Presuppositional Questioning: Evidence

Probably the most common challenge you will receive from an unbeliever is for you to simply provide them evidence for Christianity. However, as presuppositionalists we understand that what one accepts to be evidence and how evidence is interpreted is determined by his presuppositions. Furthermore, his presuppositions are governed by his ultimate presupposition or ultimate authority. Instead of naively providing them evidence to evaluate, we must make them conscious of their presuppositions and ultimate authority and how they influenced their criteria of evidence. We ultimately must challenge the unbeliever to justify his ultimate authority and demonstrate to them that it is either: 1) arbitrary or 2) circular. In both cases, we should demonstrate that their worldview fails to provide the preconditions for the intelligibility of human experience.

Here are some questions we can ask the unbeliever in return for their demand of evidence:

 
1. Make them aware of their criteria 

• What do you accept/consider to be evidence?
• How do you determine what is and isn’t evidence?
• What is your criterion/standard of evidence?
• What do you mean by evidence?

2. Make them aware of their presuppositions 

• How did you arrive at/choose that standard for evidence?

3. Make them aware of the arbitrariness or circularity of their ultimate authority

• How do you know that standard of evidence is the correct one/valid?