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God and the Problem of Epistemic Defeaters

Expected online publication date:  16 September 2024

Joshua Thurow
Affiliation:
University of Texas, San Antonio

Summary

Any modern, moderately intellectually mature (MMIM) believer in God faces a variety of epistemic defeaters of their belief in God. Epistemic defeaters challenge the rationality of a belief. After explaining the notion of a defeater and discussing various ways and targets of defeat, this Element categorizes the many defeaters of belief in God into four classes: rebutting, undercutting, base defeaters, and competence defeaters. Then, several general defeaters of theistic belief are examined in some detail: the superfluity argument, the problem of unpossessed evidence, various forms of debunking arguments, and a cumulative case competence defeater. The typical MMIM believer, it is argued, has resources to resist these defeaters, although the cumulative case competence defeater has some force. The strength of its force depends on the strength of grounds for theistic belief and of various defeaters and deflectors for the competence defeater. No easy general defeater of theistic belief is found.
Type
Element
Information
Online ISBN: 9781009270649
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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God and the Problem of Epistemic Defeaters
  • Joshua Thurow, University of Texas, San Antonio
  • Online ISBN: 9781009270649
Available formats No formats are currently available for this content.
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God and the Problem of Epistemic Defeaters
  • Joshua Thurow, University of Texas, San Antonio
  • Online ISBN: 9781009270649
Available formats No formats are currently available for this content.
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

God and the Problem of Epistemic Defeaters
  • Joshua Thurow, University of Texas, San Antonio
  • Online ISBN: 9781009270649
Available formats No formats are currently available for this content.
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