Ep. #26 – Ten Steps to See God with Dr. Josh Rasmussen

by John DeRosa · Published February 3, 2019 · Updated March 19, 2019

Summary

In his recent book The Bridge of Reason: Ten Steps to See God, Dr. Joshua L. Rasmussen argues that reason can lead us to the existence of God, or what He calls the greatest treasure. During this interview, Dr. Rasmussen discusses (1) the tone and focus of his book, (2) the initial steps toward an ultimate foundation of reality, and (3) some reasons to think God lies at the ultimate foundation.

Guest Bio

Joshua Rasmussen, Ph.D., is an associate professor of philosophy at Azusa Pacific University. His area of expertise is analytic metaphysics, with a focus on the foundations of existence and the philosophy of mind. He is author of Defending the Correspondence Theory of Truth (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and Necessary Existence (with Pruss; Oxford University Press, 2015). Rasmussen values collaboration across disciplines and perspectives.

Show Outline

In the first segment, Dr. Rasmussen discusses the goal of his book and how he wanted to use it to serve people. I ask him about his tone, which I find to be unmatched in its invitation to consider the question of God using reason. He shares helpful insights regarding “barriers to wisdom” that he notices in online discussions these days.

In the next segment, Dr. Rasmussen leads use through the first several steps of the bridge of reason that begins with a “puzzle of existence.” He concludes that there must be a foundation of reality that is not dependent on other things. His examples of puzzle pieces, turtles, and bodies of water help make these points.

In the final segment, Dr. Rasmussen discusses some methods of probing the foundation. He explains how we can deduce attributes of the foundation by examining thoughts, consciousness, morality, and other things of our experience.