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.