14 - Religious Disagreement

Summary

Religious disagreement describes the fact that religious and secular beliefs exhibit massive variety and cannot all be perfectly accurate. It yields a problem and an opportunity. The problem is that, especially given the apparent epistemic parity of many who hold other beliefs, you cannot suppose that your beliefs are accurate. This arguably puts pressure on you to weaken or abandon your beliefs. Responses include denying the parity of those who disagree or denying that religious disagreement speaks strongly against your beliefs. This chapter criticizes these responses and defends an alternative epistemology to those employed by both the problem and the responses. The epistemological view defended finds a middle ground between them and positions us to benefit from the opportunity that religious disagreement offers to improve our beliefs. Finally, some objections are addressed: that the opportunity mentality is unnecessary if God supports our beliefs, that it risks our (true) beliefs, and that it is disloyal to God.