The Christian Mandate for Good Thinking
‘Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.’― Frank Turek
I used to belong to a religion who ran away from philosophy like it was a vampire. And true, there are some bad philosophical ideas. But Christians must use critical thinking to combat this bad philosophy in today’s world.
This is because there is is a quiet but urgent battle beneath the surface of everyday life, a battle of ideas. Some philosophies seduce with fine-sounding words, offering a counterfeit hope or a warped sense of self. Others echo truth but twist it just enough to lead astray. Frank Turek’s quote pierces this battlefield with clarity: good philosophy must exist because bad philosophy does. For the Christian, this is not merely a call to intellectual sparring, but to spiritual and moral responsibility. Truth, after all, is not abstract—it is a Person (John 14:6).
In the first century, the Apostle Paul stood in the marketplace of ideas at Mars Hill in Athens, where Stoic and Epicurean philosophers debated the nature of life and the divine. Paul didn’t shrink from their worldview; he entered it. He quoted their poets, observed their culture, and gently redirected their questions toward the risen Christ. Paul’s example affirms that Christians are not to avoid philosophy but to answer it—with wisdom, courage, and grace.
The world is not neutral ground. Every generation inherits a slew of ideas: some good, others dangerously hollow. Materialism tells us we are mere matter, that love is chemical, that morality is evolutionary convenience. Relativism asserts there is no truth—except the truth that there is no truth. Even within religious settings, false philosophies creep in: prosperity gospels, spiritual elitism, authoritarianism dressed as divine authority. Without a sound Christian voice, these ideas go unchallenged, and their victims are often the vulnerable—young minds, the spiritually hungry, those caught in existential crises.
Good philosophy, grounded in Scripture, sees the world as it is: created, fallen, and in need of redemption. It begins with reverence for God—“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10)—and proceeds to love the Lord not only with heart and soul but with mind (Matthew 22:37). This does not mean a dry, academic faith, but a reasoned and robust one. When Peter urges believers to be ready to give an answer “with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15), he is calling us to good philosophy—to thoughtful, reasoned faith that neither retreats into blind tradition nor surrenders to modern nihilism.
Christians need not fear questions. It was Jesus who asked over 300 of them in the Gospels—questions that exposed hypocrisy, illuminated truth, and stirred the conscience. Good philosophy does likewise. It teaches us to discern, to test the spirits (1 John 4:1), and to love truth more than comfort. In an age of soundbites and slogans, good philosophy slows us down and demands that we think, reflect, and align our thoughts with God’s character.
But good philosophy is more than defense—it is a light in the darkness. It offers coherent meaning in a fractured world. It affirms that humans are not cosmic accidents but image-bearers of a Creator. It speaks of justice rooted in God’s righteousness, of love defined by the Cross, of freedom found not in doing what we want, but in being what we were created to be.
C.S. Lewis, echoing Turek’s concern decades earlier, wrote during the Second World War that “good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.” His own conversion to Christianity was, in part, intellectual—a surrender not only of pride but of poor reasoning. Faith, for Lewis, was not the enemy of thought; it was its culmination. As he wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen—not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
In a world where philosophies shape nations, drive policy, and form the soul of culture, Christians cannot afford to be passive. Ours is not a blind leap into the dark, but a steady walk in the light. That walk must engage the mind, not set it aside. For bad philosophy will continue to whisper lies until someone stands to tell the truth.
Let us, then, answer—not with arrogance, but with wisdom. Not to win arguments, but to win people. For the God who is Truth deserves a people who think truthfully, speak truthfully, and live truthfully in the face of every lie.