Atheism Cannot Account for the Concept of Truth

Both the existence of truth itself and the existence of the concept of truth (i.e. the idea in our mind that statements and beliefs can express propositions that correspond to reality) cannot be accounted for in the absence of God.

Why is that?

Truth and the concept of truth are axiomatic

First we should understand that we cannot determine if it is at all possible for propositions to correspond to reality unless we already are in possession of a concept of truth by which to judge this. Said in another way, we cannot determine if truth exists unless we already pressuppose the truth of both truth itself and the existence of a concept of truth within our own mind. Truth, and the concept of truth are thus axiomatic. They cannot be denied, since in order to deny them we have to first presuppose them.

The interesting question becomes: Which worldview can account for the existence of truth and the concept of truth within our mind?

Theism can provide a justification

The Vedic scriptures state that truth itself and the concept of truth within our mind is revealed by Krishna as innate knowledge, i.e. we are created with the knowledge that something is true and something is false. In other words, Krishna has revealed that it is true that truth exists. And He has also equipped us with a concept of truth with which we can seek out truth. Krishna is omnipotent, so it is axiomatic that He has the power to reveal perfect, infallible knowledge to us in such a way that we know it to be true, and that He can give us the epistemic faculties, including a concept of truth, to seek, find and know what is true.

Atheism fails to provide a justification

In contrast to the monotheistic Vedic scriptures there is no naturalistic way to account for truth itself and for the concept of truth, and, by implication, the existence of knowledge. Atheists are without explanation as to how inert matter can generate truth itself plus knowledge-producing epistemic faculties. After all, in the absence of God our brain is not rationally designed; it originated from wholly irrational causes. Our mental faculties, including our epistemic faculties, survives simply because they are sufficient for survival, not because they are able to aquire knowledge of reality. At best they operate on True Belief, not Justified True Belief. Hence, even though atheists take it as axiomatic that truth itself and the existence of a concept of truth exist, they are not able to justify the existence of any of these, and thus they cannot justify any of their knowledge claims – even their claims about probabilities (since they are also knowledge claims). Atheism is thus incompatible with truth.

Atheism is self-contradictory

The implication of all of this is that atheism relies of both the existence of truth itself plus the existence of a concept of truth, but cannot itself provide a justification for any one these, it must borrow the idea of truth itself plus the concept of truth from theism, and therefore atheism is proved to be a self-contradiction. It relies on theism to estsablish itself.