Episode 129: Is Faith Rational? (Part Two)

Summary: Continuing on faith and reason with Nathan Gilmour and Rob Dyer.<br> In this half we focus on the critique of evidentialism in Basil Mitchell's “Faith and Criticism” (1994), Peter van Inwagen's "Clifford's Principle" (1994, from his "<a href="http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/philosophers/vaninwagen/quam_dilecta.html" target="_blank">Quam Dilecta</a>"), and Alvin Plantinga's “Is Belief in God Properly Basic?” (1981). We consider briefly how mysticism plays into the idea of private experience counting as evidence with William Alston's "Experience in Religious Belief" (1991), and then we consider whether you can will yourself to believe (or not) by considering "pragmatic faith" in Richard Swinburne's "The Voluntariness of Faith" (1981) and editor Paul Helm's strange rebuttal in "Faith and Merit" (1999).<br> See <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2015/12/14/ep129-1-faith/" target="_blank">part one</a> for the full list of readings, or get the ad-free <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2015/12/13/ep129-faith-citizen/" target="_blank">Citizen edition</a>. For a synopsis of each reading and links to read and/or buy them, see the <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2015/12/13/topic129-faith/" target="_blank">topic announcement</a>.<br> Don't forget your PEL wall calendar, "Songs from PEL" CD, and other merch at our <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/shopdonate/" target="_blank">store</a>. <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/support/" target="_blank">Please support PEL</a>!<br> Please visit <a href="http://thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL" target="_blank">thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL</a> for a one month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.<br>