When challenged, atheist Richard Dawkins’s response to Christians is typically expressed in statements such as, “I have facts to support my worldview. What are your facts?” Dawkins is a naturalist (a.k.a. materialist). Naturalists assume that there is no spiritual reality, only natural reality. Accordingly, naturalists believe reality is a closed system. Therefore, truth can only be known through sense perception and human rationality.

Naturalism and all its underlying assumptions are statements of faith. This means that none of the axiomatic premises of naturalism can be proven. However, since naturalists’ assumptions are ubiquitously embraced as self-evident truth, it is easy for most people to overlook the fact that naturalists are people of faith.

If confronted with this proposition, most naturalists would probably deny that they based their worldview on faith because they perceive themselves as rational and view people of faith as non-rational. The reason for this flawed thinking of naturalists is that they presume reason is not predicated on faith. In other words, they fail to recognize their own assumptions as statements of faith.

Implicit in Dawkins’s apologetic are several assumptions (predicates), such as, the existence of objective truth, rationality as a tool to discern truth, and sense perception as a tool to support rationality. None of these assumptions can be proven using the widely accepted formal methodology of logic developed by the ancient Greeks. But even if the assumptions supporting naturalism could be proven by the laws of logic, there is still a problem. The laws of logic are statements of faith that cannot be proven.

Therefore, for naturalists to make rational arguments requires statements of faith. So, for Dawkins to claim something is a fact requires these premises.

As with all humans, Dawkins is limited by how God defined his universe to operate, which includes the human ability to discern truth using rationality. There is no way to know truth except through divine revelation and the divine gifts of sense perception, human reason, and the laws of logic.

Like most who oppose Jesus, Dawkins seeks to oppose any effort to acknowledge his statements of faith. He would assert that reason is not predicated on faith because his apologetic presumes that reason is superior to faith and is the only way to truth. This assertion is, many times, expressed using the pejorative “you are a person of faith, but I am a person of reason.” But this assertion is a ruse.

“In the beginning God” is the undeniable reality for all humanity. Everything comes from God. Nothing exists apart from him. He alone defines truth and rationality. The predicate for human rationality is the Creator who has chosen to reveal himself through revelation, sense perception, and reasoning. Furthermore, he alone defined the laws of logic as tools to reveal truth to humanity at his sovereign pleasure. Because of this, the existence of truth and the human ability to use sense perception and reason to discover truth is a gift of divine grace. This means that every human is a person of faith whether they are aware of it or not. Any truth that any human knows comes from divine revelation because faith in God and his creation undergirds all rational thought. This truth comes from the Creator who is the source of all.

The first-century Romans, like all humanity, utilized God’s revelation in creation (general revelation), including the laws of logic, as the basis for orderly life, including their legal system. They may not have understood that they lived by faith in the Creator to define their epistemology, but they did. They were people of faith, just like everyone else.

In 146 BC, the Romans defeated the Greeks militarily; however, intellectually the Greeks defeated the Romans, at least to some degree. Instead of Latin, it was the Greek language that became the predominate language of the New Testament. And the Greeks of the fourth and fifth century BC formalized rationality. The Greek word logos translated word in English versions of Scripture implies a rational word—a reasoned word or logical word. Greeks develop the syllogism as a formal tool of logic and, in addition to the syllogism, they identified the basic laws of logic as follows:

identity: A=A;
non-contradiction: A must be either A and not A; and
excluded middle: A cannot be both A and not A.

A formal proof was reasoning from a set of premises using the laws of logic and syllogism. If the premises were true and the reasoning was consistent with the laws of logic, the conclusion was deemed to be proven.

The Greeks influenced the Romans with the formalized the laws of logic. The Romans prided themselves on legal protocols based on reason and logic. Some of these protocols can be seen in Acts 25. For example:

The existence of truth based on rationality: “For it seems to me unreasonable, in sending a prisoner, not to indicate the charges against him." (Acts 25:27 ESV)
The right to defend oneself: “It was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone before the accused met the accusers face to face and had opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him.” (Acts 25:16 ESV)
The right of a Roman citizen to appeal their case to the highest authority: “No one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar." (Acts 25:11 ESV)

The Roman legal system was predicated on the idea of objective truth and human reasoning as tools to determine truth.

For the Romans, rationality based on sense perception and the laws of logic was deemed to be a self-evident truth. But as noted above, the true source of rationality is the God of creation.

The Creator defines all truth and the laws of logic. He also gives mankind sense perception and the ability to reason as tools to discover truth.

The Greek definition of a formal proof using syllogisms has been, and continues to be, widely accepted among all ethnicities. And Christians should be clear that the Greeks’ ability to formalize logic is an example of common grace.

This formulation of a proof using the syllogism as a divinely granted tool of rationality is an axiomatic principle from God that enables humanity to discern truth about the Creator and his universe.

Consequently, faith in God enables humans to understand epistemology correctly. This is because faith precedes reason. Consequently, in the words of one medieval theologian, we believe to know not know to believe.

Therefore, naturalists, like Dawkins, are people of faith. They based their faith in mankind as the basis for their worldview. This is humanism.

Christians offer a worldview based on faith in Jesus as Lord and Christ as revealed in Scripture. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity—the sovereign transcendent Creator of all who is the definer of truth and sustainer of the material world. This is Christianity.

What do you believe—a worldview centered on mankind, or a worldview centered on the sovereign transcendent Creator of the universe? Whatever your answer is, it will be based on faith.must