Brian Leiter
speaker
530 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Sep 2009
last heard Sep 2010
Brian Leiter’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
So it's claimed that there are certain phenomena that are irreducibly complex, ergo, they have to be explained by something other than the ordinary mechanisms of natural selection.
And and the story about the book you had in your childhood is in a way is a simpler version of that.
It's a way of saying we'll deploy the ordinary standards of historical evidence, right, in order to show that the things that we're asking you to believe in fact are supported by that kind of evidence.
Now, I think there's two things we can say about this, or maybe three things we can say about this intellectualist strategy.
First thing to observe is I think it's doubtful how much of actual religious belief and practice it really explains.
That is, I take it there is a reason that religious believers frequently appeal to faith, and it's precisely because even if there's an intellectualist story
To be told, right, most religious believers really do want at least some of the beliefs insulated, right?
That is, they are going to be held no matter what, right?
No matter what reasons and evidence come forward.
More cynically, and this is certainly, I'm afraid, is the view I'm inclined to, I think most of these intellectualist stories are pretty clearly post hoc rationalizations for beliefs that are.
Held on other grounds.
And they are certainly attempts to try to suggest that religious belief stands on a continuum with beliefs about mid-sized physical objects and the structure of the natural world.
But it's not the case that any of the proponents of these views actually ever come to the conclusion that, whoops, the evidence doesn't really support it.
sense I find it a l a little hard to take these two seriously.
They're either not representative of what's typically characteristic of religious belief among most religious believers, or they're not really committed to the pursuit of reasons and evidence where reasons and evidence would actually lead.
As to the second counterexample you raise, I'd have to hear a little bit more about what's involved in the idea of beliefs about the meaning in life.
Remember, on my account of what's distinctive of religion, there are two conditions: beliefs that are insulated from reasons and evidence, at least some of them, and some of the beliefs are taken to impose categorical demands on action.
I don't deny that there are lots of beliefs that are insulated from reasons and evidence, but many of those beliefs may not be imposing categorical demands.
I mean, let me invite you to perhaps fill out the example if you have a particular case in mind that would allow us to assess whether or not the the conditions are met.
Okay, good.
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