The Nature of Agnosticism Part 3
Prayer, True Belief, and the Epistemology of Theism Prayer, “True Belief,” and the Epistemology of Theism In this post I want to examine several connected components of theistic belief: what it means to say that prayer “works,” what people mean by “true belief,” how religious claims are related to evidence, and what may help explain the persistence of theistic belief. The material is wide-ranging, so I have reorganized it around a progression from the conceptual problem of prayer , to the epistemology of belief , to apologetic case studies , and finally to some psychological questions about belief revision . Part Question Focus I. Prayer What would it mean for prayer to work? Petitionary prayer, omniscience, providence, agency, coincidence, and observable outcomes. II. “True Belief” What kind of belief is religious belief? Belief-in versus belief-that, revelation, miracles, evidence, inner witness, and evidential vulnerability. III. Apologetic case studies How are arguments and conve...