The Creator-Creation Distinction in the Thought of Cornelius Van Til as an Apologetic Critique of Dataism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59002/jtp.v6i1.221Keywords:
Dataism, Creator-creatur distinction, Cornelius Van Til, apologetics, data religionAbstract
Dataism, as popularized by Yuval Noah Harari, views all of reality - including human beings - as a data-processing system, thereby elevating the flow of data to the highest value that determines meaning, decisions, and truth, and thus emerges as an alternative religion in the contemporary era. This article examines the ontological and epistemological claims of Dataism through the framework of Cornelius Van Til’s Creator-creation distinction. This study employs a qualitative-descriptive literature review design with thematic text analysis, mapping Dataism into four hierarchical layers of claims: empirical (the capacity of algorithms to process data), anthropological (the reduction of humans to biochemical algorithms), epistemological (data as the authority of knowledge), and axiological (the flow of data as the highest value). The results show that Van Til’s distinction affirms the empirical reliability of algorithms but reveals a fundamental error in the subsequent three layers, as Dataism repeats an ancient rebellion—namely, the creation’s desire to usurp the Creator’s throne, now with data as its crown. This study concludes that the Creator-creation distinction serves as a powerful yet focused presuppositional critique, affirming the status of data as a derivative and dependent creation, not an absolute source of truth.
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