A self-refuting statement contradicts itself, making it logically false. However, Christians sometimes unfortunately mischaracterize an assertion as self-refuting. An example is the statement “There are no moral absolutes” to which a Christian might respond “Are you absolutely sure?” believing he has demonstrated the statement to be self-refuting. In fact, the statement “There are no moral absolutes” is not self-refuting; it merely denies the existence of moral absolutes.

JP Moreland, in his book Scientism and Secularism, deals with this issue and provides three requirements for a statement to be self-refuting:

1. The claim establishes a requirement of acceptability
2. The claim subjects itself to the requirement
3. The claim fails to meet the requirement

Here are five examples of self-refuting statements:

1. “I do not speak a word of English” (self-refuting when spoken in English)
2. “All sentences have exactly three words” (obviously self-refuting)
3. “What is true for you is not true for me” (If this is true, then this claim is only true for the person stating it and isn’t true for anyone else).
4. “It is wrong to force your morals on others” (Then why are you trying to force this morality on me?)
5. “There is no absolute truth” (Proclaims an absolute truth while asserting none exists.

Self-refuting statements are necessarily false. Be judicious in your characterization of self-refuting statements and ensure they are genuinely self-refuting.