Disagreement Skepticism and the Rationality of Religious Belief

In Kevin McCain & Ted Poston, The Mystery of Skepticism: New Explorations. Boston: Brill. pp. 83-104 (2018)
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Abstract

The Equal Weight View is a view about the epistemic significance of disagreement that is thought to have significant skeptical consequences. In this paper I do two things: (i) apply the Equal Weight View to cases of religious disagreement, and (ii) evaluate some consequences of that application for the rationality of religious beliefs. With regard to (i), I argue that the Equal Weight View implies that awareness of the current state of disagreement over religious propositions, such as God exists or God doesn’t exist, gives us a defeater for any non-skeptical attitude toward such propositions. With regard to (ii), I examine what this entails about the rationality of religious beliefs. In particular, I examine how troubling the theist should find these consequences, and argue that they are not as troubling as is typically thought.

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Jonathan Matheson
University of North Florida

References found in this work

Epistemology of disagreement: The good news.David Christensen - 2007 - Philosophical Review 116 (2):187-217.
Epistemological puzzles about disagreement.Richard Feldman - 2006 - In Stephen Cade Hetherington, Epistemology futures. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 216-236.
The law of group polarization.Cass Sunstein - 2002 - Journal of Political Philosophy 10 (2):175–195.
The Reflective Epistemic Renegade.Bryan Frances - 2010 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 81 (2):419 - 463.
Belief in the Face of Controversy.Hilary Kornblith - 2010 - In Richard Feldman & Ted A. Warfield, Disagreement. Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.

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