Self-Refuting Statements   

   The definition of a self-refuting statement: A universal statement that is not based on God’s word and it self-destructs on its own proposition because it is a statement that invalidates itself. It is self-contradictory. If the statement is true, then it is false. A self-refuting statement is self-defeating and self-invalidating. It nullifies itself. It cannot be true, forasmuch as it is true, then it is false.

The Self-Deceived Assert Self-Refuting Statements

   A self-refuting statement fails to satisfy its own premise. Nietzsche demonstrates this when he wrote this self-refuting statement: “There are many eyes. Thus there are many truths. Hence there is no truth.” My question to him would be: “Is that true?” If it is, it is false, if it is not true, it is false. Thus it cannot be true. People want to be self-deceived and will assert contradictory statements to avoid the truth found in Christ. Skepticism will always self-destruct. What they attempt to justify confutes itself. If you want to ground reason, you must be a Christian to account for the required pre-environment for reason. Every non-believer’s errant proposition will refute itself and is destroyed by its own credentials. If their proposition contradicts the Bible, it commits philosophical suicide. There are internal inconsistencies in all non-Christian systems of philosophy and thought. They are riddled with self-contradictions. And they are self-defeating and self-voiding. The Christian faith has total certainty, and we must demonstrate that the unbeliever has uncertainty. Any notion that is contrary to biblical thought is false.

   The following list of self-refuting propositions (the full list is in my book: God Does Exist! You can purchase it at MikeARobinson.com) is given to demonstrate the gaping defects that  non-Christian thought is intrinsically bound. Self-nullifying statements fail to satisfy their own premise. They are necessarily false. The self-refuting statement is written first and is followed by the stultifying question or appropriate response.

   •  You can’t know anything for sure.       

       Are you sure of that?

   •  You should never judge.            &nb sp;                

       Is that your judgment?

   •   There is no certainty.

        Are you certain of that?

   •   All things are relative.

        Then that statement is relative, so it is not true, thus all things are not relative. If a statement is relative then it is not binding, so all things cannot be relative.  

   •   You can’t know anything. 

        Do you know that?

   •   No one can know anything about God.

     Do you know that about God? To assert that God is unknowable, is to say a lot about God. 

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ (Colossians 2:8).

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

   •   What is true for you is not true for me.

        Well, what is true for me is that you are wrong.

   •   Logic is just sophistry and isn’t always true.

      That’s self-refuting because the claimant used logic to attempt to disprove logic. To declare that the law of non-contradiction isn’t true, is to prove that law is true. It has to be true for the assertion to be made.

    •   There are no laws of logic.

        The attempt to refute the laws of logic requires the employment of the laws of logic. These Laws of Reason are invariant and universal truths. The laws of logic are nonmaterial, invariant, transcendent, atemporal, universal, and necessary. They require God because He is nonmaterial, immutable, transcendent, atemporal, universal in knowledge, and necessary.

   •  The only true knowledge of reality is discovered through the positive sciences.

        That statement is not true because it is not found in the positive sciences.

“Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and the fear of Me is not in you,” says the Lord GOD of hosts (Jeremiah 2:19).

   •   We can’t be married to any idea. 

        Are you married to that idea?

   •   Philosophy can add nothing to science.

        Is that your philosophy for your science?

   •   How to Believe in Nothing and Set Yourself Free

(a title of a book).

        Is that what you believe?

   •   Language is not useful for a definition.

        Is that your definition in which you employ language?

   •   I can’t believe in anything that I can’t see or feel.

        Can you see or feel the point of that statement?

   •   There are no wrong needs.

        I need that to be wrong.

   •   All knowledge begins with experience.

        Did you experience that?

   •   God is indescribable.

        Is that your description of God?

   •   All speculations of the reality of absolutes are an illusion.

      Is that statement an absolute? If it is, it is an illusion, thus it is false.

   •   Everything is just an illusion.

        Then that statement is an illusion, so it is false, thus all things are not illusions. If people really believed this, they wouldn’t look both ways when crossing the street, but they do, proving they can’t consistently hold this view. They must depend on the Christian worldview.

   •  “Pundits all make over $50,000.00, so they can’t understand anything” (Chris Matthews, wealthy pundit).

