We’ve got mail: Are the senses reliable?

I do not know if this is the right place to ask this question but regardless, I have a question regarding presuppositional apologetics and how the Christian knows what she/he knows. I have been studying apologetics (classic/PA) for a while and I feel as though I have come to somewhat of a roadblock in epistemology. So here’s my question. Does the Vantillian approach to apologetics rely on sensation and if so, how does it account for the reliability of sensation. Usually when I ask this question the answer is “God has made our senses reliable” but I am equally aware of that sensation is not consistently reliable. What is the basic premise/syllogism for epistemology using VT apologetics? How does a Christian acquire knowledge about the universe and if it is by sensation, how do we justify the reliability of our senses? Kind regards Tyler ( born-again slave to Jesus Christ)

Yes, the Van Tilian approach to apologetics relies upon the senses insofar as the Van Tilian approach to epistemology relies upon the senses. Van Tilians are Christian empiricists. But they are not limited to empiricism.

We may account for the reliability of the senses in a number of ways. Here are two. First, Scripture presents a picture of the world wherein those who are created in the image of God come to know God, themselves, and the world through sensory experience. The Christian worldview does not teach Solipsism, nor does it teach Rationalism. Second, we would expect God not to deceive us in such a radical way as to place within us the inevitable tendency to rely upon sensory input for our everyday interactions with the world were the senses unreliable.

When you say that sense experience is not consistently reliable you are not saying anything that is not affirmed in the traditional account of the reliability of the senses. That is, when the senses are functioning properly in a conducive environment their deliverances are at least generally true. We recognize that the senses may be impaired through drunkeness, for example.

That is a very short, simplistic answer to a very thoughtful question. Hope it helps.