As presuppositionalists, we should constantly seek to expose autonomous reasoning and argumentation. I recently listened to an interesting unveiling of autonomous thought on a Mars Hill audio journal. The speaker was talking about the various pro-life arguments and demonstrated how pro-life apologists typically appeal to autonomy. Often, the pro-life argument is presented as such:

We need to stand up for the unborn child because they don’t have a voice of their own. We must protect them because no one asked them about taking their life.

This reasoning fails within a proper Christian epistemology. Consider the context of euthanasia, in which the “patient” desires to be killed (assisted suicide). The patient has a voice and is saying they want to die. The common pro-life apologetic must permit it. The sanctity of life has therefore not been maintained.

As Christians, we must always seek to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This includes not only what we think, but how we think. If we employ autonomous reasoning as opposed to a proper analogical epistemology founded on the knowledge of God that has been revealed to us, we have already failed. It behooves us to seek to sanctify our reasoning in order to provide a God-honoring apologetic.