By C.L. Bolt
Sometimes presuppositionalists place so much emphasis upon presuppositions that others think we must assume that evidence is just useless. While it is not useless, sometimes evidence simply will not convince people that their position is wrong. This is because their presuppositions prevent them from taking some evidence seriously. For example, Jesus told a story where a man was told that even if someone should rise from the dead, the man’s family would not believe. Instead, the man’s family had Moses and the prophets. Not even the evidence of the miracle of a person raised from the dead would bring these people to belief, but only the Word of God! In fact it is in most cases exactly like this, for our presuppositions are moral commitments just as much as they are intellectual presuppositions, and this is certainly the case when it comes to one’s acceptance or rejection of Christ Jesus and His message.
Evidence nevertheless can be helpful. It provides a persuasive element to our arguments. It certainly persuades Christians, because Christians are approaching the evidence with their Christian presuppositions in place. For example, a Christian will almost always consider the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ to be strong evidence that Christianity is true. However, a Hindu might accept the historical evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and just think that Jesus is another god to be added to list of thousands of other gods. There is nothing special about the evidence for a Hindu. The Hindu views that evidence through his or her presuppositions, and there is no change in worldview. Someone who believes that everything can be explained through science might just assume that either there will be some forthcoming explanation for the resurrection, or that it is just a fact that sometimes resurrections do occur. After all, there have been other accounts of resurrections. Maybe people really can be raised from the dead and it is perfectly natural for them to do so, though rare. They are certainly not supernatural events, whatever they are. So you can see how different people evaluate even evidence like the historical data around the resurrection of Christ Jesus in light of their ultimate presuppositions.
Only the Christian has evidence supporting his or her position. There is not one shred of evidence in the entire universe for the non-Christian worldview. It is all Christian evidence. The size of the universe, the fine tuning of the world we live in for human survival, the stars, the age of the earth, the vast oceans, the fulfilled prophecies of the Bible, the resurrection of Jesus, etc. are all evidences of the existence and nature of God. Not one shred of evidence stands against us, because Christianity is true. We do not therefore have to fear that we will ever find anything that overturns our worldview. We can engage in science and history and other research without any fear that we will ever find some fact that proves the whole thing false. It is true, and we trust God that it is true! He not only made everything, He owns everything as well and knows how it all fits together.
Unbelievers will view evidences as disproving Christianity. This is because as mentioned before they are starting out with their non-Christian presuppositions and evaluating the evidence in favor of their own position. Of course the Christian does so as well, and should do so unashamedly. We have good evidence for our position. The heavens declare the glory of God. The existence and nature of God have been made plain to all even in the things which have been made. We have plenty of evidence; more than we could ever offer.
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