1. Alston on rationality & religious beliefs ~ slide 1 William Alston on religious experience & the rationality of religious belief zFrom William Alston. “Is Religious Belief Rational?” From The Life of Religion. Ed. Stanley Harrison & Richard Taylor. University Press of America, 1986. zWill defend the rationality of religious belief by appealing to their basis in religious experiences. âIs this circular? zClarifications: âReadily admit that more (e.g., coherence, valid inference) is involved in rationality of beliefs than their basis in experiences.

2. Alston on rationality & religious beliefs ~ slide 2 William Alston on religious experience & the rationality of religious belief âAm talking about central religions experiences – e.g., God comforted me, God guided me. Am not talking about vague experiences – e.g., felt peace during prayer âAnd am not claiming that religious experiences suffice as a basis for a religious belief-system. Need other factors, such as history, the experiences of the lives of other persons.

3. Alston on rationality & religious beliefs ~ slide 3 William Alston on religious experience & the rationality of religious belief âIs not necessary that all persons have these experiences. Must allow for the sharing of experiences. zDefense of religious experience (RE) is based on a comparison with sensory perception (SP). âWhat are some of the features of SP? yTells us about the regularity of nature

4. Alston on rationality & religious beliefs ~ slide 4 William Alston on religious experience & the rationality of religious belief yTypically vivid, detailed, & insistent âWhat about RE? yDoes not allow for prediction yIs often only fleeting and much of the experience is dim & obscure. âDo these differences make RE unreliable? No, we would expect that reliability is different for different kinds of experiences.

5. Alston on rationality & religious beliefs ~ slide 5 William Alston on religious experience & the rationality of religious belief yIf subject matter is relatively stable, e.g., mathematics, the reliability would be based on sameness, repeatability. yIf the subject matter is in flux, e.g., human persons, then we would expect reliability to look different. yIf subject matter is God, difficulties are compounded.

6. Alston on rationality & religious beliefs ~ slide 6 William Alston on religious experience & the rationality of religious belief yIf the subject matter is in flux, e.g., human persons, then we would expect reliability to look different. yIf subject matter is God, difficulties are compounded.

7. Alston on rationality & religious beliefs ~ slide 7 William Alston on religious experience & the rationality of religious belief zOther attempts to show that RE is unreliable â1. RE can be explained entirely by natural factors. yAlston: Even if RE can be explained naturalistically, this does not rule out a causal connection with God. yAnd even if the experiences are not directly of God, the may still have a value for information about God.

8. Alston on rationality & religious beliefs ~ slide 8 William Alston on religious experience & the rationality of religious belief â2. In RE, people are simply imposing preconceived theological schemes on their experience. yAlston: Often RE challenge one’s preconceived theological positons. yIf RE is colored by background knowledge, same is true of SP. Is part of the human condition.

9. Alston on rationality & religious beliefs ~ slide 9 William Alston on religious experience & the rationality of religious belief â3. Beliefs of RE are often incompatible between different religious communities. (Cf. Hume’s pluralism argument against miracles.) yAlston: May not be that the different religions have care beliefs which are incompatible. yTwo incompatible belief-systems may each be rational.

10. Alston on rationality & religious beliefs ~ slide 10 William Alston on religious experience & the rationality of religious belief yPerhaps religious beliefs-systems will, like science, eventually converge. zFinal argument for the rationality of religious beliefs based on RE. âAppeal to fruits; fruits are judged by function of the beliefs yielding the fruits yThe function of SP is “to be a provision of a map of the environment for the guidance of our action in that environment” (427).

11. Alston on rationality & religious beliefs ~ slide 11 William Alston on religious experience & the rationality of religious belief äAnd SP does indeed give us a map. yThe function of RE is the “transformation of the person into what God intends us to be” (417). äNow if RE produces these fruits, we can say that the religious beliefs based on them are rational.