By: Anthony Williams | January 29, 2023
Nobody has ever confused me for a physics professor. I have also never been accused of being a transcendentalist. I enjoyed much of my time in college for the wrong reasons. As a student who never settled, I ended up with a degree in University Studies. I find that it was a degree that still wins me many eye-rolls and guffaws. While I didn’t realize it at the time, I did manage to pick a few things up regarding physical and metaphysical realities and the relationship between the two that serve me as a Christian apologist.
Metaphysics Apologetics Defined
If you are unfamiliar with the term metaphysical, in this context, it means things beyond the strictly material world that is outside human grasp. These ideas or concepts might include “the fundamental nature of reality; the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, cause and effect, necessity and possibility.” (1)
Metaphysics is non-physical, but that does not mean it is non-existent. It is one of the major ideas in the study of philosophy, but it seems to spill over into other programs. The idea of right and wrong was a constant theme in courses in the social studies realm. Discussions of history, government, and law all had those metaphysical concepts entwined throughout. Political science and social work examine the causes and effects of how we manage interactions between people, places, and things. All art classes are laced with what could be considered the metaphysical concept of beauty.
Metaphysical Apologetics and Science
Where the student finds less metaphysics in modern times is the science department. Math represents material objects (numbers) that can be added and subtracted, and all the other algebraic slicing and dicing I still struggle to follow. Chemistry and biology have, in many scholastic spaces, become anti-metaphysical. The true “scientific materialist” common in these fields in our age is committed to an a priori understanding that material reality is the only reality and that no “divine foot” can be let in the door.
Metaphysical Apologetics and Darwinianism
The conflict between the Christian apologist and the die-hard atheist often finds the battleground between the idea that metaphysics drives everything that exists or the alternative that the material world is “all there is, all there ever was, and all that will ever be.” It seems that metaphysics is challenged by many committed to a Darwinian paradigm, even outside the “hard sciences.” Evolutionary philosophy and the concept of survival of the fittest are shoehorned into every subject to explain away the idea of love, beauty, good, evil, or the concept of objective truth.
Metaphysical Apologetics and Thought
To regain the lost ground that has influenced so many in the world away from faith in God, we must argue for a balanced physical and metaphysical reality. We must remind people that thought is metaphysical. Memories are metaphysical, but they are untouchable unless turned into a representative photo or a written account. Time is metaphysical. While we have all kinds of verbs to describe what we do with time (kill it, waste it, cherish it), no one has ever put time in a bottle.
Metaphysical Apologetics and Mathematics
Even numbers, the undeniable heart of mathematics, are themselves metaphysical ideas that can only be represented on paper or by objects we count. No one has ever located the chemical “4” which is the substance of anything physical. Love and hate are metaphysical. People feel them, and they can cause physical reactions in us all, and yet no one has found a fossil of love or examined it in a microscope or a telescope.
Metaphysical Apologetics and the Power of Ideas
Ultimately, the very words on this paper represent ideas and information that are themselves metaphysical. A strict materialist might ask how real something can be if it has no physical brain and chemical reactions fueling the carbon machine. Why should they believe in some invisible and highly powerful force?
This is where we can take our interlocutor back to the beginning and provide a new view of reality that starts with the metaphysical and leads to the physical as opposed to the world’s opposite assumption. We can show them the clear idea of Creatio Ex Nihilo, or creation out of nothing. We can give God the glory for His creative works, as well as the unseen and immaterial realities that are from Him like love that we all know is as real as any apple that drops on our head due to an invisible and highly powerful force we call gravity.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (2)
About the Author
Tony Williams is currently serving in his 20th year as a police officer in a city in Southern Illinois. He has been studying apologetics in his spare time for two decades, since a crisis of faith led him to the discovery of vast and ever-increasing evidence for his faith. Tony received a bachelor’s degree in University Studies from Southern Illinois University in 2019. His career in law enforcement has provided valuable insight into the concepts of truth, evidence, confession, testimony, cultural competency, morality, and most of all, the compelling need for Christ in the lives of the lost. Tony plans to pursue postgraduate studies in apologetics in the near future to sharpen his understanding of the various facets of Christian apologetics.
Notes
- https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/philosophy/philosophy-terms-and-concepts/metaphysics
- https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+1&version=ESV
Tony: Do you perceive the presence of Jesus within you?
I have found that most evangelical apologists don’t want to answer this question. It is the Achilles Heel of Christian apologetics.
It is as if I claimed that the ghost of Jimmy Hoffa lives in me, whispering to me in a still, small voice the truth about his disappearance. Educated, rational people would think I’m delusional. And you know that is exactly what educated non-Christians will say about you if you admit that you believe the ghost of Jesus lives inside you, communicating with you in some fashion.
“This is where we can take our interlocutor back to the beginning and provide a new view of reality that starts with the metaphysical and leads to the physical as opposed to the world’s opposite assumption. We can show them the clear idea of Creatio Ex Nihilo, or creation out of nothing. We can give God the glory for His creative works, as well as the unseen and immaterial realities that are from Him like love that we all know is as real as any apple that drops on our head due to an invisible and highly powerful force we call gravity.”
This is an excellent approach against a hard atheist, someone who insists he knows that a “spirit world” does not exist, but most modern counter apologists are not hard atheists. Most of us accept the possibility that spirits, gods, and devils exist, we just don’t see convincing evidence to believe these beings currently operate within our universe. I personally never debate the origin of the universe. Scientists have not reached a consensus opinion on this issue. If the experts (scientists) can’t agree on the origin of the universe, who am I (or any other non-expert) to claim that he or she knows the answer to this question. Therefore, I simply accept the possibility that our universe was created by an intelligent being and then ask the Christian to prove that his god, Yahweh/Jesus the resurrected Christ, is that creator. And that is where the discussion gets interesting!
Well written, my friend!