to an contradictory infinite regress or absurd denials (Ad Infinitum) or Solipsism (Latin: solus, alone + ipse, self) is the philosophical idea that "My mind is the only thing that exists". Solipsism is an epistemological or metaphysical position that knowledge of anything outside the mind is unjustified. The external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist

The crumpled bag of Doritos leads to the existence of God and the truthfulness of the historic Christian faith in the following manner.

The bag of Doritos conclusively demonstrates The existence of the objective world and objective reality governed by three objective laws of logic:

1. The Law of Identity : If any statement is true, then it is true.

2. The Law of Contradiction : No statement can be both true and false.

3. The Law of Excluded Middle : Every statement is either true or false.However, the mere acknowledgment of objective reality and logic does not answer the question of how these things got here.Mere observation of the workings of the universe does not answer the question of origins and why all things grow old and die.

It is obvious to all that everything that lives shall eventually die.The Second Law of Thermodynamics shows us that all things in nature will deteriorate and a natural process always takes place in such a direction as to cause an increase in the entropy of the universe.Yet nothing within nature tells us "why" things grow old and die. The question of "why" is a metaphysical philosophical question that I believe can only be really answered by turning our attention to the teachings of the only authority on the matter; the Bible, the Word of Almighty God, the creator of all things.

I will postulate here that without the existence and sustaining power of the God of historic Christianity then we are led to an infinite regress of questioning of our origins. The existence of Almighty God is of an epistemological necessity and can be argued for transcendentally.The transcendental argument for the existence of God , takes the position that it is impossible for any authoritative rationality (including an atheist's) to emerge from matter.Thus, the existence of God must be assumed in order to deny God's existence, which means that the atheist's position is self-contradictory.

The transcendental argument argument for God's existence shows the necessary preconditions for the possibility of rational thought or meaningful discourse, for God is the author of all rational intelligibility. For God is the one who created the world and the reality that governs it.For without the God of historic Christianity humanity would be trapped in an infinite regress of questions regarding the origin and meaning of our existence.

But God has spoken from the whirlwind of contradictory opinions and has demonstrated His existence due to the impossibility of the contrary.For without God we cannot know how we got here, what our purpose is and where we are going. Fortunately God has revealed the knowledge of Himself and the meaning of human existence in His absolutely inerrant, inspired, authoritative, self-attesting and self authenticating Word, the Holy Bible.God has revealed the knowledge of himself in His Word and differentiated Himself from all the false gods and ideas about truth held by unbelievers by giving evidences of the Bible's truthfulness such as the miracle of fulfilled prophecy and the glorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe in the existence of Almighty God because God's inspired and perfect Word declares so it is impossible for anything to be contrary to the truth of God's existence and He has differentiated Himself from all other religious and ideological options by raising His Son from the dead, declaring to the world that Jesus Christ is Lord.Two thousand years ago, a unique man named Jesus Christ of Nazareth emerged from the chaos of human existence with a profound message of hope and human redemption.

Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of God, lived a perfect life, performed incredible miracles, proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God and ultimately died on the Cross for the sins of humanity and rose again from the dead to give anyone who would admit that they have transgressed the moral law of God as revealed in the Ten Commandments, sincerely turn from their sins and place their faith in Him eternal life.

Hence, I believe in the existence of God and the truthfulness of the Christian faith because God's exclusive authority: the inspired, inerrant, infallible, self-attesting and self authenticating Word of Almighty God declares so and because of the impossibility of the possible. Without the God of the Bible and the objective existence of His time-space reality itself, ethics, the laws of logic and all other criteria of truth and logical coherency would be instantaneously rendered nonsensical and completely arbitary since there would be no objective criterion to establish the inherent veracity of anything at all.

Notre Dame Philosopher Alvin Plantinga (whom I spoke with briefly back in 2001) has demonstrated conclusively in His well respected philosophical treatises "Warrant and Proper Function", and "Warrant and Christian Belief" that faith in the God of historic Christianity is a properly basic belief as is the knowledge of one's own existence or the epistemological certitude that the external world about us, does in fact exist. Hence, to deny God's existence is to leap into the existential abyss and void of the unknow which in the end, will result in the judgment of God, when we meet Him face to face at the judgment seat of God.

That is how a crumpled old bag of Doritos declares to me the glory and grandeur of Almighty God.

This is why everyone needs to repent of their sins and place their faith in Jesus Christ, who is God the Son, who died and rose again from the dead, to give all, both small and great through faith in His name.
"But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31).