The Wisdom to Doubt is a major contribution to the contemporary literature on the epistemology of religious belief. Continuing the inquiry begun in his previous book, Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion, J. L. Schellenberg here argues that given our limitations and especially our immaturity as a species, there is no reasonable choice but to withhold judgment about the existence of an ultimate salvific reality. Schellenberg defends this conclusion against arguments from religious experience and naturalistic arguments that might seem to make either religious belief or religious disbelief preferable to his skeptical stance. In so doing, he canvasses virtually all of the important recent work on the epistemology of religion. Of particular interest is his call for at least skepticism about theism, the most common religious claim among philosophers. The Wisdom to Doubt expands the author's well-known hiddenness argument against theism and situates it within a larger atheistic argument, itself made to serve the purposes of his broader skeptical case. That case need not, on Schellenberg's view, lead to a dead end but rather functions as a gateway to important new insights about intellectual tasks and religious possibilities. ~ Product Description

A Review

"The Wisdom to Doubt is extraordinarily well structured; moreover, it is stuffed with powerful arguments that are passionately expressed and enlightening. Those who are serious about the philosophy of religion will have to come to terms with it." ~ Daniel Howard-Snyder, Western Washington University

Table of Contents  

• • Preface: An Uncertain Heritage xi
  • Introduction 1
• Part I. Finitude and the Future: Seven Modes of Religious Skepticism 11
• The Subject Mode 15
  • Overlooked Evidence 18
  • Neglected Evidence 20
  • Inaccessible Evidence 21
  • Undiscovered Evidence 23
  • Undiscoverable Evidence 24
  • Unrecognized Defeat: A Strategy of Assessment 27
  • Additional Support for the Strategy 39
  • Application of the Strategy to Religious Inquiry 42
  • Is the Subject Mode Self-Defeating? 47
• The Object Mode 50
  • The Ultimate: Knowable or Unknowable31? 51
  • Religious Conceptions of the Ultimate: Adequate or Inadequate? 56
  • Ultimism: Coherent or Incoherent? 64
• The Retrospective Mode 69
  • General Preliminaries 70
  • The Heart of the Matter: How Religious Investigation Has Suffered 71
  • The Skeptical Fallout 86
• The Prospective Mode 91
  • Why the Future Matters Now 93
  • How the Evidence May Change 97
  • Does the Prospective Mode Underwrite Irresponsible Generalization? 105
• The Modes Combined: Limitation, Immaturity, Presumption 108
  • Combinatorial Reasoning 109
  • The Limitation Mode 112
  • The Immaturity Mode 113
  • The Presumption Mode 115
• The Bearing of Pragmatic Considerations 118
  • The Benefits of Belief 119
  • The Benefits of Disbelief 124
  • Passive or Active Skepticism? 128
• Part II. Cradles of Conviction: The Modes Applied and Fortified 131
• An Answer to Naturalism 133
  • The Nature of Naturalism 133
  • Arguments for Naturalism 136
  • A More Plausible Naturalism? 151
  • Conclusions 157
• The Questionableness of Religious Experience 160
  • First-Person Justification: Variations on the Theme 162
  • Innocent until Proven Guilty? 169
  • The Problem of Religious Diversity Revisited 175
  • The Problem of Natural Explanation Introduced 184
  • Final Thoughts 189
• Part III. God and the Gaps: The Modes Illustrated and Vindicated 191
• Hiddenness Arguments I 195
  • Parameters of the Discussion 195
  • God, Creation, and Divine-Creature Relationship 198
  • Objections to the Hiddenness Argument 206
  • The Free-Will Defense against the Problem of Hiddenness 218
• Hiddenness Arguments II 227
  • Former Believers 228
  • Lifelong Seekers 233
  • Converts to Nontheistic Religion 236
  • Isolated Nontheists 238
  • Conclusion 242
• The Argument from Horrors 243
  • Developing the Argument 243
  • An Objection to the Argument 254
  • More Objections: The Free-Will Theodicy 256
  • More Objections: The Free-Will Defense 261
• The Free-Will Offense 270
  • A World without Free Will 271
  • A World without the Free-Will Defense 282
  • The Problems of Free Will 285
  • This Chapter and Previous Arguments 288
• Consolidating Forces: The Arguments Combined 291
  • The Consolidated Hiddenness Argument 292
  • The Consolidated Argument from Horrors and Free Will 294
  • The Consolidated Argument from Hiddenness, Horrors, and Free Will 295
• Closing the Case: Seven Proofs and a Skeptical Conclusion 297
  • The Force of the Proofs: An Opening Worry 297
  • The Force of the Proofs: Skeptical Theism 299
  • The Force of the Proofs: Other Theists 304
  • God and the Gaps 306
  • Epilogue 310
  • Definitions 313
  • Principles 317
  • Index 321

Biography

J. L. Schellenberg is Professor of Philosophy at Mount Saint Vincent University. He is the author of Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason and Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion, also from Cornell.