>
> Thanks for your thoughts on this. I would agree that this
> approach can be a way of opening conversation with
> non-Christians. Whether or not it will be effective in any given
> situation needs to be considered.
> But what my question was getting at was something deeper. There
> seems to be a strong feeling that some kind of natural theology must be
> true. It is more than just a matter of apologetic method, but almost an
> element of personal faith commitment. Is this because people were
> themselves brought to faith in this way and so feel instrinctively that
> such ideas are essential to Christian faith? Or are there other
> reasons? I could make various guesses but it would be more profitable to
> hear the views of others.
>
>Shalom,
>
>George
Hello George,
here are some thoughts from Norway - before I go on a 1 month vacation to USA .
I think that parts of american evangelical theology have been shaped by the
challenges of modernism, and
that this type of theology also has reponded to this challenge by using the
modernistic way of thinking.
Two important concepts here are evidentialism and foundationalism - both
central to modernistic way of
thinking.
Evidentialism says that a belief is rational if there is sufficient
evidence for it. An example of this
view - found in almost every textbook on philosophy of religion - is the
classic statement of the mathematician
W K Clifford who stated that "it is wrong always, everywhere and for
everyone to believe anything upon insufficient
evidence". (of course this does not apply to the statement itself ) :-)
Foundationalism (or more precisely classcal foundationalism) is a way of
describing the structuring of our beliefs,
where some beliefs are basic (not based on other beliefs) and other
beliefs are non-basic (based on other beliefs).
Classical foundationalism states "roughly" that a belief is basic if it is
either self-evident or evident of the senses
or maybe also indubitable.
Foundationalism and evidentialism together says that a belief is not
rational unless it is based on sufficient evidence
and where the evidence is either a belief that is basic (self-evident or
evident to the senses) or it is a non basic
belief that is deduced from more basic beliefs.
The belief that God exits is not self-evident nor evident to the senses ,
so in order to make
this belief rational, one has to deduce it from more basic beliefs.
In this sense natural theology has been important for many christians
because some of them have accepted
the premiss that the belief that God exists is an irrationail belief unless
there is sufficient evidence for it.
(This could be one reason why some people give up their christian faith.)
To the extent that some apologetic writings approach this issue in this
way, lay people that read such
writings will perhaps start thinking this way too.
Anglo-american philosophy of religion has in the last 20 years discussed
this issue in detail due to the
contributions to the issue by prominent philosophers like Alvin Plantinga,
Nicholas Wolterstorff and William
Alston who have challenged both evidentialism and classical
foundationalism. Let me add that they have
not challenged foundationalism in general; only the classical version of it
PS : I have one more day to go before I go on vacation. After that I will
not be able to respond until the
beginning of October.
Regards from Inge
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Inge Frette
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