Islam and the Contemporary World

Islam and the Contemporary World

The Justifiability of Ordinary Belief in God through Epistemology Based on Trusted Hearings

Document Type : Original Research Article

Author
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Allameh Tabatabaii, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
There have been many epistemological challenges about the justification of belief in God over the past three centuries, so that some, such as Plantinga, have merely proposed warranted belief rather than justifying an argument in this regard and showed the belief in God’s existence as a basic belief. But regardless of these challenges, millions believe in God’s existence as justified for themselves without being a fideist. Where does this justification come from? Can their justification be explained epistemologically? This article aims to elucidate the new currents in social epistemology and “testimony,” demonstrating the significance of epistemology based on trusted hearings. It will then argue that our trusted hearings about the existence of God and His attributes traced back to the prophets and ultimately to God’s affirmation and explanation can serve as the best justification for our beliefs.  Finally, the question of how God’s testimony to His existence and attributes, which has come to us through the prophets, can be one of the best epistemological justifications for believing in the existence and attributes of God. And what advantages can this type of religious epistemology have over evidentialism or various forms of arguing for the existence of God and his attributes?
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