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Evidence, Uncertainty, And Belief: A Critique Of The Common Epistemic Grounds For Fideism And Agnosticism
Abstract
Uncertainty elicits more than one doxastic attitude towards God’s existence, namely agnosticism and fideism, which have very similar epistemic foundations despite the dissimilarity in their outcomes. This similarity mainly depends on the alleged uncertainty of evidence, and to disclose both attitudes in all their bearings, two fundamental theses, epistemic and practical, will be suggested. Employing these two theses, this study aims to investigate the crucial points where agnosticism and fideism overlap and diverge depending on the uncertainty and argue that the epistemic common ground, the basis of many criticisms of fideism, is self-destructive. The uncertainty concerning the evidence for God, ambiguity, or vagueness will be explored to justify this claim. This will bear the question of whether the evidence is ambiguous because it is absent mainly or because it is present but vague. Or is it neither absent nor vague but still ambiguous because both sides have clear evidence? Consequently, the current study shall object to the idea that agnosticism equals vagueness which implicitly means that agnosticism is a necessary stance and defends that fideism’s having loose or no relation to evidence is irrational.
Keywords
Supporting Institution
Yok.
Thanks
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Sadenur Doğan Aslantatar, Abdulkadir Tanış, Zeynep Baktemur, and İbrahim Yıldız for their invaluable contribution to the study.
References
- Avnur, Yuval. “Unicorn Agnosticism”. Inquiry 64/8 (2021), 818-829.
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- Bevan, Edwyn. Symbolism and Belief. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1938.
- Blackburn, Simon. “Fideism”. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, 139. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
- Clark, Kelly James. Return to Reason: A Critique of Enlightenment Evidentialism and a Defense of Reason and Belief in God. Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001.
- Clifford, William K. “The Ethics of Belief”. In Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings, ed. Peterson, M., Hasker, W., Reichenbach, B., and Basinger, 99–103. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
- Conee, Earl; Richard Feldman. Evidentialism: Essays in Epistemology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
- Corte, Samantha. “Following God without Belief: Moral Objections to Agnostic Religious Commitment”. Philosophy Compass 3 (2008), 381-96.
Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
Religious Studies
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Publication Date
September 30, 2022
Submission Date
April 22, 2022
Acceptance Date
August 19, 2022
Published in Issue
Year 2022 Volume: 22 Number: 2
APA
Aslantatar, N. (2022). Evidence, Uncertainty, And Belief: A Critique Of The Common Epistemic Grounds For Fideism And Agnosticism. Dinbilimleri Akademik Araştırma Dergisi, 22(2), 813-842. https://doi.org/10.33415/daad.1107348
AMA
1.Aslantatar N. Evidence, Uncertainty, And Belief: A Critique Of The Common Epistemic Grounds For Fideism And Agnosticism. Dinbilimleri Akademik Araştırma Dergisi. 2022;22(2):813-842. doi:10.33415/daad.1107348
Chicago
Aslantatar, Nesim. 2022. “Evidence, Uncertainty, And Belief: A Critique Of The Common Epistemic Grounds For Fideism And Agnosticism”. Dinbilimleri Akademik Araştırma Dergisi 22 (2): 813-42. https://doi.org/10.33415/daad.1107348.
EndNote
Aslantatar N (September 1, 2022) Evidence, Uncertainty, And Belief: A Critique Of The Common Epistemic Grounds For Fideism And Agnosticism. Dinbilimleri Akademik Araştırma Dergisi 22 2 813–842.
IEEE
[1]N. Aslantatar, “Evidence, Uncertainty, And Belief: A Critique Of The Common Epistemic Grounds For Fideism And Agnosticism”, Dinbilimleri Akademik Araştırma Dergisi, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 813–842, Sept. 2022, doi: 10.33415/daad.1107348.
ISNAD
Aslantatar, Nesim. “Evidence, Uncertainty, And Belief: A Critique Of The Common Epistemic Grounds For Fideism And Agnosticism”. Dinbilimleri Akademik Araştırma Dergisi 22/2 (September 1, 2022): 813-842. https://doi.org/10.33415/daad.1107348.
JAMA
1.Aslantatar N. Evidence, Uncertainty, And Belief: A Critique Of The Common Epistemic Grounds For Fideism And Agnosticism. Dinbilimleri Akademik Araştırma Dergisi. 2022;22:813–842.
MLA
Aslantatar, Nesim. “Evidence, Uncertainty, And Belief: A Critique Of The Common Epistemic Grounds For Fideism And Agnosticism”. Dinbilimleri Akademik Araştırma Dergisi, vol. 22, no. 2, Sept. 2022, pp. 813-42, doi:10.33415/daad.1107348.
Vancouver
1.Nesim Aslantatar. Evidence, Uncertainty, And Belief: A Critique Of The Common Epistemic Grounds For Fideism And Agnosticism. Dinbilimleri Akademik Araştırma Dergisi. 2022 Sep. 1;22(2):813-42. doi:10.33415/daad.1107348
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