“C’mon let’s race you stupid Fundy!”  “What are you waiting for?  Are you chicken?”  “That piece of junk car you have couldn’t beat anything!”

You have just entered your car into a “race for pinks.”  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a “race for pinks” is a drag race popularized in the 1950’s where the loser of the race forfeits the ownership of his vehicle to the winner (pink, being the color of the vehicle ownership papers in California at the time).

You have produced your pink slip verifying that you are the rightful owner of your vehicle, while your opponent has been revving his engine screaming at you to get into the race, utterly perplexed at your refusal.

Seems like an odd scenario doesn’t it? — a scenario too ridiculous to imagine ever taking place.  So, why do I bring it up?  Folks, this is exactly the scenario that most Christians face when debating unbelievers.  In fact it’s worse than this; Christians are racing unbelievers when they know that the car of the unbeliever is stolen!

Recently professed atheist Tommy Rodriguez engaged me in a private exchange via Facebook.  Tommy is a scientist and published author, and comes across as a kind, intelligent, no nonsense kind of guy.  I liked him from the very beginning.  It became apparent very quickly though that Tommy has never engaged a presuppositionalist.  He wanted to “race” in his scientific field while I was there asking for his pink slip.

Normally the private discussions I have never see the light of day, but Tommy found our exchange interesting enough that he asked if he could publish it on his blog, and I readily agreed.

When you read it, keep in mind that I am looking for Tommy’s “pink slip” when it comes to his ability to do science, namely, his justification for the uniformity of nature.  All of science is based on the assumption that the future will be, or will probably be, like the past.  Science would be useless if we did not expect that the logic we use, the methodologies we employ, and the very words which formulate the thoughts in our head (to name but a few), mean the same things they did 5 seconds ago and that the results of our experiments will be (or will probably be) applicable 5 seconds from now.   We do not boil water on Tuesday and wonder at which temperature water will boil at given the same conditions on Friday.  Everything we do, we do with an expectation that the future will resemble the past.

The Christian can justify this easily, by appealing to God who controls the universe, maintains those things which do not change as unchanging (such as the laws of logic) and keeps order over those things which do change ( like the state of water into steam when heated) .

As I have said, Tommy is a kind, intelligent fellow, but his worldview cannot account for the uniformity which lies at the base of everything he does.  In fact, near the beginning of our exchange, Tommy actually denies that nature is uniform, but then goes on to spend much of his time arguing for the uniformity of nature.

Tommy is not like other professed atheists and is not hurling insults at me as the opening line in my scenario indicates, but it is clear that he is perplexed at my refusal to get into the race.  My position is clear though, I know that he has stolen the metaphorical car he is driving.  He depends on uniformity, but denies it and denies the God who regulates our universe.

Of course, Christians do have the arguments to meet professed atheist on their terms and get into the race, but knowing that their car is stolen, why on earth would we want to?

Here is the exchange.  It appears as this will be an ongoing discussion.  Tommy has posted his “final thoughts” on our exchange, and I hope to respond to them soon.  Please pray that Tommy comes to know the God he is suppressing, in a saving way.