I Study Philosophy

I study philosophy.

Yes, I said it, and I mean what I say. I study philosophy. And most controversial of all, I am a Christian.

To some of you, this statement may seem rather uncontroversial, and maybe a bit silly. I mean, what is wrong with philosophy, or a Christian studying it? If those are your thoughts, thank you for your support of (or at least lack of hatred towards) this greatest of all human sciences.

But let me tell you, the idea of a Christian studying philosophy is quite unthinkable for many Christians, and for others it causes no small amount of concern. It is argued that the Bible itself condemns philosophy in no uncertain terms (for example: Col. 2:8, 1 Cor. 3:18-20), and that it is merely the ramblings of foolish men who attempt to rid this world of God and His Laws. All philosophy is dangerous, undermining one's faith in Christ and His Word, shaking the very foundations of True Religion. Or maybe the word "philosophy" itself just makes someone uncomfortable, for reasons unexplained.

Yet, with all the flak that philosophy has garnered, everyone who is hammering it actually engages in philosophy by doing so. Admittedly, they are engaging in bad philosophy, but it is philosophy nonetheless.

How can this be possible? How can it be possible to engage in something while claiming to have nothing to do with it? Easy, they have a bad definition of the term itself.

So, before we go any further, let's give philosophy a definition (now, I do realize that the definition of philosophy itself is intensely debated by philosophers and anti-philosophers alike. But I personally believe that this debate is mostly unfounded.).

Philosophy is the fundamental science. What do I mean? Philosophy is the study of the most fundamental problems of reality. It looks at ourselves, our world, our reality, our very existence, and attempts to make sense of it all. It asks questions like, “what is reality, how can we (and is it possible to) differentiate between reality and non-reality, what is knowledge and how can we learn such knowledge, what is absolute truth and how can we be certain of it, is there a God, do we have free wills or is our will dictated to us by something outside of us, what is goodness and evil, what is proper reasoning, what is the greatest government, and how can we be sure of any of this?”

Just looking at the above may not make you feel any better about philosophy. It seems as if it is critical of everything, second-guessing even the most basic of realities. But you engage in this science, don't you? If you are a Christian pro-lifer, when someone asks you, "Why is abortion evil?”, do you say, "Because all human life is valuable, since man was created in the image of God"? When asked whether stealing is wrong, or about any random moral problem, have you ever referenced the Bible and declared that something was right or wrong because God said so in His Word? Have you joined the Calvinism vs. Arminianism debate, or the Creation vs. Evolution debate? Do you study and utilize Christian apologetics? Do you have an IQ greater than that of a peanut, and actually utilize your intellect to try and understand the world around you? If any of these are so, you've engaged in philosophy, whether you acknowledge it or not.

As I hope to explore in later posts, it isn't philosophy that is bad, rather certain systems of thought that philosophers have created are false.