{"id":3150,"date":"2012-04-27T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/?p=3150"},"modified":"2012-04-27T09:06:20","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T14:06:20","slug":"philosophy-fridays-is-believing-god-acted-without-evidence-justified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/philosophy-fridays-is-believing-god-acted-without-evidence-justified\/","title":{"rendered":"Philosophy Fridays: Is Believing God Acted, Without Evidence, Justified?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[singlepic id=26 w=640 h= float=center]<\/p>\n

Every now and then, on a Friday, I’ll step into the deep waters of Philosophy, ramble on about some idea and maybe even interact with something I might be reading. Most of the time, a real philosopher could probably read my drivel and offer a corrective\u2014but for now I’ll speak from ignorance. After all, it is Friday; what better way to have fun than with philosophy. In this post I’ll follow up a previous question<\/a> with answering this question: “Can you be justified in believing God acted in history if you lack evidence or even an argument for the best inference of the evidence?\u201d<\/p>\n

Why would we need either arguments or evidence to be justified in believing that God worked in history? People don\u2019t usually function like that.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Currently I believe that I am typing on this keyboard but I don\u2019t believe that it\u2019s really you dreaming of me typing. I don\u2019t have evidence for that belief, nor do I have a good argument: I just believe I\u2019m doing it. This belief could prove to be unsubstantiated (if I\u2019m really plugged into the Matrix) but on what grounds am I currently not justified in holding the belief?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s now, but what about three days ago? I truly believe that I bathed. I don\u2019t have a formed picture in my mind of the event. My current stench is evidence to the contrary. Checking the water bill proves nothing. Asking for early rising eyewitness accounts is unhelpful. Am I therefore unjustified in believing that I bathed?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not belabor the point: we don\u2019t need evidence or an argument to be justified in most of our beliefs. Why would the bar suddenly rise when it comes to God?<\/p>\n

Enter the slogan \u201cextraordinary events require extraordinary evidence\u201d which doesn\u2019t make sense on several levels.<\/p>\n

First: <\/strong>\u201cextraordinary\u201d is arbitrarily defined. If I bathed only once every three years, but my wife bathed twice a day, wouldn\u2019t me bathing be extraordinary? And at what point is bathing becoming \u201cordinary\u201d? After bathing every 2 years? Every month?<\/p>\n

Second:<\/strong> it\u2019s a moving goal post. After all, some things that at one point might have been extraordinary are now ordinary. Believing in future smartphones in 1982 suddenly becomes a justified belief in 2001 when technology changes?<\/p>\n

Third:<\/strong> it forces us to ignore any event. As William Lane Craig said, imagine that I buy a lotto ticket and actually hit the jackpot…am I unjustified in my belief that I actually hit the jackpot because the only bit of evidence I have (ie: the winning ticket) isn\u2019t extraordinary enough? Maybe the winning ticket and the random numbers stated on the screen aren\u2019t enough. Maybe I need to also get struck by lighting. But even getting struck by lightning is less extraordinary than hitting the lotto.<\/p>\n

Fourth:<\/strong> what\u2019s extraordinary for God? Imagine God says \u201cI\u2019m going to raise a dead man\u201d then proceeds to do it. Sure the dead don\u2019t normally rise, but how is God doing what he said he would do an extraordinary thing? And if it is the case that he said he would do it back then, can\u2019t I now be justified in believing he acted in history as he said he would?<\/p>\n

If James the Baker always tells the truth tells me that yesterday he made me a cake am I not justified in believing him? He\u2019s never made me a cake before. There seems to be no good reason for a cake. And there\u2019s not even evidence that he made me the cake. But I know James and he\u2019s a truth teller and baking is within his sphere of ability. Can\u2019t my belief be justified simply on account of who James is and what he does?<\/p>\n

If we substitute James for a necessary maximal being who is The Good, doesn\u2019t that in itself justify beliefs of (at least) God\u2019s activity in history (without saying anything more about what he said)?<\/p>\n

So, to the opening post, am I justified in believing God acted in history even if I lack evidence or an argument? Of course I am. That doesn\u2019t mean there isn\u2019t evidence. It just means that I don\u2019t need it to believe it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[singlepic id=26 w=640 h= float=center] Every now and then, on a Friday, I’ll step into the deep waters of Philosophy, ramble on about some idea and maybe even interact with something I might be reading. 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