How do we know?

"How do we know?" This simple question might be the most ignored question in all of today's intellectual discussions. I'm not talking only of the question of how do we know God exists, for that cannot be answered in one simple blog post. What I mean is, how do we know anything? How can we be certain of our own knowledge and of our own reasoning ability?

From the atheist worldview, the whole universe is an orgy of randomness. The cosmos has no "design" to it at all. It just is. Everything, absolutely everything, from the Big Bang to the creation of life itself and our own species, says the atheist, is the result of an essentially chaotic and random universe. Most "hard atheists", as opposed to agnostics, will readily admit this. "Nature," they say, "is the whole show. And everything in it is the result of the same 'mindless' chaos of randomness." One of their favorite topics in religious discussion, biological evolution, is the perfect case in point. The atheist says that the neutral pressure of natural selection creates every single trait in every single biological species on earth. They are essentially saying that random chaos creates pressures which "select" those fit to survive under the current conditions. Thus, everything from mankind's arms and legs to reason capability is the result of this process. Do you see the problem here? This worldview thinks that the human mind was born out of randomness. That logic and reason are simply the by-products of a blind evolutionary process. Under this philosophy, there is no reason to believe that "logic" and "reason" yield truth. All it tells us is that these things have somehow helped us to survive.

I personally think my own realization of this problem was huge in accepting God. Blaise Pascal had a very similar point in one of his Pensees (too lazy to go find out which one). In other words, unless we believe in a supernatural source (God) for our own mind, we have no reason to trust it.

If my own explanation is confusing, I suggest reading Pascal. I believe C.S. Lewis also made the same point. Either way, their abilities far exceed my own and I wholeheartedly suggest them.