What is Faith? – Part 2
What does the word “faith” mean? According to my dictionary (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2nd College Edition), the word “faith” has several different meanings: Definition 1: A confident belief in the truth, value, trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. Definition 2: Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. Definition 3: Loyalty … What is Faith? – Part 2
Swinburne’s Argument from Religious Experience – Part 6
I will now try to wrap up this series of posts on Swinburne’s Argument from Religious Experience (AFR). I don’t have any big bold conclusion that I’m driving toward, just a few observations, clarifications, and an objection or two. One thing I have done is to make use of the concepts of dependence and … Swinburne’s Argument from Religious Experience – Part 6
Religious Experience – Recognizing God
Sam said to me and our gathered friends: Give me someone who is willing to sit down and take a three-hour Chemistry test, and another hour to review the test after it is completed, then I will be able to give you a reliable estimation of how much that person knows about chemistry. This claim … Religious Experience – Recognizing God
Swinburne’s Argument from Religious Experience – Part 5
Here is a brief plot summary of the movie Harvey: Due to his insistence that he has an invisible six-foot rabbit for a best friend, a whimsical middle-aged man is thought by his family to be insane – but he may be wiser than anyone knows. James Stewart played Elwood P. Dowd, the “whimsical middle-aged man” … Swinburne’s Argument from Religious Experience – Part 5
Swinburne’s Argument from Religious Experience – Part 4
Although I have been considering the implications of the idea that the veridicality of a Theistic Religious Experience (TRE) is independent of the veridicality of other TREs, this is NOT the view of Swinburne. In fact, Swinburne clearly holds the opposite view, the view that the veridicality of a TRE is dependent on the veridicality … Swinburne’s Argument from Religious Experience – Part 4
Swinburne’s Argument from Religious Experience – Part 3
Previously, I have only considered the very simple case where one person has a memory of having previously had a theistic religious experience (hereafter: TRE) of a generic sort–an experience in which it seemed (epistemically) to him/her that God was present. There were a couple of basic points made about probable inferences in contrast to … Swinburne’s Argument from Religious Experience – Part 3
Swinburne’s Argument from Religious Experience – Part 2
Richard Swinburne’s argument from religious experience (AFR) as given in The Existence of God (2nd ed.- hereafter: EOG) is based on three key epistemological principles: EXPERIENCE …(in the absence of special considerations), if it seems (epistemically) to a subject that x is present (and has some characteristic), then probably x is present (and has that characteristic)… (EOG, p. 303) … Swinburne’s Argument from Religious Experience – Part 2
Evolution vs. The Argument from Providence
In the Existence of God (2nd edition, hereafter: EOG) Richard Swinburne lays out a carefully constructed, systematically presented case for the the claim that it is more likely than not that God exists. I have previously argued that there is a big problem with this case that arises with the third argument. In order to know that … Evolution vs. The Argument from Providence
Faith and the End of PoR
John Loftus has advocated the End of Philosophy of Religion as a discipline. In his post defending this proposal, Loftus repeatedly talks about “faith”. The word “faith” occurs 23 times in the post, and it occurs in 7 out of the 13 paragraphs that constitute the post. Some paragraphs have multiple references to “faith”: It … Faith and the End of PoR
Next Year
I wanted to retire this year, but that did not work out. I might be able to retire a year from now, though. There are a number of topics from this year that I plan to carry over into 2015: 1. The End of PoR? John Loftus has argued that public colleges and universities … Next Year