Begging the Question of Authority

Begging the question is a term for the logical fallacy where one assumes to be true the very point that he is making an argument for. In essence, the person uses his conclusion as a premise. A commonly used example of this fallacy is meant to discredit Christianity. It goes as follows:


"The Bible is true because God wrote it. The Bible says that God exists. Therefore, God exists."


We as Christians need to be aware of this logical fallacy when we justify God's authority by citing the Bible. When we as Christians are confronted with this, however, we must be quick to point out that the Unbeliever faces the same problem about their ultimate authority, too.


For example, the rationalist (who believes human reason is the ultimate authority) will use reason and logic to justify their claim. In effect, they open their "bible" of human reason to justify reason as their ultimate authority. Furthermore, the atheistic scientist who believes that the emperical scientific method is their ultimate authority must first assume the scientific method to be true, and then cite emperical evidences derived from the scientific method to validate the authority of the scientific method.


The point is this: all ultimate authorities must validate themselves. This is true regardless of what you claim your ultimate authority to be. Whatever you use to test something is your ultimate authority. If most people (including Christians) are honest with themselves, they would find that their own autonomous reason is their ultimate authority. They will only accept certain Biblical claims as valid so long as it doesn't infringe on their personal view of God and morality. They will only accept logical arguments that come to the same conclusions that their "common sense" affirms. They will only accept emperical evidence that doesn't challenge what they already believe about the world. This propensity for man to be his own ultimate authority is innate in all of us and goes back to our ancestor Adam.


In conclusion, Christians are not alone when they beg the question and cite the Bible to justify God as the ultimate authority. To say Christians defy logic with this reasoning is to also admit the accuser does it as well. Everyone must do the same thing in regards to their ultimate authorities!