Lecture 10.1 Religious Belief

Lecture 10.1: Religious Belief

1. Introduction

  • Theism: belief in an all-good, all-knowing, all-powerful creator (often referred to as ‘God’).

  • Atheism: disbelief in an all-good, all-knowing, all-powerful creator.

  • Types of Believers:

    • Non-sceptical Theists: assert knowledge of theism being true.

    • Sceptical Theists: do not assert knowledge of theism.

    • Non-sceptical Atheists: assert knowledge of atheism being true.

    • Sceptical Atheists: do not assert knowledge of atheism.

  • Important Query: What does it mean to claim knowledge of God's existence?

2. Conditions of Knowing God Exists

  • For one to know that God exists, the following must be valid:

    • God exists.

    • Belief in God's existence.

    • Justification for the belief in God's existence.

  • Epistemic Justification:

    • Different conceptions: internalist and externalist.

3. Epistemic Justification

Internalism

  • Cartesianism: Justified belief must have infallible truth markers.

  • Evidentialism: Justified belief is rationally supported by available evidence.

Externalism

  • Reliabilism: Justified belief stems from a reliable belief-forming process.

  • Sensitivity: A belief is justified if if it were false, the individual wouldn’t hold it.

4. Non-sceptical Theists

  • Assert confidence in God's existence

Internalist Theist

  • Must present strong evidence for God’s existence from:

    • Perception, memory, testimony, or inference.

  • Questions to consider:

    • What is the evidence?

    • Is it basic or inferential?

Externalist Theist

  • Must have a belief formation that is reliably-formed or sensitive to the truth.

  • Questions to unpack:

    • What makes the belief reliably formed or sensitive?

    • Is it based on basic or inferential evidence?

5. Sceptical Theists

  • Many contend that one cannot truly know God exists.

Internalist Sceptical Theist

  • Evidence deemed insufficient for justification.

    • Arguments are weak, perceptual evidence is insufficient.

Externalist Sceptical Theist

  • Belief in God is formed by unreliable belief processes.

  • If God were non-existent, believers would still maintain their belief.

6. Varieties of Sceptical Theism

  1. Belief in God may exist despite uncertainty without definitive knowledge.

    • Varieties of Faith include:

      • Trust in testimony

      • Belief despite weak evidence

      • Steadfastness and hopeful belief

  2. The sense of God is acknowledged but inexpressible and limited (the keyhole analogy).

  3. The belief in God exists beyond rational scrutiny (epistemic hinge concept).

7. John Hick (1922-2012)

  • Prominent thinker in religious pluralism, asserting different religions express one transcendent reality.

8. Religious Experience as Evidence

  • A crucial component for believers, often overlooked by skeptics.

9. Theist's Claim to Know God

  • The religious person’s claim to knowledge about God's existence raises questions about rationality.

  • The challenge is not proving God exists, but arguing for the reasonability of belief based on religious experience.

10. Analogy of Awareness

  • Comparing the awareness of God to awareness of the physical world.

11. Theistic Sense of God’s Presence

  • Defined as awareness of a divine entity, not through direct vision, but through personal history and events.

12. Summary of Religious Experience

  • Religious experience serves as a fallible source of justification for belief in God.

  • Theistic awareness parallels our understanding of the physical realm.

13. Hick's Argument

  • Familiarity with the physical world grounds justified beliefs.

  • Believers’ religious experiences parallel perceptions of physical reality.

14. Divine Reality and Perception

  • Analogy: Just as perception suggests a physical reality, religious experience suggests a divine reality.

15. Objections and Hick’s Replies

  1. Religious experiences are not universally perceived; Hick emphasizes individual receptivity.

  2. While ordinary sense experiences are often considered reliable, religious experiences might be critically analyzed but lack proper foundational evidence to deny them.

  3. Religious beliefs, grounded in personal experience, are as valid as belief in external physical realities.

16. Questions Raised for Hick

  1. What is the perceptual faculty through which we become aware of God?

  2. Does divine reality causally impact our physical reality?

  3. What specific theistic beliefs are justified by this awareness?

  4. How does widespread religious dissent impact the reliability of religious experience?