1. Rationality of Religious Belief Introduction to Philosophy Jason M. Chang

2. Lecture Outline 1. Background 2. Antony Flew’s position 3. R.M. Hare’s position 4. Basil Mitchell’s position

3. Background The issue Two ways of thinking about issue o Religious beliefs o Religious persons Definition of rational belief

4. Background Why the issue is important Importance of being rational o Public importance o Private importance

5. Are religious persons rational?

6. Background The debate (1948) Participants o Antony Flew o R.M. Hare o Basil Mitchell

7. Antony Flew’s position The position Religious beliefs are irrational Antony Flew (1923-2010)

8. Antony Flew’s position Invisible gardener story Features of the Believer Explorer o Maker of qualifications

9. Antony Flew’s position Idea of a qualification Definition Too many qualifications “Some gardener tends the plot, but _____________.” He is invisible He is scentless He is invulnerable to electric shock He is eternally elusive Qualifications of the original claim

10. Antony Flew’s position Flew on the religious believer Guilty of too many qualifications “God loves us as His children” People of dying from cancer Holocaust Famine, plague, earthquakes “God’s love is not human love” “God works in mysterious ways” “We are in no position to judge” “but _____________.”

11. Antony Flew’s position Flew on the religious believer Religious beliefs are unfalsifiable o Definition o About unfalsifiable beliefs “God loves us as His children” Counterevidence to the belief Abandon belief Make a qualification

12. Antony Flew’s position “What would have to occur or to have occurred to constitute for you [the Believer] a disproof of the love of, or the existence of, God?” Religious beliefs are irrational because they are unfalsifiable

13. R.M. Hare’s position The position Religious beliefs are examples of “bliks” All people (religious or nonreligious) have “bliks” R.M. Hare (1919-2002)

14. R.M. Hare’s position What is a “blik”? o Fundamental belief o Unquestioned belief (most of the time) o Existentially significant o Not easily abandoned o Not empirically falsifiable

15. CATEGORIESBELIEF “God has a plan for me” Fundamental belief Unquestioned Existentially significant Not easily abandoned Not empirically falsifiable Yes – fundamental to who I am and how I understand events in the world Most of the time (occasionally I may question) Yes – it gives me confidence, helps me act, gives my life meaning Yes – I cannot imagine abandoning this belief Yes – even if bad things happen to me, they do not falsify my belief R.M. Hare’s position

16. Does an atheist scientist like Richard Dawkins have “bliks”? Richard Dawkins (1941 - )

17. R.M. Hare’s position “Bliks” held by scientists (including Dawkins?) o “Everything (at least all events on earth) can be explained in terms of natural, scientific laws” o “Our senses are reliable sources of knowledge”

18. R.M. Hare’s position “Bliks” held by most parents “My child is a good person”

19. R.M. Hare’s position Hare’s point Flew’s mistake Hare’s claim against Flew

20. R.M. Hare’s position “Having abandoned some of the more picturesque fringes of religion, they think [nonbelievers] they have abandoned the whole thing – whereas in fact they still have got, and could not live without, a religion of a comfortably substantial, albeit highly sophisticated kind, which differs from that of many ‘religious people’ in a little more than this, that “religious people” like to sing Psalms about theirs.”

21. Basil Mitchell’s position The position Compromise between Flew and Hare Basil Mitchell (1917-2011)

22. Basil Mitchell’s Position The stranger story The Believer Resister Maintains belief against counterevidence Is the Mitchell’s Resister irrational like Flew’s Explorer?

23. Basil Mitchell’s Position Much depends on how the Resister responds to counterevidence to his beliefs.

24. Basil Mitchell’s position Counterevidence – sometimes sees the Stranger aiding the enemy (1) Abandons original belief (3) Maintain original belief – while dismissing the counterevidence as having no consequence (2) Maintain the original belief – while experiencing the force of the counterevidence Testable hypothesis Genuine faith Empty, blind, irrational belief

25. Basil Mitchell’s position (1) Abandons original belief Testable hypothesis (2) Maintain the original belief – while experiencing the force of the counterevidence Article of significant faith (3) Maintain original belief – while dismissing the counterevidence as having no consequence Meaningless, blind, irrational belief

26. Basil Mitchell’s position Mitchell’s conclusions Definition of irrational person The religious believer