Guy Axtell, "Problems of Religious Luck: Assessing the Limits of Reasonable Religious Disagreement" (Lexington, 2019)
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What is the central puzzle of religious luck that the book addresses?
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Music
Hello, thanks for joining us for this episode of New Books in Philosophy, which is part of the New Books Network. I'm Robert Talese. I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University, and I'm one of the hosts of the program. My guest today is Guy Axtell. Guy is professor of philosophy at Radford University. He works primarily in epistemology and metaphysics with outreach to philosophy of science and philosophy of religion. Guy's new book is titled Problems of Religious Luck— Assessing the Limits of Religious Disagreement. It's newly published with Lexington Books. Philosophers have long pointed out the ways in which our lives are shot through with contingency. Where, when, and into what circumstances we are born is largely a matter of chance.
And yet those features play determining roles in our lives. The language we speak, the customs we practice, the food we eat, as well as our tastes and ambitions, these all seem to depend largely on luck. In many cases, this is also true of our religious convictions. Hence a puzzle. It's common for religious convictions to strike us as deeply personal and formative. And those who have religious convictions also see their religious beliefs as true. This leads them often to regard the religious beliefs of others as false or even worse. And yet once it's conceded that a person's religious conviction is often a product of circumstance, that common way of understanding religious belief from the inside, as it were, begins to look strange.
In the book Problems of Religious Luck, Guy Axtell explores the implications of the realization that luck is an inexorable feature of our doxastic lives. He argues that a proper understanding of the impact of luck on our convictions can help us to navigate thorny issues with respect to religious disagreement. As usual, there's a lot to talk about. And as usual, we'll begin where we usually do, with our guest. Hello, Guy. Hi, Bob. How are you today?
Great. Thanks for the invitation.
Well, I'm glad to have you on the program. Why don't you start us off by telling us a little bit about yourself?
Well, thanks. Yeah, I was born and raised around Berkeley, Northern California, in the East Bay. And I actually had an aunt who was a philosophy professor at UC Berkeley. But when I went off to college, I'm not sure I even realized that and I certainly didn't know what philosophy was in any detail. But this story may be similar to many listeners, but I just found my way as a freshman into some philosophy courses and I found it exhilarating. It excited me and it wasn't long before I had declared a major. And I think my father was a lawyer he knew the value of philosophy as a good background prep for many things.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central puzzle of religious luck that the book addresses?
0:00–5:28
2
How does Guy Axtell’s personal background shape his interest in epistemology and religion?
5:28–13:38
3
What is the taxonomy of religious luck (constitutive, criteria, resultant, etc.) and why is it important?
13:38–19:45
4
How does the concept of religious exclusivism illustrate problems of luck and disagreement?
19:45–28:11
5
What is the ‘inductive risk’ account and how does it connect moral and epistemic luck?
28:11–36:05
6
How can cognitive science of religion help measure and explain religious pluralism?
36:05–43:25
7
What normative and descriptive challenges arise when assessing reasonable religious disagreement?
43:25–52:02
8
What future research directions does Axtell propose for studying religious belief and radicalization?
52:02–1:00:16
Speakers
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Daniel Cohnitz and Jussi Haukioja, "Foundations for Metasemantics" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Philippe Huneman, "When Metaphysics Meets Biology: Kantian Approaches to the Concept of An Organism" (Routledge, 2026)
Rivka Weinberg, "The Meaning of It All: Ultimate Meaning, Everyday Meaning, Cosmic Meaning, Death, and Time" (Oxford UP, 2026)
PJ DiPietro, "Sideways Selves Travesti and Jotería, "Struggles Across the Américas" (U Texas Press, 2025)