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Infinite Cardinalities, Measuring Knowledge, And Probabilities In Fine-Tuning Arguments (Chapter 5 Of Knowledge, Belief, And God: New Insights In Religious Epistemology), Isaac Choi

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

This paper deals with two different problems in which infinity plays a central role. I first respond to a claim that infinity renders counting knowledge-level beliefs an infeasible approach to measuring and comparing how much we know. There are two methods of comparing sizes of infinite sets, using the one-to-one correspondence principle or the subset principle, and I argue that we should use the subset principle for measuring knowledge. I then turn to the normalizability and coarse tuning objections to fine-tuning arguments for the existence of God or a multiverse. These objections center on the difficulty of talking about the …

Book Review: Reason And Faith: Themes From Richard Swinburne, Isaac Choi

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

A review of Reason and Faith: Themes from Richard Swinburne: Michael Bergmann and Jeffrey E. Brower(Eds.): Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016

ISBN: 978-0198732648

Excerpt: "The papers in this volume were originally presented at a conference at Purdue University, organized by the volume’s editors, in honor of Swinburne’s eightieth birthday. The contributors are all prominent and senior scholars in the field, and several begin with personal reminiscences and tributes to how Swinburne’s work inspired and even helped to initiate their interest in philosophy of religion."

Can Belief In God Be Confirmed?, Mark S. Mcleod-Harrison

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

A basic thrust behind Alvin Plantinga's position that belief in God is properly basic is an analogy between certain non-religious (and presumably justified) beliefs such as ' I see a tree' and theistic beliefs such as 'God made this flower'.1 Each kind of belief is justified for a believer, argues Plantinga, when she finds herself in a certain set of conditions. Richard Grigg challenges this claim by arguing that while the non-religious beliefs are confirmed, beliefs about God are not. I wish to explore this challenge, clarify it and suggest that on one understanding it is irrelevant and on another …