This is a list of Gordon Clark quotes about circular reasoning and begging the question.
The books from which these quotes came are published by the Trinity Foundation. You can purchase the books at these links:
Table of Contents
All “Systems” (Philosophies, Worldviews) Are “Circular” in a Sense
At once the secular opposition, and indeed a number of theologians too, will complain that this is not so much an initial axiom as an all-inclusive begging of the question. The assumption takes in too much: There is nothing left to be proved. Everything is swallowed at one gulp.
As an ad hominem or tu quoque reply it may be pointed out that such begging the question is not an idiosyncrasy of Christianity. When behaviorism is modestly put forth as a mere method of procedure in studying human behavior — a plausible procedure because of the difficulties of introspection — and then when it is not so modestly taken to be a method adequate for its subject matter, all questions of mind, soul, and consciousness are ruled out ab initio. Similarly, the positivistic presupposition of sensory verifiability disposes of God and immortality without investigation. It can hardly be otherwise: any axiom eliminates its opposite. The Christian system is no more indefensible on this point than any other system.
Gordon H. Clark. “Clark and His Critics.” Apple Books. 125.
