Is Ancestral Testimony Foundational Evidence For God's Existence?

Autor: Frank D. Schubert
Rok vydání: 1991
Předmět:
Zdroj: Religious Studies. 27:499-510
ISSN: 1469-901X
0034-4125
DOI: 10.1017/s0034412500021211
Popis: It is Alvin Plantinga's contention that a belief in the existence of God constitutes a rationally justified 'basic belief for which evidence is neither required nor desired. This defiant proposal to jettison any evidential require? ments for justifying one's theistic belief has led to a great deal of discussion, with some theists welcoming the possibility that evidence may no longer be necessary to justify one's convictions,2 and others finding themselves express? ing a deep concern that such a move might border on a type of ' noninitiates be-damned' withdrawal from academic discourse.3 Whatever the outcome of these initial reactions to his project, Plantinga has at least succeeded in 'changing the subject', to borrow a phrase from Richard Rorty,4 though it is most certainly not the sort of change of subject which Rorty himself would welcome a renewed defence of religious rationality. I believe that there is much to commend Plantinga's position of defiance in claiming to operate beyond evidence, but in the end I will show that his position is untenable for one very specific reason namely, that Plantinga's belief in the existence of God suggests a clearly discernible reliance upon a specific type of evidence, the evidence of ancestral testimony. If I am correct in my argument that Plantinga relies upon such ancestral testimony as evidence to undergird and inform his belief in God's existence, then his hope to escape from classical foundationalism is destined to disappointment. Fail? ing to escape the bonds of evidentialism, I will argue that Plantinga's belief
Databáze: OpenAIRE