Chris, do you understand that?

   •  “All knowledge is confined to the realm of experience” (Immanuel Kant).

        Have you experienced all knowledge?

   •   The whole notion of truth must be scrapped and replaced by the ongoing process of refutation.

       Then that statement is not true.

   •   Every assertion is false.

       Then that assertion is false.

   •   No truth is immutable.

        Then that statement is mutable, so it is not true.

   •   Truth can never be rationally attained but remains an elusive myth and an erroneous pre-commitment.

        Then that is an elusive myth and is not true. 

   •  True knowledge is only that knowledge that can be empirically verified.

        Can you empirically verify that statement?

   •  “That intelligence, when froze in dogmatic social philosophy generates a vicious cycle of blind oscillation” (John Dewey).

       Is that statement frozen in dogmatic philosophy? If yes, its blind oscillation, therefore it is false.

   •   Truth is not a boxy, dogmatic thing with hard corners attached by dogmatists.

        Are you dogmatic about that?

   •   Truth does not consist of words, propositions or assertions that can be communicated by language.

        Are those words or assertions communicated by language?

   •   Here, we have no rules.

        Is that your rule?

   •   Lies, lies, everywhere you turn are lies.

        Is that a lie?

  •   Apart from mathematics, we can know nothing for sure.

     Is that proposition a mathematical equation?  No. Then you are providing in what you say, the very basis to reject what you say.

   •   Commit to the flames any propositions or assertions that do not contain mathematics or facts obtained from observable experiments.

     Did you test that statement with experiments or does that statement contain mathematics?  No. Then commit it to the flames on the basis of its own statement.

   •  We can know nothing about reality.

       Do you know that about reality?

   •  “The line of demarcation between knowledge and mere opinion is determined by one criterion: falsebility by empirical evidence, by observed phenomena” (Popper).

        Did you observe that? If not, then that is just mere opinion.

   •   The only thing that is predictable is unpredictability.

        Do you think that prediction is unpredictable?

   •  Only things that are blue are true.

       Is that statement blue?

   •   I doubt everything.

      If you tried to doubt everything, you would be clipping off the rope you’re holding onto, because the notion of doubting, itself, presupposes certainty.     

   •   There are no good reasons for holding to the belief in      objective knowledge.

        Is that objective knowledge?

   •   We cannot achieve certainty because it is based on postulates.

        Are you certain about that postulate?

   •   Nobody’s right.

        Are you right about that?

   •   Every attempt to fashion an absolute philosophy of truth and right is a delusion.

         Is that true and right?

   •   All I believe in are the laws of logic.

        Is that statement one of the laws of logic?

   •   All English sentences consist of four words.

      This sentence comments on all English sentences, including itself.      It fails to meet its own demands, hence it is false.

•  Seen on display in a store: “I Love You Only” Valentine cards: Now available in multipacks.

   Turning the self-refuting statement on itself demonstrates that it is absurd. Suppose you walked into a public restroom and on the wall of the stall someone had written; “The proposition written on the other side is false.” You step out and read what is written on that side and it says: “The proposition on the other side of the wall is true.” The self-refuting assertion, on its own grounds, demonstrates that it is false and is reduced to absurdity. If it is true, it is false. It is like trying to ride two horses going in the opposite direction at the same time. The views within the statement have assertions that lead to their own destruction. Christianity is the only system of thought that is self-consistent. All non-Christian systems are self-contradictory, inconsistent, incoherent, and self-nullifying. Beyond that, Christianity is the precondition for the intelligibility of our world and all that is in it. The attempt to refute Christianity actually concedes the inevitability of the Christian faith because Christianity has to be fully true to attempt its denial. The employment of logic and morality, in striving to refute Christianity, is an implicit acknowledgment of the absolute certainty of God. The Christian has absolute intellectual certainty. Any comment, premise, theory, or assertion that contradicts a universal truth in the Bible is self-refuting and self-impaling.

Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36).

But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ (Acts 9:22).

Christianity is certain.

(The entire list of self-refuting statements is found in my unique Book: God Does Exist!

Buy it at MikeARobinson.com)

Tags: Relativism Truth Certainty Certitude

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