Introduction
Modern skeptics often claim that supernaturalism fails the test of epistemic utility. That is, it doesn’t “do” anything. It doesn’t build rockets, cure diseases, or power search engines. In contrast, science and mathematics are praised for their productivity. So the challenge goes: “If you want your worldview taken seriously, bring something useful to the table.”
Let’s take this challenge seriously—but let’s also hold the challenger to the same standard. Because the problem isn’t that supernaturalism brings nothing. The problem is that most critics ignore the fact that it brings everything they depend on.
1. Truth Is Not the Same as Usefulness
The argument that “only useful ideas matter” confuses epistemology with engineering. Some lies are useful. Some truths are inconvenient. Utility can point to truth—but it’s not the same thing.
We don’t abandon questions of meaning, morality, or metaphysics just because we can’t turn them into an app. They’re deeper than utility. They’re foundational.
The real question isn’t “Can I do something with this idea?” It’s: “Is it true?”
2. Science Stands on Supernatural Ground
The irony is this: science itself depends on ideas that are not scientific.
- The laws of logic are immaterial, timeless, and human mind-independent.
- Mathematics is not found under microscopes—it’s abstract, elegant, and inexplicably effective.
- The uniformity of nature—the assumption that tomorrow will behave like today—cannot be proven by science. It must be presupposed.
- The reliability of reason assumes that our minds are more than random chemical reactions.
Every one of these ideas is metaphysical. None are derived from matter. Yet without them, science wouldn’t work.
3. Naturalism Borrows From the Worldview It Rejects
Many modern thinkers hold to methodological naturalism: the belief that only natural causes should be considered in explanations. But they don’t live like naturalists.
They rely on non-physical, immaterial realities every day—logic, math, ethics, meaning. And they make judgments, trust reason, and expect order.
But where does that order come from? Why should logic always hold? Why should the universe be intelligible at all?
Only the Christian worldview offers a coherent answer: Because the universe was created by a rational, personal God who upholds it by His word. Logic reflects His nature. Order is His design. Reason is a gift—not an accident.
That’s not poetic fluff. That’s a rigorous metaphysical foundation. The atheist borrows the tools of theism to build a worldview that denies it.
4. Supernaturalism Has Proven Its Power
Christianity is not a stagnant philosophy—it’s a world-shaping force:
- The scientific revolution was birthed by men who believed in a rational Creator.
- Universities, hospitals, and the concept of human rights emerged from Christian soil.
- The idea that truth matters, that minds matter, and that history is meaningful—all flow from biblical thought.
Far from doing “nothing,” Christian theism shaped the modern world.
5. Logic Has Never Been Violated—Not Even Once
This is a devastating point for strict naturalists: Nothing has ever manifested in physical reality that violates the fundamental laws of logic.
No square circles. No married bachelors. No contradictions becoming real.
That means logic is prescriptive—not just descriptive. It tells not just how we think, but how things must be. And that prescriptive nature is falsifiable: if one contradiction ever appeared in reality, the whole system would collapse. But it hasn’t.
Logic holds. Always. Why? Because it’s grounded in something deeper than nature.
6. “Sky Daddy” and the Strawman Problem
Critics often reduce Christian theism to slogans like “Sky Daddy” or “invisible wizard”—as if this rhetoric is an argument. It isn’t. It’s a caricature, and an unserious one.
No serious theologian, philosopher, or historian has ever claimed that God is a magical figure operating like a Norse god in the clouds. That’s mythology—not biblical Christianity.
The God of the Bible is not a being within the universe. He is the eternal, immaterial ground of being itself—the Creator and Sustainer of all logic, order, and time. The moment you understand that, you realize these shallow dismissals aren’t critiques. They’re mockery in place of metaphysics.
If someone described quantum fields or spacetime curvature as “invisible spaghetti forces” and dismissed all physics on that basis, we’d laugh. That’s what happens when skeptics call God a “wizard.” They’re not confronting the claim. They’re dodging it.
Conclusion: The World Runs on Supernatural Assumptions
If you want to talk epistemic utility—fine. Let’s talk.
- Logic? Supernatural.
- Math? Supernatural.
- Reason? Supernatural.
- Morality? Supernatural.
- Scientific intelligibility? Built on supernatural assumptions.
Christian theism doesn’t just bring something to the table. It built the table, the chairs, and the very idea of “truth.”
The question isn’t whether supernaturalism is useful. The question is whether the secular worldview has the humility to admit it’s been borrowing our tools this whole time.
© 2025 JD Longmire. All rights reserved.
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